I have just gone "Wow"! 6 times, Boris. The one that really dropped my jaw was the first, though.
3 great shots, Carsten. My favorite is the same as Boris', the last
I'm very sorry that I have been unable to join you as I promised but I've got a good reason. My available time over the weekends has been reduced drastically in the past few months - my girlfriend works and lives in Copenhagen and we are only able to see each other over the weekend when she gets to Stockholm. So as much as I would have wanted to I really haven't been able to find the time to take a weekend trip to Berlin. I am however going to make an effort to make it happen in spring when you resume the meetings. I'm really looking forward to meeting you guys in person and of course seeing Philippe and Boris again.
Bobu, your images really stands out in my eyes. Really like your color and sharpness handling. Too many good to point out any specific as the list would cover almost all, I would probably start the list with the chair though. Which I personally would try as a squared image too.
Carsten, desat on the outside works. And several appealing new ones here too (HDR or not does not matter). The radiator/bed gets my top position here, great comp (and sharpness)! I had to take a look an a BW version of that with stronger local contrast and a blue filter helping to separate the brown/yellowish parts. Your image is very good for that (but perhaps becomes a little more messy than clinical ) In case you want to have a look a very very temporary file is placed here.
Philber, your 35 bath is perfect. The 21 is good but not on par. Carsten puts it elegantly that tight cropping is an art.
Boris, I love your latest shots 1, 3, and 5! Very nice!
William, I am surprised that you like one of my most maligned shots, the warm bed I almost removed it from my website because I felt it was not so strong. Why do you like that one? I do like the B&W, but I want to keep the processing consistent for the most powerful set, as opposed to the most powerful individual images.
I think I like it because it's a small room with a simple bed and a high positioned window invoking the imagination of something like a Cuckoo's Nest isolation cell. So please don't spoil that story by telling me that this is simply a dead-end in a corridor or something
Yes, Boris, I did. The 18mm comparison is pretty much what I expected: the Zeiss is
contrastier, to the extent that it looks like eliciting more DR and a wider colour gamut from the camera. And the Leica looks softer, colour and contrast wise.
On the other hand, the real killer Leica lens I tried is not the 24mm, or the 18mm, it is the Summicron 28. It is simply great. Colours, contrast, sharpness, it has it all. Now where did I put my 3000€? Ah, yes, I can always recover 300€ from selling my Contax G...
philber wrote:
Yes, Boris, I did. The 18mm comparison is pretty much what I expected: the Zeiss is
contrastier, to the extent that it looks like eliciting more DR and a wider colour gamut from the camera. And the Leica looks softer, colour and contrast wise.
On the other hand, the real killer Leica lens I tried is not the 24mm, or the 18mm, it is the Summicron 28. It is simply great. Colours, contrast, sharpness, it has it all. Now where did I put my 3000€? Ah, yes, I can always recover 300€ from selling my Contax G...
Philippe, I already asked in the thread about wides on the NEX but since you mention it again:
Do you mind sharing some of those shots you did with the 28 cron on your nex? I'm very curious about that combo!
Boris: my favorite is #12, really great! I totally missed the room with this graffiti... The images in your last batch are a bit over-saturated for my taste (or there's a problem with color management in my browser).
Carsten: I like the perspective in all of your shots on this page, great use of the 21mm. My favorites are the second one in your first post and in your last post on this page. In the first two images in your second post I find the highlights to much reduced.
Here are some short replies to what I found at page 29:
LurkerX wrote:
I got the encouregement from fellow-members (and the obligation ) to fill the gap until the Beelitz-images will show up (...)
Now you are talking. What a flashback. The Tacheles overload of colours and shapes right back at me...
Of your Pork Factory images I took the longest look at #13, an image I saw when walking around there but never took. I like the processing you have done there.
carstenw wrote:
I will be going on more UrbEx tours over the winter months, but the general consensus was that the next big FM meet would be in spring sometime, probably not sooner than March. I will post here each time I book a tour so that anyone interested can join.
I'll probably not be able to join you until spring. Still, please post when you plan to go, one never knows.
A Zuiko 50/2 Macro is a great lens. And here we got a nice image! I like it. Duotone perhaps? The light and the pale colours work fine together. This is a strict right on sort of composition (guilty as charged) and so I think it would gain from some straightening, no?
carstenw wrote:
I started the day by shooting multiple exposures to cover the dynamic range, and after remembering that I own and brought a flash, I switched to the flash. I am really struggling to get something good from the HDR workflow, whereas the flash is easy for me. I don't know why. I just can't get the tone map right. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I think the mapping is OK. But when done with that part your images could probably improve somewhat from a little of ordinary processing. It may sound strange but whenever I have tried a HDR version i need to increase the contrast and blow something to make the images look real.
philber wrote:
(...)
I also thought I would not have that much to show for my labors, less than last time. This IMHO showed that the location had been overhyped by the tour company, because pretty much all the buildings had to show was their vast emptiness. Hence the tristesse so eloquently referred to by Lurker X.
