Definitely a more experimental shot. I will first start out by explaining that this had a bit more postprocessing done to it than most of my photos. I consider it legal, so long as I offer a disclaimer in the description. I also will remind you that with the proper chemicals this can easily be done in the darkroom with film.
First, the color balance is much warmer, but then desaturated to give it a surreal color effect. I then burned some of the sky, and got rid of a very distracting building in the blackness (lower right).
The result is a more surreal photo, but still easily reproducable with traditional darkroom techniques. In my book this type of image falls a little more into the art category and less into the photography. A photograph was used for the art, but it is the post-processing of the image that becomes the main focus. Hope you enjoy this slight departure from my normal tendancies, I doubt it will last long.
Also, due to the wide-angle distortion, one wonders: which direction is this buildling actually leaning? I think I've settled on left, since I think it may be slightly rotated, though if you look at the thumbnail, it almost looks like it's leaning right. I didn't bother to fix it as the building is distorted enough to remedy any small rotational imperfection.
categories: architecture
September 14th, 2005 at 4:53 AM
Very nice photograph. The effect works well, doesn't matter how it was achieved. It does remind me of the layering techniques that are getting a lot of discussion lately. The best I've seen is a local photographer that takes landscapes with a 4x5 camera, brackets 3 stops or more, then scans and overlays two images in PS for digital blending. Looks a lot like your shot.
September 14th, 2005 at 6:26 AM
I like the colour of the building. It makes it look warm.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:38 AM
Beautiful!
September 14th, 2005 at 10:27 AM
i think the building is leaning away. i also think this is most certainly still a photograph. in my opinion, there's WAY too much concern over where to draw the line when processing. As Ansel Adams once said, "the negative is the score; the print is the performance." great shot ryan!
September 14th, 2005 at 12:03 PM
Wow, awesome colors. The distortion looks good here. . .
Great photo, Ryan.
September 14th, 2005 at 4:53 PM
I agree with zac... Who cares how much processing it was done? If it looks good, it looks good...
Great shot AND processing :)
September 15th, 2005 at 1:53 PM
Is it possible to correct the wide-angle distortion? I'm assuming this was shot with the 18-55 EF-S?
September 16th, 2005 at 10:16 AM
Um.... I haven't posted in a while, but I was looking at Nikki's website, which reminded me of your website, and ohh my goodness, this is an amazing picture!! I really like it.
September 18th, 2005 at 8:14 AM
you have done a good job for this photo. i like how the building looks like a lego set. love it very much. awesome.
September 19th, 2005 at 7:56 AM
A wonderful image, no matter how it was achieved. Photography is an interpretive art. No real explanation is needed, IMO. Extremely well done.