The Big Photography Thread

[xKnuckles]

Taking photos of buildings seems quite tricky. All sorts of distortions occur and it seems hard to counteract this. If anyone has any tips about photographing buildings I would be extremely interested to hear them.

[nadroj]

I keep looking at those wonderful outdoorsy photos and thinking "I wonder what that picture would SOUND like if it was a composition."

 

Jealous of the skies across the pond. Even in remote areas everything here is just grey and cloudy. Seeing stars is a novelty.

[xKnuckles]

Here is another pic of the Prague building - from a slightly different angle.

 

Fred & Ginger Building, Prague by xxKnuckles, on Flickr

[Joe Muscara]

Taking photos of buildings seems quite tricky. All sorts of distortions occur and it seems hard to counteract this. If anyone has any tips about photographing buildings I would be extremely interested to hear them.

It can be difficult because you're usually on the ground and the building is many stories up. Even if you can get elevated such as in another building across the street, then you get distortions the other way. I would suggest that instead of fighting it, you use it. Sometimes you get something really cool that way.

 

P.S. That's a really wild building!

[Theo Verelst]

A decade ago I used a HP cam to make this panorama (multiple pictures stitched together by some software):

 

http://www.theover.org/Diary/Ldi29/Stitched_001b1m.JPG

 

It's in the Hague, where I was born and raised.

 

T.V.

[xKnuckles]

Taking photos of buildings seems quite tricky. All sorts of distortions occur and it seems hard to counteract this. If anyone has any tips about photographing buildings I would be extremely interested to hear them.

It can be difficult because you're usually on the ground and the building is many stories up. Even if you can get elevated such as in another building across the street, then you get distortions the other way. I would suggest that instead of fighting it, you use it. Sometimes you get something really cool that way.

 

P.S. That's a really wild building!

 

Thanks Scary Joe. That sounds a good way of approaching it. I will bear that in mind in future.

 

Glad you like the building. It was AMAZING. I photographed it from every possible angle. Prague is a stunning city full of so many beautiful & interesting buildings that it is quite overwhelming.

[xKnuckles]

A decade ago I used a HP cam to make this panorama (multiple pictures stitched together by some software):

 

http://www.theover.org/Diary/Ldi29/Stitched_001b1m.JPG

 

It's in the Hague, where I was born and raised.

 

T.V.

 

Interesting picture Theo.

[RichieP_MechE]

Taking photos of buildings seems quite tricky. All sorts of distortions occur and it seems hard to counteract this. If anyone has any tips about photographing buildings I would be extremely interested to hear them.

Buildings are... big! To get the entire building in frame on, say, a standard 50mm lens, you have to be a decent distance away from the building. In a city, that's not always possible with tightly packed streets and other buildings all around.

 

So, you need to use a wide-angle lens in most cases to capture the building from a reasonable distance. Since you are close to the building (compared to its height) perspective is altered and you end up with converging verticals (very prominent on buildings, which tend to be linear). Wide angle lenses also introduce barrel distortion which can exaggerate this effect.

 

So, how do you fix this? In the old days before Photoshop, everything was done moving the lens relative to the film. Architectural photographers like Ezra Stoller used a view camera, which allowed them to manipulate the focal plane to correct for these issues. If you were using a 35mm film camera, then a tilt-shift lens would allow you to achieve similar results.

 

Nowadays, these perspective corrections are easily done in Photoshop or Lightroom, with very convincing results. Compared to using a tilt shift lens, though, you lose some of the image due to the digital manipulation, so your effective resolution of the final image is lower, and your original composition will be altered. Here is an example:

 

[video:youtube]pFsAxkcjFEM

 

Of course, sometimes converging verticals are desired. And close up shots of buildings can be very interesing!

[wjwilcox]

Did someone say building close-ups?

 

Brick detail on Linnean House. by wjw0608, on Flickr

 

Abandoned by wjw0608, on Flickr

 

Detail by wjw0608, on Flickr

[xKnuckles]

Cool photos Bill!

