The Tower

[swmdrayfan]

This is a closeup of the tower at one of our city's landmarks.
John

[jar_e]

John,

Great shot! This seems surrealistic, such an interesting building against the blue sky...it almost looks like it was cut and pasted onto the blue sky background (is it by the way? The straight edge on the right side gives me that impression).

I love the colors and the tones though! Good shot!

[swmdrayfan]

John,

Great shot! This seems surrealistic, such an interesting building against the blue sky...it almost looks like it was cut and pasted onto the blue sky background (is it by the way? The straight edge on the right side gives me that impression).

I love the colors and the tones though! Good shot!

Nope, the tower is real and the straight edge is real........it's an architectual quirk--almost like someone decided to add a staircase after the original tower was completed, plus the angle from which I shot this really highlights the straightness. Actually I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing either----I had to check myself..

Here it is from further away:

[jar_e]

John, what a unique building! I must say...I looked at your original pic long and hard before I commented on it's surrealness!

Nice shot.

[gahspidy]

John, i like the look of that tower against the sky and the lighting is really bringing out a magical glow about it. It is appealing. The image looks a bit worked , however, like as if there was lots of noise reduction and/or other editing somehow. Aside from that part, i like the subject and the close up is great.

[swmdrayfan]

The image looks a bit worked , however, like as if there was lots of noise reduction and/or other editing somehow. Aside from that part, i like the subject and the close up is great.

Gary, what I did was select and boost the level of light on the tower and put a slight gaussian blur on the background clouds. So yeah, in those terms, the image was worked. No more than a lot of other stuff I see out there though. I guess it's a "damned if you don't, damned if you do" kind of thing. The image as it came out of the camera wasn't all that great, so I did what I thought would make it better. I can see where Jared might think I cut and pasted it too, but if you look here, you'll see it's all on the level. (Why do I get the feeling I've done something wrong? Shoot, if it were anyone else, it'd be a featured photo.) The green roofed object appears to be made of some kind of bronzed metal that turned green over the ages...don't quote me on that. There was no noise reduction to speak of, just in USM before I saved the resized file. Here's the original:

[readingr]

John,

First off its likely to be copper which turns into copper sulphate in contact with air and water which is the green colour - I think I got that right - Chemistry is about 25- 30 years ago so anyone want to correct me?

I really do like the photo however I can see edges around the building where you selected it and worked on the levels and blur. Perhaps a bit of feathering around that area may have produced a better merge of the two changes.

Wher is this?

Roger

[swmdrayfan]

John,

First off its likely to be copper which turns into copper sulphate in contact with air and water which is the green colour - I think I got that right - Chemistry is about 25- 30 years ago so anyone want to correct me?

I really do like the photo however I can see edges around the building where you selected it and worked on the levels and blur. Perhaps a bit of feathering around that area may have produced a better merge of the two changes.

Wher is this?

Roger

Roger, I think that is the problem area here....I didn't feather it enough. As a matter of fact, I may not have feathered at all. That might be why Jared thought it looked as if it were pasted and cut. The tower is at the Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital. I can't remember for sure when exactly it was built, but it was long before I was born......probably late 1800's-early 1900's. I'm going to go back there on some nice spring day and really try to spend some time getting decent photos (if they don't chase me off the premises).
John

[readingr]

John

It could be worse - They might take you in :-)

Roger

[freygr]

This is a closeup of the tower at one of our city's landmarks.
John

I like it, It looks like something out of a Fantasy or Science Fiction.

[gahspidy]

John, blurring an image also reduces the evidence of noise, hence the thinking there was NR applied. To utilize a NR application is not a bad thing, or in this case the blurred bg sky. i like very much the look of the sky as you have blurred it.
I looked at your original image ( the one in the post where you addressed my comment) and saw the levels histogram to look like this.
Just adjusting the slider on the right to meet the graph brings up the highlights. then a very mild S curve in the Curves adjustment window brought out a deeper contrast a more saturation. I thought it looked fine after this. then , perhaps blurring the clouds and sky would add nicely as you had done.

[swmdrayfan]

John, blurring an image also reduces the evidence of noise, hence the thinking there was NR applied. To utilize a NR application is not a bad thing, or in this case the blurred bg sky. i like very much the look of the sky as you have blurred it.
I looked at your original image ( the one in the post where you addressed my comment) and saw the levels histogram to look like this.
Just adjusting the slider on the right to meet the graph brings up the highlights. then a very mild S curve in the Curves adjustment window brought out a deeper contrast a more saturation. I thought it looked fine after this. then , perhaps blurring the clouds and sky would add nicely as you had done.

I see what you mean. The particular brand of imaging software I used (Digital Image Pro 9), doesn't have a curves adjustment with it, so I'm limited to using the basic levels control. I plan on stepping up to PSE4 eventually, which will allow the use of curves and give me a little more latitude in working on my photos. I am currently using the trial version of NC that came with the D70, so I'm able to work with that and learn a little about using curves. I have noticed that curves allows me to deepen the colors and adjust more aspects of the photos. This has been a major reason why most of the shots I've posted aren't 'qualitative' in comparison with everyone else's. Up until September of last year all I shot was baseball. I've had to learn a whole new concept of photography. You and everyone else have taught me a lot. I get frustrated that my work isn't up to par with what I see here. Conceptually I think I'm on the right track, but still have a long way to go. I also am trying to understand that the comments and advice are designed to help. I'm not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, so it takes a little longer for things to sink in. ;)
John