It seems that no matter where you go the ‘speak here’ grill is a commonplace feature of many work environments. And while there’s an obvious logic for them in places like banks – where security is clearly an issue – there are many buildings where there presence says more about corporate culture than it does anything else. This one, for example, is embedded in the front window of our new departmental office – a place where students hand in their essays and ask questions such as “can you tell me where the Abnormal Psychology lecture is?”. And in the eight and a half years that I’ve been there I can’t remember a single hold up: “put all your unmarked stationary into this briefcase – now!”. It just doesn’t happen. So I don’t really know why it’s there.
That said, I think this is definitely one of the images I’ve taken recently that I’m most pleased with. Yesterday’s weighing-scale effort was a bit bland, my polygraph pictures were ok, but this one seems about as good as my vision will allow. I do have a thing for high contrast images, though there aren’t many on this site. But that’s more a consequence of not getting them quite right – normally. This time I’m pleased with the result.
camera capture date aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO focal length image quality white balance optical filter
Canon G5
9.10am on 17/2/04
f3.5
1/50
program AE
+0.0
evaluative
50
10.2mm
RAW
auto
B+W UV 010
comment byConstantin at 10:12 PM (GMT) on 17 February, 2004
thanks for your comment! i can say exactly the same thing about your pic!
comment byKilian at 11:20 PM (GMT) on 17 February, 2004
That's a beautiful shot indeed! Great sharpness and contrast. Most of all, I like the diagonal composition of it all. Subtle Symmetry ;-)
comment byDeceptive at 11:38 PM (GMT) on 17 February, 2004
Great composition. I like the new site layout. Well done.
comment by Tom Brandt at 02:21 AM (GMT) on 18 February, 2004
Wonderful. You have taken a subject that is normally not even noticable and created a wonderul photo. I love the angle of the shot and the sharp contrast. Was it hand held? Do you touch up in photoshop or is this out of the camera, cropped and saved as a jpeg? Great work, your site is a pleasure to visit.
comment by djn1 at 07:07 AM (GMT) on 18 February, 2004
Thanks: for both the comments on this image and the new site layout.
Tom: this was shot in RAW format, wasn't cropped (I'm aiming to post the shots I take rather than crop them afterwards), but was adjusted in PS as a 16 bit image: Levels, quite a strong Curves adjustment, some minor 'cleaning up' in the top right of the image (where some dirt on the window caugh the light – which was distracting), and then desaturated. Then, it was reduced to 700x525px using Fred Miranda'sWeb Presenter Pro plugin, sharpened slightly (with an Unsharp Mask setting of around 100, 0.3, 0), and then saved using PS's Save for Web option (80% quality and an embedded colour profile).
And yes, it was handheld.
comment bySid at 08:16 AM (GMT) on 18 February, 2004
I love the detail in this photograph. Very vivid. Nice contrast as well.
comment byK1C at 09:20 AM (GMT) on 18 February, 2004
ohh I like this chrome ;] very nice framing, pozdrawiam ;-)
comment bymyla at 09:35 AM (GMT) on 18 February, 2004
I love this! Thank you for the lovely note you left for me -- coming from an artist such as yourself means a lot to me.
comment byZero at 04:00 PM (GMT) on 18 February, 2004
Reminds me of something from the "retro future". You know, the way American's in the 50's imagined the future, cold and sterile... I mean that in a good way. :) It's nice.
It seems that no matter where you go the ‘speak here’ grill is a commonplace feature of many work environments. And while there’s an obvious logic for them in places like banks – where security is clearly an issue – there are many buildings where there presence says more about corporate culture than it does anything else. This one, for example, is embedded in the front window of our new departmental office – a place where students hand in their essays and ask questions such as “can you tell me where the Abnormal Psychology lecture is?”. And in the eight and a half years that I’ve been there I can’t remember a single hold up: “put all your unmarked stationary into this briefcase – now!”. It just doesn’t happen. So I don’t really know why it’s there.
That said, I think this is definitely one of the images I’ve taken recently that I’m most pleased with. Yesterday’s weighing-scale effort was a bit bland, my polygraph pictures were ok, but this one seems about as good as my vision will allow. I do have a thing for high contrast images, though there aren’t many on this site. But that’s more a consequence of not getting them quite right – normally. This time I’m pleased with the result.
capture date
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
focal length
image quality
white balance
optical filter
9.10am on 17/2/04
f3.5
1/50
program AE
+0.0
evaluative
50
10.2mm
RAW
auto
B+W UV 010
thanks for your comment! i can say exactly the same thing about your pic!
That's a beautiful shot indeed! Great sharpness and contrast. Most of all, I like the diagonal composition of it all. Subtle Symmetry ;-)
Great composition. I like the new site layout. Well done.
Wonderful. You have taken a subject that is normally not even noticable and created a wonderul photo. I love the angle of the shot and the sharp contrast. Was it hand held? Do you touch up in photoshop or is this out of the camera, cropped and saved as a jpeg? Great work, your site is a pleasure to visit.
Thanks: for both the comments on this image and the new site layout.
Tom: this was shot in RAW format, wasn't cropped (I'm aiming to post the shots I take rather than crop them afterwards), but was adjusted in PS as a 16 bit image: Levels, quite a strong Curves adjustment, some minor 'cleaning up' in the top right of the image (where some dirt on the window caugh the light – which was distracting), and then desaturated. Then, it was reduced to 700x525px using Fred Miranda's Web Presenter Pro plugin, sharpened slightly (with an Unsharp Mask setting of around 100, 0.3, 0), and then saved using PS's Save for Web option (80% quality and an embedded colour profile).
And yes, it was handheld.
I love the detail in this photograph. Very vivid. Nice contrast as well.
ohh I like this chrome ;] very nice framing, pozdrawiam ;-)
I love this! Thank you for the lovely note you left for me -- coming from an artist such as yourself means a lot to me.
Reminds me of something from the "retro future". You know, the way American's in the 50's imagined the future, cold and sterile... I mean that in a good way. :) It's nice.