Images and Notes » Architecture

North Quad – University of Michigan

James Howe — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:03:31 +0000

(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.

Grand Hotel – Mackinac Island, Michigan

James Howe — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:39:15 +0000

(Nikon D700, 170-300mm at 86mm (10 shot panorama), ISO 500, Exposure 1/500 sec @f/16)

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island is an impressive structure built by the Mackinac Island Hotel Company which was formed by a group including the Michigan Central Railroad, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and the Detroit and Cleveland Steamship Navigation Company. The idea was to promote tourism to the island in northern Michigan and encourage people to travel using the railroads and steamships of the owning companies. The hotel boasts the longest porch. Of course, these days you have to pay $10 to walk on the porch if you aren’t a guest of the hotel. The hotel maintains some quaint traditions, such as requiring gentlemen to wear coats after 6:30 pm and women to wear dresses or pant suits. Other than the expense, its one of the reasons I’ve never stayed there.

In addition to the hotel building itself, the hotel has some fabulous and famous grounds. The pool and other areas of the hotel were featured in the 1947 film This Time For Keeps starring Jimmy Durante and Esther Williams is filmed on the island and at Grand Hotel. In 1980 the hotel was featured in the film ‘Somewhere in Time’ featuring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

In keeping with the old time theme of the hotel, I decided to go for a vintage look for my image. The image itself was created from a 10 shots used to create a panorama. I processed the panorama in Photoshop and converted the image to black and white. After saving the image, I used the toning and vignette tools of Lightroom to add the sepia tone and strong vignette. The unaltered original panorama is seen below.

As always, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the image itself or the final processing.

Burton Tower

James Howe — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:02:14 +0000

(Nikon D700, 70-300mm at 240mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/2000 sec @ f/5.6)

One of the things I like to do in my spare time is wander around the University of Michigan campus looking for photo opportunities. It’s particularly nice in the late spring and summer when the students are away. Recently on one of my walks I took this shot of Burton Tower. I have a thing for high contrast and raking light and I liked how the sun was shining on the tower. I really would have preferred to take this shot from a higher point, but I didn’t have access to one so I simply backed up about as far as I could and then zoomed in on the upper portion of the tower.

My plan for this image was to produce something high contrast. I figured I would probably go black & white but I always explore both possibilities. After playing around, I decided black & white worked best. I also spent some time playing with the perspective. I wanted a more straight on shot, so I used the skew and scale tools to alter the perspective a bit. Finally, I took out some visible bits in the dark areas of the image, painting over them with a dark brush. A bit of a change from the original image seen below.

Thoughts or comments?

The Porch

James Howe — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:54:14 +0000

(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 16mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125 sec @ f/8.0)

This is another shot from the old Northern Michigan Asylum in Traverse City. The design of the building included fenced in porches at the end of each floors. I’m sure when the asylum was open they would wheel patients out here for some air, but that’s just speculation. To take this shot I backed as far as I could into the corner of the porch. With the colorful graffiti, my plan was to take enough shots for an HDR to emphasize the color.

I took seven exposures and created an HDR but I wasn’t entirely pleased with it. For one thing I didn’t have a tripod so this was done hand-held. When I processed the images, Photomatix did a good job of aligning the images but there were aspects of the image that just weren’t as sharp as I would have liked. For the image above, I took one of the middle exposures and processed it using Topaz Adjust. I bumped up the clarity and color and then used some layer masks to apply the effect locally. I used a couple curves layers to adjust the contrast and color a bit more. You can see the starting image below.

Comments?

The Asylum

James Howe — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:53:39 +0000

(Nikon D700, 16-35 at 16mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/1000 sec @f/8)

Traverse City, Michigan used to be the home of the state mental hospital once known as the Northern Michigan Asylum for the Insane. The hospital closed in 1989 and the buildings on the campus sat dormant. Recently there has been a push to repurpose the site as a combination of retail, housing and offices. The development is known as Traverse City Commons. Portions of the site have been renovated and the result is very interesting. Much of the site remains to be developed, however. The shot above shows one of the original buildings which has yet to be renovated. It retains much of its Victorian creepiness. While the place makes me wonder what went on during its years as an insane asylum, the history of this facility seems to indicate that it was rather progressive in its approach to treatment. Still, I see this place and all I can think of is ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.

When processing this image I wanted to convey the creepy feeling I got from the building. I converted the image to black & white and worked to create a dark and contrasty image. I used Topaz Adjust to increase the contrast and details in the brick and applied some curves layers to further adjust the contrast. I finished it off with some toning done in Lightroom. Compare the finished image with the out of camera shot:

Comments?

Newberry Hall aka Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (University of Michigan)

James Howe — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:24:50 +0000

(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 17mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/60 sec @f/16)

The picture above shows Newberry Hall on the campus of the University of Michigan. The Richardsonian Romanesque building was originally built as a home for the Students Christian Association. It is one of the oldest buildings on the U of M campus, with construction beginning in 1888 and completion in 1891. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Currently the building houses the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology which recently added an addition on the back.

