Posted on Sep.07, 2010, under Architecture
(Nikon D700, 24mm PC-E, ISO 200, Exposure 1/250 sec @ f/11)
For the past few days I’ve been playing with a Nikon 24mm PC-E lens. I like to shoot architecture and I thought it would be fun to try a lens which would let me do some perspective correction in camera rather than in Photoshop. I still have a lot to learn about using this lens, but I really like it (which I could afford one). This shot of the new North Quad dormitory on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was taken with this lens. I was lazy and shot this hand held. With a 24mm lens I was able to capture most of the building without tilting the camera too much, and then I used the shift capability to reduce any keystoning. The nice thing about being able to do this optically is you keep the full resolution of the image rather than stretching/compressing pixels in Photoshop.
This image started out as a color image (seen below), but with a deep blue sky I thought it might look nice converted to black and white with the blue sky almost black. I bumped the yellows and greens to create something which almost looks infrared. I ended up cropping some of the signs from the left side but other than that the image is pretty much untouched. Seeing this shot in color make me think I need to come back here in the fall when the trees turn colors.
What do you think, do you prefer the black and white version, or the color version? Other feedback is also welcome.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
I’m impressed that you were able to re-create a infrared effect manually. I’ve been using the Nik plugins. Both Color Efex and Silver Efex have presets. When I saw it I recognized it as infrared, or pseudo-infrared, right away.
Mark