Images and Notes » Architecture

Peninsula Paper Company – Ypsilanti, Mi

James Howe — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:03:59 +0000

(Nikon D700, 16-35mm @ 30mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125 @ f/11)

This shot shows the old generator building for the Peninsula Paper Company of Ypsilanti, Michigan. The company closed years ago and the factory was demolished to make way for some apartments. I shot this shot of the old hydroelectric generator building from the site of the old paper factory. It was late in the day and I tried to get to this location before the sun set. I used my Photographers Ephemeris application to check out the sun angle and I knew that it would be shining on the build and I thought the evening light might look good on the building. The one downside with this sun position and time of year is the reddish color of the building tends to make the building blend in with the trees. Later in the year the sun might not be in such a nice position, but the green of the trees would help separate the building from the background.

I went through several steps to create the final image. The image started out as a wide angle shot, but I decided I wanted to focus more on the building. I also shot this as a 7 shot HDR, but after I processed the brackets in Photomatix I wasn’t thrilled with the result. After some experimentation I decided to use just two of the exposures and ran them through Photomatix to blend them. I then took the image into Photoshop. The first thing I did was use Color Efex Pro 4 to bring out some additional details. I used a ‘recipe’ that I created which uses the Tonal Contrast, Detail Extractor and Reflect Efex filters. The net result created a somewhat glassy look to the calm water and more details everywhere.

I thought image at this point was too colorful. The sunlit portions of the image looked good, but the water had a funky blue tone which just didn’t look right. I thought I might experiment with a black and white conversion, so I used Silver Efex Pro 2 to create an image based on one of the ‘antique’ presets. I adjusted the preset to make the grain less obvious, removed the borders and made some other adjustments. It looked nice, but I decided I wanted to have a bit of color so I reduced the opacity to let some color flow through. The last thing I did was to apply a Topaz Simplify filter. This created a painterly look to the entire image. I blocked out the effect on the trees and building using a layer mask, and I reduced the effect on the water.

I could have stopped at this point but I still wasn’t happy with the color. The building had actually become a little greenish. I played with color balance but couldn’t get anything to look right. I decided to start over. I followed similar steps to create a second version, but I managed to come up with an image where the building looked better, but I didn’t like the look of the water as much. As a final step, I opened both images in Photoshop as layers and had Photoshop line them up. Since they were from the same image there wasn’t a problem getting things to line up. I then masked out the water in one image to let the water show through from the other. I also decided that I didn’t link the wide angle, so I created a square crop to focus more on the building itself.

Always interested in hearing your thoughts or questions. Feel free to leave them below. Thanks!

Michigan Central Station – Carriage Entrance Side

James Howe — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:51:47 +0000

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 28mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/2000th @ f/3.5)

This image shows the Michigan Central Station in Detroit from the carriage entrance side. The shot was taken from the back side of the building, close to where the tracks came in to the building. Carriages used to drop off or pick up passengers from under the metal structure.

Processing of the image involved a bit of perspective correction, I wanted a little less lean to the building. I also adjusted the crop a bit since it seemed to me that there was too much dead space along the left side. I experimented with different black and white conversions. I had a high key one that I liked, as well as a darker sepia, but in the end I went with a relatively contrasty plain black and white. I also used Topaz Detail to bring out some of the subtle color variation in the stonework.

Thanks for looking in and please feel free to leave comments and feedback below.

Michigan Central Station

James Howe — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:05:01 +0000

(Nikon D700, Sigma 15mm Fisheye, ISO 200, 5 Exposures @ f5.6)

I’ve been finding it difficult to get out and shoot new material for a variety of reasons, but today was such a nice day I decided to make an effort to get out and at least shoot something. I decided to take a short drive into Detroit to check out the progress on the Michigan Central Station. The owners are finally doing something to at least stabilize the building. Mostly this involves tightening security around the station to keep people out, removing the broken windows and putting in new windows, and working on the roof. Progress is slow, but they have definitely made some progress at least regarding the windows on the lower level. They haven’t actually replaced any that I could see, but they have removed the broken glass.

The shot was taken with my 15mm Sigma Fisheye. I’m not sure I really care for the bowed effect in this shot and debated about letting Lightroom do a lens correction, but I decided to keep it as shot. I took a series of 5 shots, hand held, and combined them using Photomatix to create an initial HDR image (seen below). I then took the HDR image into Photoshop and used OnOne Software’sPhotoTools to play with the image. I didn’t have any particular look in mind when I started, I was just trying out some filters, mostly from the HDR collection, to see what effect it had on various parts of the image. If I saw something I liked, I would alter the opacity and brush it in to the places where I thought it looked good, and removed it from places that it didn’t. I then used the PhotoFrame tool to add an ‘Acid Burn’ edge to the image. I finished the image off with Topaz Simplify which I used mostly on the sky and to a lesser extent the rest of the image.

