'Conformity'

[mpreslar]

This is my first image posted here! It looks like a great community! Let me know what you think!

[Seb]

This is my first image posted here! It looks like a great community! Let me know what you think!

This is quite interesting. I think that I would crop say 1 inch from the top and half an inch from the bottom to turn this into a pano but I like your idea.

Seb

[GB1]

WELCOME to PR. This photo has a potential abstract feel to it. The repetition and uniformilarity of the homes and mailboxes is pretty neat (but I would shoot the architect). I agree with Seb that the sky is too prominant here. It is also a tad bit flat gray for me. I like the white mailboxes.

I hope you don't mind, but I took a min and transformed it to something very abstract. I dont think it's in an optimal final form but it does bring out more of the abstractness. -GB

[SmartWombat]

This is my first image posted here! It looks like a great community! Let me know what you think!

Very nice repetition, looks like they're all the same, could be clone, shrink, step and repeat in software instead of a street scene !!

I wouldn't crop off the top, but I would crop from the bottom to exclude the shadow coming in from the right.

[Alison]

I'm not so sure about the dark rooves I can see at the top of the image. It kinda ruins the conformity of the whole image.
I agree with PAul about cropping out the shadow in the foreground and I think I would also crop out that first tree on the right. It's not in line with the frame but the mail box is.
Other than that, I love the perspective here.

[dbutler]

Oh, that's creepy!! I picked my neighborhood precisely because no two houses look alike.

It definitely drives the title home doesn't it? I agree with Alison on getting rid of the roofs in the background. But I wouldn't crop out the shadow. It brings home that Twilight Zone feel I get from the image. It's the alien that is seeing how we deal with all this conformity.

Geesh, even the trees....

[mpreslar]

Thanks for all the input folks!

GB: Cool effects, if you switched the color scheme, it would be like John Melencamp's 'Little Pink Houses'!

I hadn't thought of turning it into a pano. Here is a post of it that way! I also incorporated Alison's suggestion about the rooves behind and the first tree. The graphic artist where I work suggested shooting it at a lower angle and eliminating the rooves the natural way. I will probably go back and "belly shoot" it some time soon to see if I can get it without the rooves. I'll post it if I can get the shot.

I don't know if I like the pano any better... I kind of like the plain grey sky above the houses...

Oh, and the shadow was of a bright yellow corvette! That would have totally blown the image! LOL!

LOL D - I know, it is very, very creepy! Imagine trying to find your way home from the bar! LOL! What scares me more is that these houses sell for at least as much as mine!

[Alison]

Wow! That looks fantastic Marty!
Y'know it's a shame you didn't just clone out the shadow in the foreground because that would have balanced up the composition of the sky and road.
I really love the rooves being gone and the tree on the right and yes, I agree with your friend about shooting at a lower level. It'll save you all that ps work lol.
Good job Marty!

[mpreslar]

Thanks Alison! We can all use to have our PS workload decreased, can't we! (Not that it isn't fun, but I have at least 1 gb of unprocessed RAW files and about another half a gig of jpegs that are currently waiting for my attention! )

[drg]

Welcome to PR!

Scary thing, I know where this is and this is the pinnacle of Urban Planning. Real good shot. I wouldn't want to come home sober to this let alone in any other state.

Still might need a bit of contrast work to strengthen its 'conformity'.

By the way, I'm about an hour from you.

[mpreslar]

Thanks drg! I've tried fiddling with the contrast on this shot, but I always undo it. I just can't seem to get the right combination that makes me like it better than this.

Nice to meet a fellow Illinoisan, though I am a transplant. I grew up near Flint, MI and lived in the Detroit suburbs after college until moving here for grad school almost 16 years ago... I never finished and never left...

[gahspidy]

It's a good subject, and i like your final rendition. Removing the shadow in the fg was good, the tighter pano look works well, and cloning out the roof above the line of house was a good move. If you feel to go back and shoot again from a lower angle, be careful as that will begin to make your vertical lines crooked and leave yourself alittle more space ion the frame for perspective correction.

[freygr]

Thanks for all the input folks!

GB: Cool effects, if you switched the color scheme, it would be like John Melencamp's 'Little Pink Houses'!

I hadn't thought of turning it into a pano. Here is a post of it that way! I also incorporated Alison's suggestion about the rooves behind and the first tree. The graphic artist where I work suggested shooting it at a lower angle and eliminating the rooves the natural way. I will probably go back and "belly shoot" it some time soon to see if I can get it without the rooves. I'll post it if I can get the shot.

I don't know if I like the pano any better... I kind of like the plain grey sky above the houses...

Oh, and the shadow was of a bright yellow corvette! That would have totally blown the image! LOL!

LOL D - I know, it is very, very creepy! Imagine trying to find your way home from the bar! LOL! What scares me more is that these houses sell for at least as much as mine!

Yes the second version I do like better, but I hate it when all the houses are the same.

[mpreslar]

Thanks for the tip Gary! If I need to correct it, I'll post it here and ask for help in doing it! I've never tried to correct converging lines like that... (These aren't too tall, so it shouldn't be a big problem... Maybe I'll go there after lunch and try it with my new bean bag pod!

Freygr: I know what you mean! The lots are puny too!

My wife knows someone that bought one of the houses in the subdivision. The first thing she did after moving in was paint each room a different color! At least the inside of her house has character!

[Loupey]

Sorry I didn't see this one earlier. But it looks like you've already had plenty of great responses and suggestions here!

The final version looks great. The only comment I was going to make when I saw the original one was that, if possible to shoot again, walk over to where that shadow on the street is and shoot while down on one knee. I think from over there the background roofs would have been obscured. I'm just not that proficient with photoshop.

You knew there was a shot here - you got it!

[mpreslar]

Thanks Loupey! The funny thing is, I pulled into this little nightmare of a subdivision to park and take a picture of it's retaining pond (that was half frozen and half a-ripple with the wind - I'll post one of those later.) When I saw these houses, the mind-numbing sameness just blew me away! I had to shoot it!

Thanks everyone for the great comments and suggestions! This one has already one two POTDs on other sites, I think I'll resubmit the pano on a couple others. (or the re-shoot if I get that done! ) Using the suggestions from you folks, it should do even better!

[julsoph]

Eek! I wouldn't be able to stand all the sameness...hehe. I really like your final version as well, especially the general "greyness" of it. Turning it into a panoramic was a great move...I think it looks great.

Emily

[mpreslar]

Thanks Emily!

Well, I went by after lunch and I don't think I can get a better angle than the one I already took. I'll see what I got when I get 'em into PS, but it didn't look good. Even on the street on my stomach there was still a little black roof sticking up and the angle on the mailboxes was not nearly as good.

Oh well, that's what PS is for!

[dbutler]

Yeah, the pano doesn't float my boat either. I like having that empty expanse of sky, as devoid in personality as the subdivision.

[ChowChi-Ching]

Thanks Emily!

Well, I went by after lunch and I don't think I can get a better angle than the one I already took. I'll see what I got when I get 'em into PS, but it didn't look good. Even on the street on my stomach there was still a little black roof sticking up and the angle on the mailboxes was not nearly as good.

Oh well, that's what PS is for!

LOL, I wonder if anyone was wondering what the heck you were doing laying the street? LOL

[mpreslar]

I think the mail carrier was a bit amused by it! :P LOL!