#171 - Formal Architecture

[John]

This challenge is to produce an architectural image. A picture of a building. It should be a record, totally literal in every way. So no fancy filters or HDR techniques, just a straight, high quality building image as we might find in a glossy book from the National Trust.

My winning image from the last competition would not qualify for this one, by the way, because it was processed through Photomatix and tone mapped.

So let's see what quality we can find, and the deadline will be midnight on Sunday 24th July.

Happy Shooting!

[Tracey McGovern]

Hi John

Are we not able to edit at all? Are you talking straight out of the camera?

Tracey

[John]

To clarify, normal processing by all means, but the brief is to produce a high class, quality architectural shot that you could put in a glossy coffee table book.

Normal processing means things like cropping, levels, curves, sharpening, etc. but not unrealistic fantasy-HDR.

Hope that helps!

[Paul Jones]

.... not unrealistic fantasy-HDR.

Proper, real photography.

[al c field]

This i

fun house.jpg (246.48 KiB) Viewed 12127 times

s a real building

[Stbourne]

The Pig & Whistle (Liverpool)

[Janice Freeman]

Roof detail - Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele - Milano

Milano 20 9 12 (47)resize.jpg (201.76 KiB) Viewed 12069 times

[Paul Jones]

... a straight, high quality building image as we might find in a glossy book from the National Trust.

Ardchattan House

[johnjm]

Maritime Museum at Falmouth

maritime museum by john merritt, on Flickr

[mikeaspinall]

CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE.jpg (277.17 KiB) Viewed 11969 times

[GRAHAM OTTY]

Rievaulx Abbey,Helmsley,N.Yorks

[Gordon Armstrong]

Orangery Dunham Massey.jpg (302.53 KiB) Viewed 11958 times

The Orangery at Dunham Massey

[John]

Many thanks to everyone who had a go at this. What I had in mind was high quality architectural photography, such as would grace the pages of a coffee table book. Interpretation varies quite a bit of course, all equally valid, and as always we've had some very interesting and excellent entries.

Alasdair kicked things off with an extraordinary building. I had this image in my mind of the architect dropping his model on the floor, it ending up upside down, and the concept being seized upon as pure genius....It is an amazing structure, and I'm also very sure that Alasdair has got his horizon creditably straight on this one.

Shaun gives us the Pig and Whistle, but it's that incredible backdrop that catches my eye. The contrast between old and new is brilliant, as is the inclusion of the “Police” reflection. Very well crafted all round. That bird helps the composition as well....

Janice knows what to do with converging verticals, that is, if you can't avoid them then embrace them. This upwards view does just that. It's a very interesting building, although I would have liked to see a bit more “bite” to the overall sharpness.

Paul has chosen a great day for this image and a great point of view. The building is shown off at its best and it totally fulfils the brief. There is little else to say about it as it's sharp, well presented and will sit well in our imaginary coffee table book.

John has got the angle just right, the only downside being the lack of light on the building. This would be transformed by some nice after-storm lighting to pick out the detail. It's often the way though that we're there, we need to shoot the image in less than ideal light, and we may never have the opportunity to return and capture the fleeting magic of some dramatic lighting.

Michael has captured some very unusual lighting in this very formal, straight on view. I can see the edges are not quite vertical, so that could be tweaked in Photoshop, but otherwise this is an excellent approach and has been handled extremely well.

Graham has made something out of a building that is actually quite difficult to photograph effectively. The idea of framing part of the abbey works well. The only question mark for me is whether or not there should be enough depth of field to put that framing into sharp focus. I think that would need to be tried to see if it works any better or not. It's so easy as a judge to suggest changes, but sometimes the suggestions may not actually work out in practice. Worth trying though.

Gordon has produced a formal, square on image of great precision. The composition has included the pampas grass and that balances everything up very nicely. The verticals are straight. All is as it should be for this brief.

So the winner is without doubt Gordon Armstrong, a brilliantly precise shot and certainly “Formal Architecture”.

Second place goes to Shaun Bourne, a beautiful composition full of interest and a fantastic counterpoint between old and new.

Third place goes to Paul Jones, a well visualised image (not “well seen” Paul!) in terms of its composition and presentation.

Also a special mention for Alasdair Field for turning our world upside down!

Thanks to all, and I now invite Gordon to set the next competition.

[GRAHAM OTTY]

Thanks for the feedback John,everything is always welcome

[Gordon Armstrong]

Thanks John. A good selection of pictues, I really like "the Pig and Whistle".

I will return soon with a new topic.

Gordon