 

 

[xKnuckles]

Richie, thank you so much for all that info & the video. I did not know it was possible to make adjustments like that. I have not got photoshop, but I looked at my wonderful Leonardo app and it also does it - and it seems very straightforward & simple to do. I shall begin experimenting as soon as I get time.

 

I also like the idea of intentionally creating interesting effects using the distortion, but it is nice to also have the choice to adjust it sometimes.

[RichieP_MechE]

On the topic of buildings...

 

Ghostly Visitors by rpantaleo, on Flickr

[Mike Martin]

My view yesterday morning in downtown Minneapolis.

 

City Sunrise by Mike Martin on 500px

 

[xKnuckles]

Beautiful pic Mike. Did you have to adjust the perspective on it at all?

[Mike Martin]

Beautiful pic Mike. Did you have to adjust the perspective on it at all?

 

Thank you.

No, I shot that with my 85mm lens which doesn't need that kind of correction.

[xKnuckles]

I like the ghostly visitors pic Richie. Some interesting effects. How did you do that?

[wjwilcox]

A couple of minor experiments here:

 

First, a photo shot in RAW and then tinkered with in Paint.net to pop the colors and sharpen things a bit:

Fall on the Jeff City Sub by wjw0608, on Flickr

 

...and then, fun with selective color.

Flowers and milk cans.. by wjw0608, on Flickr

[Mike Martin]

Both are GREAT wjwilcox!!!

[Mike Martin]

Rikkor 50mm f/1.4

 

Autumn Colors by Mike M Martin, on Flickr

[wjwilcox]

Both are GREAT wjwilcox!!!

Thanks, Mike! Love your autumn colors. To rake or not to rake...

[RichieP_MechE]

I like the ghostly visitors pic Richie. Some interesting effects. How did you do that?

This was a simple long exposure, no trickery involved! I set my camera up on a tripod, then put a neutral density filter (two actually) on my lens so I could use a slow shutter speed. In this instance, the shutter speed was 30 seconds, so people would show up better in the image the longer they lingered in a particular spot.

 

Nice stuff Mike and Bill!

[xKnuckles]

Thanks for the info Richie. Cool trick - sounds like a sort of daytime version of what Ken is doing. (Now I know what he would look like if he ever stopped running........).

[xKnuckles]

Really nice pics Bill.

 

I am suffering severe aperture envy, Mike.

[Mike Martin]

 

I am suffering severe aperture envy, Mike.

 

$7 Lens at a garage sale. Manual focus 50mm f/1.4. With another $10 adapter works perfectly on a modern camera.

[xKnuckles]

LOL! ...but not on an iPad.......

[RichieP_MechE]

Thanks for the info Richie. Cool trick - sounds like a sort of daytime version of what Ken is doing. (Now I know what he would look like if he ever stopped running........).

That's exactly it! (minus the flashlight of course)

LOL! ...but not on an iPad.......

You need to get yourself a DSLR! Your iPad photos are great, imagine if you had a real camera! I'm sure you could find a suitable candidate on the used market for a good price.

[xKnuckles]

Thanks Richie. A camera is high on my most wanted list ... But obviously comes second to music gear. I am not hugely bothered about not having one most of the time (except when I come on here and see the amazing things you guys are doing with yours! ) - and I very much enjoy taking pictures with my iPad. I will get one one day, and until then I can enjoy looking forward to that day.

[Joe Muscara]

An iPad as a camera isn't all bad. Check out this review of the iPad Air 2, where he talks about that very thing.

 

http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ipad_air_2

[Joe Muscara]

Did someone say they like spiders?

 

This was just outside my front door today. It was interesting to try to capture a good angle, including using the background of the tree behind it. The one with the tree trunk most directly behind it was the best shot, seen here. I also tried using my 50 mm lens, but couldn't get in a position where I could get it in focus at that short distance (my back was up against my house).

 

Happy Halloween, all!

 

IMG_7607 by Joe Stone Zone, on Flickr

[xKnuckles]

So JoeMustScareYa............. You nearly did..... Your spider pic is plenty scary enough for this Halloween, but lovely at the same time.

 

Interesting review - thanks.