Black & White Architecture Shots

[Darren Bradley]

I had an hour to kill this afternoon so stopped by UCSD for a few quick photos on my way home (I live just a couple of minutes from here). The university was largely built in the mid 1960s so has a large collection of architecture from that era, along with some newer buildings. It's an endless source of inspiration for me as an architectural photographer. Here's a shot I took, more or less by accident, as I was walking back to my car:



I ended up liking it more than the photos of the buildings that I originally went there to shoot.

 

[Dan Cattermole]

A well balanced mass of lines, angles, and contrast. Very nice,

 

[Pete Askew]

Very nice. I like the way the shot is divided into two zone by the light. I quite like the sub-text of this fairly impersonal and concrete place being the home to the department of humanities and social sciences!

 

[Brian Moore]

I love how the light casts shadows of the trees on the walkway on the right. All the tones in this are really nice, Darren.

I quite like the sub-text of this fairly impersonal and concrete place being the home to the department of humanities and social sciences!

Pete it's a sub-text I think would not have occurred to me, but it does carry a sense of some irony along with it don't it?

 

[Darren Bradley]

Thanks, guys. Good eye! I actually gave this shot the title "Humanities & Social Sciences" on my Flickr site last night because I thought it was slightly ironic, too.

 

[Paul Lange]

I think its the light that makes this really work. It makes the structure of the buildings more defined.

 

[Darren Bradley]

Thank you. I was really struck by the lighting and play of the shadows here. That's what I tried to capture.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

That's a very good tonal range you've captured there - much PP involved?

 

[Darren Bradley]

Thanks, Chris. Not too much PP, no. I used the 17mm TS, so perspective was corrected already. I just converted to black and white, upped the contrast a bit, and the other usual tweaks in Lightroom. No layering, HDR, or anything of the sort otherwise.

 

[Hamish Gill]

You couldn't have asked for a better place for the sign to be for this shot!
It's one thing that strikes me about your Tse shots ... The compo is always spot on to my eye ... I think we perhaps share an idea of compo... Or at least you do what I would want to do!
Anyway, to my point... I bet the Tse helps compo, just through the added actions involved in composition!
I've been trying to think of stuff I could flog to buy a Tse lens and canon 5d again :/

 

[Jim Kuo]

I used the 17mm TS, so perspective was corrected already.

I was wondering how come the perspectives are so perfect... So this is how

I love the patterns in this photo. The subtext that Pete pointed out is also very fitting. I completely missed the hidden implication/meaning the first time I viewed the picture.

Somehow the text on the building looks slightly blurry on RPF, but clicking into Flickr it looks perfectly sharp, even in the smaller size view.

 

[Paul Lange]

Hamish, you could sell your speakers

 

[Darren Bradley]

@Hamish: Thank you! This was shot hand-held but I've had a lot of practice now at holding it straight and using it quickly. You are absolutely right that having a TS lens causes you to be much more aware and deliberate about composition (even when shooting hand-held). I find myself now constantly looking at that a lot more than before, whether I'm using a TS lens or not, now. It's good exercise.

@Jim: Funny you mention the blurriness because I noticed it too. It's sharper on Flickr than it is here, and sharper still on my computer. I assume that has to do with compression or something, but I'm hardly an expert.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Another bloody good reason to get one as far as i am concerned!

the native large image size on flikr is 1024 x 657
our max image width is 900px
For best results post images with a width of 900px, that way the forums re-size algorithm wont get its mukky paws on your efforts!