A great empty pool image! That's a simple and effective composition which thanks to the shapes avoids getting boring. Well done indeed. (But why so greyish? I think it could gain from more contrast and a slight tone curve adjustment.)
alba63, or Bernie,wrote:
Ok, now here are some of mine. All Zeiss 25, 35 and 50mm.... (....)
An exterior! Great (but again a leaning image and it makes me wonder if it is only me not liking those)! And details. Your second image is warm and yellow (one extra point for that) and it tells a story about an abused building.
carstenw wrote:
I hear you all when you say that they are too perfect/sterile/technical, but believe it or not, this is actually what I am going for. I am deliberately avoiding flashy compositions, provocative crops, slanted angles and what-not in order to let the location speak for itself. Maybe it will work out in the end, maybe not. I think I will need to do the processing, and let the set sit for a while, and look it over in a few weeks, before I will really know what I think of this strategy.
After having attended at one occasion it's very interesting to see the different takes on another subject from you all.
As I have spent quite some part of my "photographic life" with documentation I fully understand your way of working Carsten. Letting a location speak for itself is one way of working. Adding something to the images is another. But, is it really possible not to add anything from oneself? Is it really possible not to have a style? I don't think so. If you manage that it would be an achievement. However, developing a style where the main lot of ones images are taken in a way we see the surrounding the same way as when we have a walk through an area means a risk of getting boring. It's great for documentary but the beholder may decide to skip parts of the images unless the area is very interesting by itself. It wil be interesting to follow your work and see what direction it takes!
Bobu wrote:
Here are some images from the gym (all M9 with 18mm SE):
What an intriguing place!
(And again a leaning room. Now I know it is just me. Maybe it is the new straight.)
I'll bother you all with more comments later, tomorrow I'll have alook at page 30...
Ulff wrote:
Boris: my favorite is #12, really great! I totally missed the room with this graffiti... The images in your last batch are a bit over-saturated for my taste (or there's a problem with color management in my browser).
Thanks Markus, this room was my favorite place in all three buildings. And you are probably right that some of my images are a bit over-saturated. But this was somwhat intentional. I was not after a realisitic look of how these places look today but instead wanted to either emphasize the strange atmosphere or try to emulate how the colors have probably looked 70 years ago.
Jonas B wrote:
What an intriguing place!
(And again a leaning room. Now I know it is just me. Maybe it is the new straight.)
Jonas, what do you mean whith "leaning room" and how would you correct it? I tried to straighten all vertical lines. Either I was not succesfull (which is very likely) or you mean something else.
Bobu wrote:
Jonas, what do you mean whith "leaning room" and how would you correct it? I tried to straighten all vertical lines. Either I was not succesfull (which is very likely) or you mean something else.
Boris
Hi,
I should have written "leaning image". I was thinking of your image #1 in your first post at page 29. The immediate impression I get as beholder is that the room is leaning towards the left.
The verticals are nearly straight and part of their very slight leaning has to do with the ultra wide angle situation. Maybe they can be straightened further but the main disturbing factor is the rear end of the room where the left side is lower than the right.
Maybe that's how the gym really looks? If not the image would improve from getting straightened (to my eyes, that's one of my hobbyhorses (maybe another English word would suit better here) and not necessarily important for everybody.
I understand what would you mean, but I have no idea how to change it.
Maybe if you have any ideas for a further correction in PP, just do it and post the result here. It would be a great possibility (for me) to learn some new PP skills.
That's a challenge. I have admired so many of your images and I doubt I can learn you anything. But, as I had opinions I'll try to stand behind them. Here is the version you posted:
and here comes a version from me, a modest try to show what I was thinking about. I can't make it look exactly as I would like it to, I don't have the skills for that. You decide though, improved or not?
You can straighten it with Photoshop, Layer from Background, Edit>Transform>Distort, and click, ctrl drag the right-hand corners up/downwards until the photo is straight. Cmd+' gives you a grid to work with. I also straightened the top edge. It looks mildly unnatural, since you were not pointing the camera perpendicularly onto the far wall, and thus the mind expects a little sideways keystoning.
carstenw wrote:
You can straighten it with Photoshop, Layer from Background, Edit>Transform>Distort, (...)
I used the same method (but I haven't found a way to get the grid on Windows so I add guide lines manually). I see your stretching and the adjustment of the top part. I adjusted the left side a tad along with levelling the floor.
I'm not sure about your adjustment of the top edge. As the image was taken from a point left of the center of the room I like it when not exactly straight there, just as the walls has to lean just a little towards the edges for looking natural.
In both cases I like the image better after the adjustment. I understand it isn't important for everybody.
Jonas and Carsten: you have a great eye for straight lines! Without the help of a ruler I'm not able to see that anything is wrong in Boris image as well as in my duotone image perspective wise. I don't even see the differences between Boris original and your modified images without switching the images between different tabs. Strange.
) In case you want to have a look a very very temporary file is placed 