Zig-Zag
This was the back of a building that I came across by chance. After the shoot, I corrected the barrel distortion in PS.
This was the back of a building that I came across by chance. After the shoot, I corrected the barrel distortion in PS.
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Jul, 2015Views
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sarahdarvill
February 27, 2017
You should enter this in my Metallic Objects photo challenge!
The link is:
https://viewbug.com/challenge/metallic-objects-photo-challenge-by-sarahdarvill
The link is:
https://viewbug.com/challenge/metallic-objects-photo-challenge-by-sarahdarvill
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This was shot in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei a town where I was working at that time. I went up to the top floor of a car park to shoot a mosque that was nearby. After photographing the mosque, I turned around and noticed the repeating patterns the fire escape staircase made on the adjacent building to the car park. That was when I framed my camera and took the shot.Time
I remembered that day, it was the evening and Brunei being a small town did not have much activity. My wife who was on her evening walk ended up being my assistant. Since it was after 5pm, the car park had only a few cars and was deserted. I also had to give an explanation to the security guard on what I was going to do. When I told him my reasons, he had no objections as there had been many other photographers who has been to this car park to photograph in the past.Lighting
The sun was already below the horizon and whatever light that was not available enhanced the blacks in the shadow of the staircase. And with the hand rails painted white, it would be the ideal black and white.Equipment
I shot this with my Sony a77 + Minolta 80-200mm on a tripod at the focal length of 80mm and nothing else was used.Inspiration
At that point of my photography journey, I was experimenting with buildings and long exposure in black and white. When I noticed the repeating patterns in black with the white surrounding, I knew I had a keeper. The only down side was I did not have a tilt-shift lens, but at that time that did not matter. All that mattered was to get the image right.Editing
Without a tilt-shift lens, photographing buildings is a pain as there is distortion. The only way I knew how to correct this was to post-process the photo to remove the lens distortion and get the building vertical. I use CS6 to post-process my photos. Under the Filter menu, there is a sub-menu called Lens Correction. Under it, there are two tabs. Auto Correction and Custom. I always use Custom. But before that, I click on the Preview and Grid as the latter would be a guide for me when I move the different sliders till my photo look vertically and horizontally right. Then I used the Curves to enhance the blacks and whites to my liking. There were some touch ups that I made to make the photo "cleaner." For eg, lights on the staircase, doorknobs on the doors, I cloned all of them away. All these little things makes the photo look stronger.In my camera bag
I am only a serious hobbyist. I do not make living from photography so I do not have what you would call "your bag." I would carry only what I intend to achieve for an outing. My main genres are; street portrait, landscape and nature (bugs and whatever that requires a super zoom lens). So when I travel on a business trip I would carry my A7M2 + Tamron 24mm - 70mm. If I go for my evening walks I would carry my A7MM2 + Sony FE 55mm. If I know the sunset is going to be spectacular, then I would pack my A7M2, a6000, Minolta 24mm, Minolta 80-200mm and a tripod. When the bugs bite then I would be walking into the jungle with my A7M2, a6000, Tamron 180mm macro, Sony 70-400mm, Samyang fisheye and my off camera flash. So it really depend on my intended purpose.Feedback
Buildings have lots of potential. Train your eyes to see repeating patterns of lines, curves, windows, statues, carvings, and etc. This genre is not limited to the time of the day. In fact, the stronger the shadows, the patterns play out better. The shadows of the patterns from the building is a plus. Use the shadows as part of the pattern to enhance the already existing patterns from the building.
