Roofscapes - Ancient and Modern

[LongQ]

Something a little different for the weekend.

[J111]

Assuming you don't have a cherry picker in your kit bag, I can't work out where you stood to take the first one

I really like the first shot, nice mixture of forms. I'm not so sure about the second one, the light's a bit flat to make much of the roof texture.

I don't have any roofscapes, but here's a shot (well, 27 shots) of mine, from not so far away, that's vaguely roof related:

Edited by J111 on Saturday 3rd June 14:03

Edited by J111 on Saturday 3rd June 14:03

[LongQ]

J111 said:

Assuming you don't have a cherry picker in your kit bag, I can't work out where you stood to take the first one

Both taken from the same place - open air top floor of a car park.

Went to test the potential for my 35mm 600mm prime with a 2x extender when there is a breeze. It's very difficult to keep it all still when there isn't! But thought I would have a quick play with my recently acquired Canon Pro1 as well. These are the results. The first was shot as a jpeg and is as it came out of the camera. I can't decide which way to go with any edits at the moment.

The second is from a RAW file original. Has a slight crop to reduce the amount of sky and a fair dollop of USM to try and counter the compression for the web. It also need rotating about half a degree for the verticals but that produced some strange effects elsewhere when I tried it so I left it for now.

[J111]

LongQ said:

Both taken from the same place - open air top floor of a car park.

Did they build that on top of the old bus station ? Although I used to have a client on Pride Park, I haven't been into the centre of Derby in many years.

LongQ said:

Went to test the potential for my 35mm 600mm prime with a 2x extender when there is a breeze. It's very difficult to keep it all still when there isn't!

I can imagine Is that an image stabilising lens ? If not, you'll need some seriously steady hands, the old adage of exposing at 1/focal length is going to be tricky !

The Pro1 looks to work very well for you. Mine is/are on an old Nikon Coolpix, it's probably time to upgrade to 8 megapixies for my compact.

I wonder if skewing the left hand edge down slightly would correct the horizontals more pleasingly ?

[LongQ]

J111 said:

Assuming you don't have a cherry picker in your kit bag, I can't work out where you stood to take the first one I really like the first shot, nice mixture of forms. I'm not so sure about the second one, the light's a bit flat to make much of the roof texture.

It is the mix of the forms I like on the first one as well, though the green dome with windows has a separate fascination which I am still working on.

The second one looks much better at full size and pre-compression I reckon - I need to play with it some more.

[LongQ]

J111 said:

Did they build that on top of the old bus station ? Although I used to have a client on Pride Park, I haven't been into the centre of Derby in many years.

It's the Cock Pitt car park - the one that is attached to the Eagle Centre and just opposite the now closed but not yet demolished bus station.

J111 said:

I can imagine Is that an image stabilising lens ? If not, you'll need some seriously steady hands, the old adage of exposing at 1/focal length is going to be tricky !

No IS, it's all old Canon FD stuff. Even a tripod is only partial help since the wind blows things around laterally even with the tripod locked up. Not sure a heavier tripod would work much better, but since I am looking for the practicality of use for action shots the normal solutions - a couple of tons of concrete - seem unhelpful anyway. Could try 2 tripods perhaps - but that would still defeat the purpose. It's either going to be acceptable or it's not. I was quite pleased that I could see enough to focus. It was a bright day though.

J111 said:

The Pro1 looks to work very well for you. Mine is/are on an old Nikon Coolpix, it's probably time to upgrade to 8 megapixies for my compact.

I bought it for a specific project and as a cheap way of getting a few RAW files to play with. So just seeing what it can do really. It's better than I was expecting. The only downside is that there seems to be a glut on enay on the last week or so and they are selling for noticably less than I paid. Ho hum. I thought the deal was OK at the time.

J111 said:

I wonder if skewing the left hand edge down slightly would correct the horizontals more pleasingly ?

I wondered that but the horizontals that are really horizontal (not the roof tile lines) look pretty good when I overlay a grid. The Cathedral Tower is a gnat's off the verticalbut the effect is compounded by the architecture since the base is, of course, a little wider than the top. However at the angle of the shot this is accentuated on the left, whilst making it difficult to see the true vertical, but is not so obvious on the right of the tower. All of which means it looks a little 'wrong' no matter what you do. If repeating the exercise I might seek a slightly different position from which to take the shot.

[LongQ]

J111 said:

I don't have any roofscapes, but here's a shot (well, 27 shots) of mine, from not so far away, that's vaguely roof related:

I like the result of your 27 shots. Seems like a lot of work to stitch 27 together though (assuming you did one way or another) so what made you choose to go down that route? To see if it could be done perhaps?

[J111]

I wanted to take a shot of that building that wasn't utterly hackneyed. Very hard to shoot any church, particularly one of the most famous, without taking a postcard photo so I thought I'd revisit an approach I used to use when I took art at school.

It's fairly easy to piece them together in Photoshop, there's no more than half an hour's work there. Locked exposure would have made matching the tones easier, but I only had the compact with me.

LongQ said:

It's the Cock Pitt car park - the one that is attached to the Eagle Centre and just opposite the now closed but not yet demolished bus station.

Ah, thanks, I haven't seen that structure.

Multiple horizontals and verticals are always awkward, I've scowled at no end of my shots of York Minster over the years for the same reasons. I suspect a tilt and shift lens, or even a field camera, is the only really satisfactory answer.

LongQ said:

No IS, it's all old Canon FD stuff.

Ah, film ! My old beasts:

[LongQ]

J111 said:

I wanted to take a shot of that building that wasn't utterly hackneyed. Very hard to shoot any church, particularly one of the most famous, without taking a postcard photo so I thought I'd revisit an approach I used to use when I took art at school. It's fairly easy to piece them together in Photoshop, there's no more than half an hour's work there. Locked exposure would have made matching the tones easier, but I only had the compact with me.

A perfect explanation and a great idea. The concept suits the spire as well!

J111 said:

LongQ said: It's the Cock Pitt car park - the one that is attached to the Eagle Centre and just opposite the now closed but not yet demolished bus station. Ah, thanks, I haven't seen that structure.

Built some years ago now. It's in the middle of a huge traffic island. A very odd design so I never use it but it is a great place for city views except to the south.

J111 said:

Multiple horizontals and verticals are always awkward, I've scowled at no end of my shots of York Minster over the years for the same reasons. I suspect a tilt and shift lens, or even a field camera, is the only really satisfactory answer.

Yep. A T&S lens is something I would like to play with if I can find one at the right price.

That said, for the degree of adjustment needed here I suspect that Photoshop offers adequate options these days, though not something I have yet tried.