The Old Court House, Boston MA.Nikkor 18-200mm @ 26mm
F/5.6
1/250 sec
Boston is full of this juxtaposition of old and new. The buildings surrounding the hall are a couple of centuries newer, as is the underground metro station right beneath the old building. If that's not enough time, check out the clock on the end of the bulding.
There's a little cropping and some perspective transform in PhotoshopTM to correct some converging verticals, and I also tweaked the colour palette to bring up the rather washed-out look of the brickwork.
Times Square, NY NY.Nikkor 18-200mm @ 22mm
F/4.8
1/90 sec
Taken quite by accident, this one resulted from my accidentally hitting the shutter release while zooming. It is by far the most interesting photo I took of Times Square. I just like the movement suggested by the photo.
This image is straight out of the camera and cropped to 800px high for t'web.
Thyme after timeTokina 12-20mm @ 12mm
F/5.6
1/4 sec
Available light plus tripod. No 'pod Plod at home. The versions I tried with flash all looked flat and boring, so I resorted to an angle lamp just out of shot. I tweaked the white balance afterwards.
Unfortunately, the extreme wide angle distorted the image big-time, so out came PhotoshopTM and the distort transform tool. While I was at it, I noticed that the WB screwed up the colour of the thyme. It's back to a more natural green through careful use of a mask and the green colour slider. Maybe I should have used a nifty fifty (that I don't own) to blur the background kettle, knives and saucepan.
As for the subject matter, think of it as preparing to cook. There's the thyme herb, and also the kitchen timer, all poised for time to cook.
Posts
- Faneuil Hall
ReplyDeleteLike this one, as you say the juxtaposition of old and new is nice.
Verticals (often difficult) are good and color is nice.
Image is a bit of a bulls eye for me but a lovely subject. Wonder if you'd stood where the guy on the crossing was have hall closer filling more of right side and then the crossing light as a bit of fore ground subject ?
However a nice shot and isn't Boston great !
- TIME Square
For an accident, great shot. David B took one at Steven's wedding on the diagonal and I really like them, imparts a strong compositional element where there may not have been one.
It's a shame that its not another 5-10deg counter clockwise and closer to the 45 but still nice.
The colors, blur and angle all mix together very well.
As for it actually being an "accident", tosh its skill. I'm reading a book on composition at the moment and they talk in great detail about all the rules etc and then a chapter about how you don’t actually have time to plan 99% of shots its all on instinct and maybe the vague knowledge of composition at the back of your mind. As Napoleon said, "I don't need good Generals, I need lucky Generals".
- Tyme
Very clever interpretation, funny :-)
Shallower DOF would have helped a lot but you'll never get a shallow DOF with a WA. As you say a nifty fifty would have been good, Maybe Santa will help ?
The angle lamp is probably what messed with the WB but angles and WB nicely corrected.
VERY VERY glad you brought up off camera light................Actually this is a big topic and if you don’t mind think I will have a go at home, copy your shot and shoot some examples and make a separate post. Maybe in the future we could have a Shutterbug meet up and play with off camera.
p.s. Think Clock on Faneuil Hall, TIME square and TYME are very good for the topic.
Cheers,
Richard B.
Thanks for the C&C Richard. Just a point of information: It's not Faneuil Hall. I named the image file by mistake and when I checked it using the Google Image search, it turned out that the building is actually the Old Court House. It's apparently where the first shots were fired in the American Revolution.
ReplyDeleteIn 'Thyme after time' I tried for less DOF with a long telephoto, but, erm, ran out of kitchen.
ReplyDeleteIf you want a shallower DOF you also can cheat to a certain amount and use a +diopter which also reduces working distance. However they are a PIA, better get a nifty fifty and 50's are cheap for 1.8's
ReplyDeleteOtherwise,
" Dear Santa,
I've been good all year, please can I have ......
p.s. First shots may have been fired at the old court house but the last ones haven't be fired yet. Down with the Rebels !! :-)
Gents
ReplyDeleteHave to say I agree with Richard and all the Critique so not too much to say on these. Although as the first two shots are bak-cat they do not qualify as home work of course ;0)
I really like the time square shot though, and as Richard say, the angle and the apparent movement adds interest to what would otherwise have been a dull shot of people sat about.
I was taling to Chris Hurt (name dropping alert) a few weeks ago and I commented that "isn;t it annoying how you cna spent all the time and equipment getting great shots only to find that the acicental shot you took putting the camera in to the bag was in fact the best" and he replied "The differnce between a ameture, semi-pro and pro shooter are ameture shooters shoot 100 shots and are happy with the three good ones that come out good by chance, the semi-pro shooter gets annouyed by the 97 that didn't go right and the Pro shooter is the one who is wise enough to delete the 97 and claim he only took three"
Wise words.
The 'Thyme after Thyme" shot certainly made me groan (in a good way) nice play on an uninspiring title. I like the lamp light rather than flash but agree that more DOF would have improved the shot.
Also disappointing to see that the three of us are (once again) the only ones to post our homework!! Home on slackers!!