Project - Monochrome Architectural Long Exposures...

[Remorhaz]

I'm embarking on a new photographic project with a group of local photographers - each working toward a combined goal to produce a body of work to present at an exhibition together. Our work for this project is to be centred around a fairly open ended theme titled "Odyssey".

My personal take on the theme is to depict scenes showing the passage of natural time juxtaposed against unyielding man-made static objects. I aim to produce a body of work centred around very simplified views of sharply defined man made structures (essentially buildings, etc) set in a long exposure scene where the motion of natural objects show the motion of time - in most cases I expect this to be the streaking of moving clouds or water over many minutes. I plan to find and shoot the subjects and process to monochrome over the next six to twelve months.

The following are my first two test shots to give an idea of my thinking. I likely wont be able to get a consistent monochrome conversion, crop or compositional style till I've shot quite a number of potential images and get a feel for what will work best but I am interested in your feedback on either/both the concept in general and the samples (compositionally and processing)

Angles


Lines and Curves

[chrisk]

depict scenes showing the passage of natural time juxtaposed against unyielding man-made static objects.

WTF !!! Lmao
Can't tell you how hard that made me laugh...oh man...great stuff !!

The first image is really interesting. I like it alot.
What I like more is you constantly coming up with new ideas. Kudos to you mate.

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

[sirhc55]

Angles, lighting, subject and post treatment all work for these images. Well done.

[zafra52]

Unfortunately they appear too dark on my screen.

[Matt. K]

Rodney
First of all, congratulations on articulating your project so eloquently using the language of the media. This is precisely the degree of abstract you would be required to use if you were studying photography at an academic level, (something you might well be doing?).
I think it's a great theme and the 2 examples you have posted are superb. They are beautiful images and stand on their own merits, that is, require no further description. You may face 2 challenges in your project...first, to suggest the passage of time behind, over or within your static image without confusing that for simple weather blurred in the background. To solve that you might have to use blurred people, vehicles animals etc....or better, a clock with buttery hands.

Secondly, you would need to find static, man made structures that within themselves have enough variety to keep the project interesting. If you can do this and maintain the image quality you have exhibited with the 2 images above then you will have an exhibition.
The images don't look too dark on my screen. I like the mystery the tonal range hints at. PS...you might consider shooting in square, (classical), format as a unifying element.

I'd also like to attend the exhibition.

[Remorhaz]

depict scenes showing the passage of natural time juxtaposed against unyielding man-made static objects.

WTF !!! Lmao
Can't tell you how hard that made me laugh...oh man...great stuff !!

I know - fluffy arty sh*t hey

it sounded better than "shooting bits of buildings with blurry clouds behind them"

Unfortunately they appear too dark on my screen.

Yep they do appear a little darker in the JPEG form that the originals in Lightroom but I was going for a darkish sort of mood with a hint of detail as the "style"

First of all, congratulations on articulating your project so eloquently using the language of the media. This is precisely the degree of abstract you would be required to use if you were studying photography at an academic level, (something you might well be doing?).

Cheers Matt - no but see my response to Chris above

You may face 2 challenges in your project...first, to suggest the passage of time behind, over or within your static image without confusing that for simple weather blurred in the background. To solve that you might have to use blurred people, vehicles animals etc....or better, a clock with buttery hands. Secondly, you would need to find static, man made structures that within themselves have enough variety to keep the project interesting.

Yep - I don't think we have a real set number to have but personally I was thinking no more than maybe a dozen images myself which I think should give me enough limitations to have a variety without having to go too radical. But I get your point and may have to think of some other elements other than clouds and water as the natural blur - I also considered people and may do that but I don't really want to include entire environmental scenes (if you get my drift) and was thinking of just having more detailed sections of structures with nothing else

PS...you might consider shooting in square, (classical), format as a unifying element.
I'd also like to attend the exhibition.

Yep square crop was definitely on the cards - but I'd need to plan for this beforehand e.g. would work well with the first but I'd have to reshoot the second with the view to cropping for example
And sure if it does happen I'll post the details

[Remorhaz]

and to give some ideas - my square crops (the second image actually worked OK) and I did a little rework of the processing and a touch of dodge and burn

[Glen]

Very impressive ambition and photos. I don't feel qualified to say it, but I fear a simpleton like myself may (as Matt suggested) not really see any passage of time as easily by shadows or water. Maybe some ND filters to get just a bit of movement from people or similar? Like the images.

[Matt. K]

Square format seems to suit. It is not the easiest format to work with but when it suits...it suits perfectly.

[Remorhaz]

Very impressive ambition and photos. I don't feel qualified to say it, but I fear a simpleton like myself may (as Matt suggested) not really see any passage of time as easily by shadows or water. Maybe some ND filters to get just a bit of movement from people or similar? Like the images.