I took this shot on a sunny, late spring morning. I wanted to go try out my new Nikkor 16-35mm lens. Processing of the image involved a couple of different things. First, I did some perspective correction to straighten out the tilt of the building. From where I was standing, I had to tilt the camera up a bit to get the entire building in the shot which resulted in some image tilt. After correcting the distortion, I cropped the image to a square. I used the ‘Spicify’ preset in Topaz Adjust to bring out the color in the blocks. The bright morning sun washed out the colors to some extent. I reduced the opacity and used a layer mask to apply the effect only to the block and not the sky or trees. The original, out of camera image, is shown below:

Some day I need to rent a tilt-shift lens and go around campus and take pictures.

As always I’m interested in any feedback you may care to offer.

Two Lads Winery – Traverse City, Michigan

James Howe — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:45:52 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 7-14mm at 7mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/250 sec @f/8.0)

The image above shows Two Lads Winery located on Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City, Michigan. The tall glass area is the tasting room which has a wonderful view of the east arm of Grand Traverse Bay. The grounds around the building were rather plain and gave the image more of a snapshot look. Ideally I would have liked to take this shot just after sunset, but when you are on vacation you shoot what you can when you can.

For processing I did a couple of different things. First, I cropped the image to eliminate much of the grassy area below the building. I was using a very wide angle lens and I wanted to keep the camera level. As a result, I got more ground in the picture that I really wanted, but I figured I would crop it out later. I also made a minor curves correction to improve contrast. I then decided to try a technique that I like to use for certain shots which involves using the Topaz Simplify plugin. Basically I make whatever other corrections I want to make to the image and then I create a new layer and edit that layer with the plugin. I like to use the BuzSim preset which does a nice job on grass, stone and other similar surfaces. I then use a layer mask to apply the effect only to parts of the image, leaving the building alone. Sometimes I’ll reduce the opacity of the Simplify layer as well to get a blending of original and processed. You can see the difference the filter made by looking at out of camera version of the image below:

If you are ever in the Traverse City area and you enjoy good wine, I highly recommend you check out Two Lads (and other fine wineries in the area). Michigan wines have come a long way from many years ago and many win top medals and wine competitions. The Traverse City area in particular produces some high quality red and white wines. Check ‘em out.

Comments?

Abstract Art (Museum)

James Howe — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:38:42 +0000

(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 29mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/500 sec @f/8.0)

This image shows the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As you might be able to guess, the original photograph was ‘tweaked’ just a bit. My original plan was to do some perspective correction, minor cropping and curves adjustments to create a reasonable architectural image. One idea I had was to create both dark and light versions of the image and create a single image HDR just to see what it would look like. As I worked on creating the darker image I found that I liked the pattern that was being created by the tree on the main wall of the museum. I decided to see what things would look like if I really pushed the blacks. With some additional work in Lightroom, including cropping, I took the image to Photoshop where I painted over some light spots which existed in the black expanses of the building.

As a point of comparison to the finished image, the raw, out of camera version of this image is shown below.

While working with the image I played around with some additional options. One idea was to try a pure black and white. With a deep blue sky it was pretty easy to drive the sky either black or white. The white sky was interesting in how it played with the fins on the roof, but I didn’t like how the main side of the building lost its top. A black sky worked well with the roof line, but I didn’t like how it turned the tree into more of a blob. The image below is somewhat of a compromise where I turned the sky a darker grey. I think I still prefer the color version.

As always I’m interested in hearing your comments.

Ponce Cathedral

James Howe — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:01:17 +0000

Ponce Cathedral

(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 17mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/1000 sec @f/8.0)

My family and I just returned from a short vacation in Puerto Rico. We stayed in the San Juan area, but we took a trip to the south side of the island where we visited the city of Ponce. Ponce was an interesting experience because non of my family speaks Spanish (we can read some) and there was very little English spoken in Ponce. We didn’t have a good map of Ponce and the city has very tight streets. We spent some time in the town square where I took this picture of the Ponce Cathedral. The church itself is on the National Register of Historic Places as “Cathedral Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe of Ponce”.

Processing consisted of conversion to black & white with some perspective correction. The sky was quite blue so I darkened it during the conversion. The building was a light grey color although in this shot it looks more white. I might try some curves work to bring down the brightness of the building a bit to see what it looks like.

Comments welcome!

UMMA Interior

James Howe — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:15:50 +0000

UMMA Interior

(Nikon D700, 14-24mm at 22mm, ISO 1600, Exposure 1/250 sec @f4.0)

This image shows one of the galleries in the new wing of the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I really like the clean architecture of the new wing, very modernist. The new wing does a nice job of showcasing modern art.

Processing of this image was fairly simple. I used Lightroom to convert to black and white and I used a curves layer in Photoshop to add some toning. The image above shows the full crop, but I think there is also a nice square crop opportunity as well.

Other thoughts? Please leave a comment!