A Striped Window

Taken on the Rice University Campus....I really liked how it had shadows, angles and arches...and i love the stripes.

C&C is always wanted and appreciated

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Nice picture. I really like the strong contrasting lines. Here is my take on it - since you have "editing OK" indicated.

In PS Elements 5.0, I used the Filter-Correct Camera Distortion tools to adjust the vertical perspective to make the vertical lines in the picture parallel to the sides of the image (or as close as I could get them). I then filled in the blank wedges at the bottom from the "tilt" by cloning the walls next to the blank areas, using the horizontal shadow lines as guides. I converted it to B&W and increased the contrast a little.

Hope my version meets with your approval.

Dale

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I appreciate the suggestions, and I noticed that I needed to straighten (side to side) it after I posted it but I'm way too lazy

As for the B&W conversion, I tried that and didn't like it. The window is a different color than in the picture, I tried to give it a dated feel and the black and white seems boring to me (at least with this subject)

I appreciate the edits (agree with most of them)


the two things I don't agree with is how you took away the "tilted look" (not a filter distortion, thats how the columns are made, thicker at the top and I wanted to bring that out a little more) and the black and white conversion.


Can I ask two things, why do you feel it's better non-tilted and in black and white? This way I can get a good idea of the reason for the edits and make myself a better photog.

I really like the original - BW loses all the character of the soft colours.

I agree with Glenn on keeping the color but, I agree with dale on fixing the distortion.

Same here. Nice work on the editing, but I prefer the colour of the original.

Mike

Mike,

I have always disliked the perspective distortion in photographs. They result from our inability to get to a higher point level with the center of our subject. It seems to me that when most of us look at a scene, unless the buildings or trees are very tall , our brains do the image processing to keep things straight because we "know" the vertical lines are really parallel. When we fix the image as a picture, the narrowing of the top of the subject is due to distance from the lens, and often is so distracting as to ruin an otherwise very interesting view. My father's large format camera had the lens tilt features to correct that at the camera, otherwise it was done in the darkroom at the enlarger.

As for the conversion to black and white, I was interested in the power of the high contrast. While I like the color version, it seemed to soften the image too much for my taste in this case.

This picture is, after all is said and done, still YOUR picture. There is nothing "wrong" with your interpretation, and I enjoyed reading your idea about the columns. After we get an image, all our post-processing and cropping is about Art - what it makes us think and feel. Maybe the converging lines don't fit with my need for orderliness.

Does any of this make sense?

Dale

Dale, I think you meant to address this to Mdrtoys, who posted the picture, but I'll respond anyway!

I agree with you about lens distortion in photographs, but it doesn't bother me too much, apart from with some architectural subjects where it is most noticeable. I haven't explored it too deeply yet, but Photoshop seems to have most of the answers to the problem.

I agree that the original photo had the potential for making a nice high contrast black and white image, as you demonstrated with your conversion. It all depends on what the viewer prefers, and photography, being highly subjective, will always provide many opinions, many of which will be correct.

Mike

Dale,

Thaks for the input and the peek inside your reasoning. To give you a little perspective inside mine, I easily could have taken a shot directly on. But instead, I decided that there was something missing to the pic and I felt a lower vantage point would bring that.

Besides it beinga little crooked (I tend to do that) I really liked the pic. The "distortion" was something I felt added to it instead of taking away. Also, the pictures that I have published usually go to strange artsy publications so you can see I'm a little "off" (quoting my wife) when it comes to photography.

I understand your assessment and I agree, in the end it's our art.

And don't get me wrong, I do like your edits alot and I'm attempting to learn how to do that myself in PS with this very picture.

Thank you for the honest critique, it's a breath of fresh air.

For mdrtoys & others:

Thanks for the forthright exchange. This sort of thing helps me think more about the composition of my pictures and what I am trying to express.

Dale

I agree, I found this covnersation to be very enlightening

Thanks to all for the comments