Thanks Glen - fyi ND filters were used here (roughly 12 stops worth for these photos - the Lee BigStopper (10 stop ND) + a CPL)

[biggerry]

Ahh, this explains a few things

Rodney, it's a good project to take onboard, it's a theme that is quite popular and you can really draw on others for inspiration and ideas to be able to push your own take on the concept. As mentioned, Matthias Haltenhof (www.matthiashaltenhof.de) has some really classic stunning images in this genre and is someone who you could really draw inspiration from.

Nathan Wirth is another (http://www.nlwirth.com/), also take a look at his inspiration from which there are several well known and amazing artists.

The hard thing with the whole project, and not necessarily a golden aim i guess - is to differentiate your images from others in the same genre, that said and this is only my opinion, for something that is a personal project, satisfaction in the images within your self rather than what popular culture dictates is a far more worthy.

On that note, i will leave no comment on the actual images, i would much rather see the final product/exhibition untainted by external view

[Geoff M]

Very well executed and an inspirational project. Great work as usual Rodney.

[Remorhaz]

Ahh, this explains a few things

Not as much as you think but yes (I'd wanted to do the architectural long exposures first (when I first mentioned it to you) but when the idea of the project (Odyssey) came up last week I thought I could shoehorn it in by making up some fluffy arty crap to explain it (as you saw ))

Thanks heaps for the info Gerry...

Matthias Haltenhof

- nice stuff - quite like many of his - and they are all square and have deep blacks like I like. I don't want to fake the clouds tho like I reckon he's done in a few of his images - which means not only do I(/we:)) need to find places - need to wait for the right day with the right conditions based on that location - with a bit of serendipity thrown in of course

Nathan Wirth

- didn't really click with much if any of his stuff

The hard thing with the whole project, and not necessarily a golden aim i guess - is to differentiate your images from others in the same genre, that said and this is only my opinion, for something that is a personal project, satisfaction in the images within your self rather than what popular culture dictates is a far more worthy

Note that I'm not specifically interested in or worried about being the same or different to anyone else's images in the genre - I mostly just want to make images I like and feel proud of and that work together as a whole along with working individually ... but... that said...

On that note, i will leave no comment on the actual images, i would much rather see the final product/exhibition untainted by external view

... I am interested in the opinions of others to see if they think I'm heading in a useful track and any suggestions they may offer (which I may or may not listen to )

I actually don't think I'll have a problem with finding buildings/structures/compositions/etc that I like - I've got lots of ideas of things I want which I can see in my mind's eye if you like.
What I probably most need help with is refining the overall processing style (given that once I've set it I plan to make a preset in Lightroom for it so that the overall mono conversion is consistent across the whole set of images with tinkering adjustments (e.g. dodge, burn, etc) added on top.
e.g. how contrasty do I go? do I go all black and white only or do I give them a slight silvery/platinum tone (which is what I've done with the ones above - but I think I probably like the straight black - I'll post up a black conversion for comparison (pretty much everything else the same except the toning)? do I go for totally black skies or leave some tone there? etc
Plus slight compositional tinkering (if I go square but obviously shoot 3:2 then I've got some room for moving the square around a little in post)?

[CraigVTR]

Unfortunately they appear too dark on my screen.

What I probably most need help with is refining the overall processing style (given that once I've set it I plan to make a preset in Lightroom for it so that the overall mono conversion is consistent across the whole set of images with tinkering adjustments (e.g. dodge, burn, etc) added on top.
e.g. how contrasty do I go? do I go all black and white only or do I give them a slight silvery/platinum tone (which is what I've done with the ones above - but I think I probably like the straight black - I'll post up a black conversion for comparison (pretty much everything else the same except the toning)? do I go for totally black skies or leave some tone there? etc
Plus slight compositional tinkering (if I go square but obviously shoot 3:2 then I've got some room for moving the square around a little in post)?

What needs to be considered when deciding on how they look on the screen and how to process the shots is to how and what medium they will end up being printed. The result you get when printed may be subtlety different than the tone you see on you monitor depending on the paper you use and where you have them printed. It may be useful to work right through the process to completed print on one of your samples with different settings and papers to allow you to then set up your process to get the consistent results for all the shots.

[zafra52]

I like the square format better

[stubbsy]

Rodney

Big call here, but I think these are amongst the finest images I've seen from you. And that's saying a lot since you've shared some awesome work. I like the dreamy, dark, moody abstract composition and think the square crop nails it. I can see these hanging in a fine art gallery. Congratulations.

[Remorhaz]

Big call here, but I think these are amongst the finest images I've seen from you. And that's saying a lot since you've shared some awesome work. I like the dreamy, dark, moody abstract composition and think the square crop nails it. I can see these hanging in a fine art gallery. Congratulations.

Thanks Peter - that means a lot - and this (I can see these hanging in a fine art gallery) is what I'm aiming for for these - perhaps, maybe, if I can do it right