Love to hear your comments on this one.

St. Nicholas Church, Ann Arbor (a second look)

James Howe — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:47:00 +0000

(Nikon D700, 70-300mm at 100mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/250 sec @f/11)

I was going through some images this morning looking for something to post on my Google+ account for the SacredSunday theme when I came across a picture I had taken of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I had previously done a black & white conversion that I previously posted to my blog. I recently added Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4 to my toolkit and I was just curious as to what I might be able to do using that plugin. The shot you see above was the result of using the ‘Soft Landscape’ recipe which comes with the product. I thought it did a nice job with the vignette as well as the detail in the clouds and brickwork of the church. The original image (shown below) was definitely flat and relatively lifeless and I was happy with how the final shot came out. I’d certainly be happy to hear what others think.

Feel free to leave your comments and questions below.

Chelsea Clocktower and Glazier Stove Welfare Building

James Howe — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:08:14 +0000

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 28mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125 @ f/16)

This is a shot taken recently in Chelsea, Michigan home to Chelsea Milling, makers of Jiffy Mix and also the home town of Jeff Daniels, whose family owns Chelsea Lumber Company. The main subject in this shot is the Clocktower, which was built by the Glazier Stove Company which once operated the worlds largest oil stove factory on the site. The Clocktower building was once the tallest structure in Washtenaw County. The tower served the dual purpose of holding a 20,000 gallon (76,000 liter) water tank for fires and for keeping time. While the Clocktower no longer serves as a water tower, but the old water tank is still encased within the tower just below the clock faces. The building just to the right of the clocktower is the Welfare Building built by the Glazier Stove Company. The building was built for the welfare of the employees of the Glazier Stove Company. According to a report in the Chelsea Standard on November 2, 1905: “This building will be given over entirely to the employes (sic) of the factory. It will contain reading rooms, supplied with the best current literature, swimming pool, shower baths, separate lockers for the men’s clothes and there will also be a fine, thoroughly equipped gymnasium in charge of a competent instructor.” Additional information about this site can be found here

I’ve taken shots of this part of Chelsea before but I really liked what the clouds were doing that day so I decided to get another shot. Out of camera, the image seemed a bit soft, so I used Topaz Detail to bring out more details. I pumped up the ‘large’ details just to the point where halos started to appear and then I backed it off. I then took the image in to Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4 and played around with some of the options in that application. I ended up using one of their ‘recipies’ called Soft Landscape which did a nice job adding a bit of vignette and making some other subtle changes. I finished things off by sharpening.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions.

Guggenheim Museum – New York City

James Howe — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:00:21 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/200 sec @ f/4.5)

This is a shot of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that I took a couple of years ago. It’s actually a panorama created from three shots (the original pano is shown below). I’ve actually been working on variations of this image since I took it. I’ve played around with a variety of ideas. I recently purchased theTopaz Labs Detail plugin and I experimented with it on this image. I boosted the detail of most of the image and then masked out the building. It gave the colored elements of the shot an interesting look, especially the taxi. However, at a smaller size the image looked to ‘crunchy’. So I then applyed Topaz Simplify and again masked out the building to create the final image. I still like the funky look of the yellow cab and I’ve always liked the way Simplify works on people as a way of de-emphasizing them.

As always, would love to hear your thoughts or questions.

Two Red Towers – Traverse City Commons

James Howe — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:43:38 +0000

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 230mm, ISO 100, Exposure 1/250 @ f/16)

On a recent trip to northern Michigan, my wife and I visited Traverse City Commons. I’ve posted shots from this location before. The site is the location of the old Northern Michigan Asylum where they are converting the old buildings into retail, office and residential spaces. The weather the morning we arrived was cloudy, but breaks were beginning to appear in the clouds. As the sun peaked through it shone on the roof tops and really highlighted the towers/cupolas that are a key feature of the main building.

Processing was fairly limited. I had shot the image in landscape orientation, but that left too much sky in the image and I wanted to draw more focus to the structure itself. I cropped in from the right and then did some minor work on the contrast.

Feel free to leave comments or feedback below.

