Cardiff architecture

[rob marshall]

Each time I visit Cardiff they seem to be building more... All taken a few days ago.

C+C welcome

[Wirefox]

Rob

Concrete jungle is a classic. Superb conversion and the angle of shooting gives an almost tumbled together look. This is one of those shots that make tramping around a city worthwhile.

Cardiff building has a good 'feel' to it but I am wondering whether the triangular protrusion on the left needs to go. The others are good but I think the show is stolen by concrete jungle.

I am tempted now to go back so some architectural stuff I shot before Christmas. I precessed them in a hurry and suspect I can get a little more out of them

[rob marshall]

Rob

Concrete jungle is a classic. Superb conversion and the angle of shooting gives an almost tumbled together look. This is one of those shots that make tramping around a city worthwhile.

Cardiff building has a good 'feel' to it but I am wondering whether the triangular protrusion on the left needs to go. The others are good but I think the show is stolen by concrete jungle.

I am tempted now to go back so some architectural stuff I shot before Christmas. I precessed them in a hurry and suspect I can get a little more out of them

Thank you, Steve. I like jungle the best as well. It really did look like that, but I suppose it was enhanced by the low (street-level) angle of shooting. I thought it good for BW because although it's mostly concrete there is a good range of tones there.

[rpcrowe]

Rob... I like all your shots; especially the Cardiff Library and Disorientation shots..

Regarding the construction crane. They are prevalent all over China. The Chinese people like to call them China's national bird, the "construction crane".

[ScoutR]

You make these look so good. My votes are for "Clash of Styles" and "Disorientation". I find this type of shot sooooo difficult, I'm always trying to learn something when you post, but I really have trouble keeping things straight or getting them straight in PP.
When you are shooting, do you try to get the verticals straight or the horizontals. I always find one or the other is off, but can't seem to find a magic formula for making things easier to correct later on.

Anyway, as usual nice work.
Wendy

[rob marshall]

You make these look so good. My votes are for "Clash of Styles" and "Disorientation". I find this type of shot sooooo difficult, I'm always trying to learn something when you post, but I really have trouble keeping things straight or getting them straight in PP.

When you are shooting, do you try to get the verticals straight or the horizontals. I always find one or the other is off, but can't seem to find a magic formula for making things easier to correct later on.

Anyway, as usual nice work.
Wendy

Wendy

As for making them look good... I try to avoid too much natural contrast. I know that sounds wrong, but skylight in shots such as these can kill them. So I try to avoid bright sky. Then in PS I really push the contrast sliders (on tone curve in RAW). Because I have excluded bright sky etc in the shot I can get away with it. It really gives a great contrasty look to the whole mid-tone range, without burning out the white and blacks at the far ends. It's surprising how much you can push in RAW without degrading the data. That's basically what I did with 'concrete jungle'.

As for the lines.. I always leave more space than I need around the main subject when I know it will need correction on verticals/horizontals. CS5 is brilliant at correcting via FILTER\LENS CORRECTION. However, it does eat into the shot, hence the space. In 'Queens Arcade I lost quite a bit as the building was high up compared to where I was standing.

Thanks for the comments.

[hashim]

rebuilding cardiff has a strong vertical dynamic thrust(not static) but the space division is memorised fast.nothing urges me to take another look at it once i have seen it.queens arkade is so symetrical that i can even memorize it faster than the first photo and loose interrest into taking further looks at it.cardiff library annoys my eyes due to overloaded repetitive rectangular shapes.there is something rong in the way the lamp is cut in clash of style.i like the grid and reflections in disorientation.this photo is interresting.AND NOW COMES THE WORK OF ART---CONCRETE JUNGLE---strong diagonal motion-very healthy non monotonous space divisions-a superb play in smooth and coarse textures-good use of reflections-wise balance in values (light-dark)etc.----- i can look at that painting a million times and still would like to retake another look at it to discover something new and interresting that might have escaped my eye.my best regards.

[rob marshall]

rebuilding cardiff has a strong vertical dynamic thrust(not static) but the space division is memorised fast.nothing urges me to take another look at it once i have seen it.queens arkade is so symetrical that i can even memorize it faster than the first photo and loose interrest into taking further looks at it.cardiff library annoys my eyes due to overloaded repetitive rectangular shapes.there is something rong in the way the lamp is cut in clash of style.i like the grid and reflections in disorientation.this photo is interresting.AND NOW COMES THE WORK OF ART---CONCRETE JUNGLE---strong diagonal motion-very healthy non monotonous space divisions-a superb play in smooth and coarse textures-good use of reflections-wise balance in values (light-dark)etc.----- i can look at that painting a million times and still would like to retake another look at it to discover something new and interresting that might have escaped my eye.my best regards.

Thanks for the comments, Hashim. I took all of the shots in just a 2 hours slot, so I'm very pleased to have got one really good one. I agree about Queens Arcade and Clash of Styles.

[Donald]

A magnificent set. My compliments, sir. And I am insanely jealous that you achieve these captures in a 2-hour slot. Obviously the 'vision' mode was switched on to a high seting on that day.

[mythlady]

Rob, these are wonderful. Concrete Jungle is arresting, and Disorientation is exactly that -- those buildings are not connected, are they? It's an illusion?

Terrific set.

[djg05478]

Super cool. I am super awful at grabbing "chunks" of a bigger thing and making it look complete. I'm referring to Cardiff Library specifically. Where to start, where to stop..that sort of thing, what you have there feels complete.

The crane is cool too, but I'm biased. I worked as a structural steel laborer for 5 years, you don't appreciate a good crane operator, till you've watched a bad one.
Debbie

[rob marshall]

Rob, these are wonderful. Concrete Jungle is arresting, and Disorientation is exactly that -- those buildings are not connected, are they? It's an illusion?

Terrific set.

In disorientation you are looking at the glass wall side of a single office block. There are two buildings reflected in it, both of which were behind me. Confusing, isn't it?

[rob marshall]

A magnificent set. My compliments, sir. And I am insanely jealous that you achieve these captures in a 2-hour slot. Obviously the 'vision' mode was switched on to a high seting on that day.

It certainly helps if you go to a city centre that has many such buildings. Cardiff is quite good for that. The city centre (shopping area) which is where the above shots were taken offers good opportunities. There is also the 'Bay' area down in the old docks which is about 2 miles away. That also has some excellent opportunities. It also helps to know the area well, and to keep revisiting it.

Here are a couple from the Bay. I took these two last year.

[rob marshall]

The crane is cool too, but I'm biased. I worked as a structural steel laborer for 5 years, you don't appreciate a good crane operator, till you've watched a bad one.
Debbie

I think I'm impressed! If it's not too personal a question, what do you do now?

[djg05478]

I think I'm impressed! If it's not too personal a question, what do you do now?

Now I work for a company that distributes industrial instrumentation (flow meters, chart recorders, controllers), I read spec sheets and fill in blanks that populate a database, that magically creates webpages for the products that we distribute/sell. Which has absolutely nothing to do with my previous life as a construction worker, other than, 5 years of manual labor indoors and out, all year round was instrumental in my decision to go back to school and get some sort of degree.