Serendipitous

James Howe — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:20 +0000

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 28mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/1000 at f/8.0)

My wife and I are spending some time in Northern Michigan, including Mackinac Island situated between Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. The island has a great collection of summer ‘cottages’, most of which are really large homes. They were generally built by wealthy industrialists and needed to accommodate family and servants. A nice example of a typical Mackinac Island cottage is ‘Brigadoon’ shown above. This cottage has a wonderful view of Mackinac Island’s harbor.

I took this shot as we were walking back to our hotel room after having lunch in the main part of town. I took a few different shots and finally settled on this low angle where I took a series of shots for possible HDR processing. However, when I got back to the room and look at the shots I had taken, I knew right away that I had to go with this shot. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a monarch butterfly had flown into the frame in the upper right. It fit so nicely with the sky that it almost looks as if I placed it there in post. I assure you I did no such thing. It’s just one of those lucky things that sometimes happens to photographers.

Processing for this image included some perspective correction and some work in Lightroom and PhotoTools to bring out the color that was present in the scene. As you can see in the raw image below, the bright sun created a somewhat washed out image to start.

Comments and feedback are always welcome. Feel free to leave them below.

UMMA – Gallery – Old Wing (take 2)

James Howe — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:58:33 +0000

(Olympus E3, 7-14mm at 7mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, 1/4 sec @ f/7.1)

This shot was taken in the old wing of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). I’ve always liked this gallery and I’ve been here a few times to take pictures of it. Each time is a little different, different people, different light, etc. I had a blog post back in 2010 with an image similar to the one you see here, but with a completely different method and style of processing. For that image I went with a grittier, almost HDR look. I liked the way the processing brought out the detail in the floor, but I’ve always felt that this shot was meant for black & white. I also wasn’t too thrilled with the number of people in the shot, so I went back at a later date and took the shot you see above. In this shot, there is only the one woman on the bench, which I like better. I also chose to convert the image to black & white. Initially I created an image to which I added a bit of film grain, however I ultimately decided that I wanted a smoother look. I edited the shot to hide the grain layer and used Lightroom noise reduction to help smooth the shot out even more.

I would love to hear your feedback.

St. Peter’s Cathedral – Variations

James Howe — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:38:56 +0000

(Nikon D700, 70-300mm at 70mm, ISO 250, 1/250 sec @ f/11)

Today’s image is a close-up of some of the details that made St. Peter’s Cathedral so interesting. If you saw yesterday’s post, you know this picture is of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Marquette, Michigan. When I first saw this church my eyes were immediately drawn to all the neat details. The building has lots of carved stone and a variety of colors, mostly in the domes. The HDR image I posted yesterday tried to convey the colors and today’s image is focused on the details.

In processing today’s image, I tried a couple of things that I haven’t done before. I had recently watched a Kelby Training course with Moose Peterson where he did some processing on a landscape image using Photomatix to generate a single image HDR. His goal was to use Photomatix to bring out detail in a flat sky. I haven’t really used the single image HDR ability of Photomatix before, so I thought I would give it a try with this image. I didn’t have a flat sky to contend with, but I was curious to see if the processing would bring out more detail. I was pretty pleased with what I got, although there were probably other techniques/tools that I could have used to accomplish the same thing.

After I had my basic color image, I decided that I wanted a high contrast black and white. I had the image in Lightroom, so I did the black and white conversion there. I wanted to have a dark sky, so I slid the blue slider all the way to the left to completely blacken the blues in the image. However, in doing so I also blackened some blue elements in the building which I didn’t want to do. So, I created a virtual copy of the color image and did a second black and white conversion. This time I made the blue elements almost white. I selected both images and opened them as layers in Photoshop. The bright blue version was on top, but I wanted the dark sky, so I added a layer mask and filled it with black. I then selectively painted white to bring back the ‘white’ blue areas that I wanted from the brighter image. A bit of sharpening and the finished image is what you see above.

Most of the time when I do black and white processing I use Silver Efex Pro 2 from Nik Software. I decided to see how that would work on my color image. One of the things which surprised me was that I couldn’t get a really black sky by reducing the blue. No matter, I decided to go in a different direction for this version anyway. I used the structure capability to bring out some of the fine detail and I played with the contrast. I like how the wispy clouds came out and I like the overall crispness of the image. I think I still prefer the first image just for the dramatic contrast, but I like this one as well. With either image, I think you can see that it is possible to create a dramatic image out of a fairly flat looking raw image.

Comments and constructive feedback are more than welcome.