Aurora, Indiana

I shot this last November, on one of my "walkabouts". I thought the building was really cool, but the conditions for photographing it couldn't have been much worse! I was backed up against the building across the street with my zoom set as wide as it would go, and still I would have liked to get a little more in around the building. The sun was more behind the building than in front of it, resulting in blown out sky, even after recovering all I could from the RAW file. I didn't have my tripod handy, so no HDR.


So, the photo sat for months. The other day I lit into it with a vengeance, and after a whole lot of work got this, which I still have some mixed feelings about. I straightened out the barrel distortion and convergence with PTLens. Then I cloned in some nice sky where needed, cloned out a whole lot of wires, pasted in a different setting on the left side, cloned out some sort of structure on the top, and did the usual color and tone adjustments to everything. I'm not sure it was worth it. You tell me. It is kind of a cool building, though.

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Posted by Dave Geyer on Wed, 02/13/08 12:29
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Comments by Dave Geyer on Wed, 02/13/08 12:30


Here's the original I had to work with, for comparison.


Comments by Linda Frey on Wed, 02/13/08 12:55

Excellent work, Dave. I like the colour you found in a fairly dull original.

I was wondering what hay grinding was, but I suppose the grinding and mixing refers to grain, not hay.


Comments by Jan Bjorklund on Wed, 02/13/08 13:30

What a find and I do like the changes that you were able to incorporate into the original image. The original picture is interesting for me just because of its nature but the posted image comes to life (I have the sense of viewing a painting... the completed work has that feel for me). It would have been interesting to have been able to take this picture with some people on the platform or perhaps a vehicle being backed up to the dock being loaded or unloaded. A real find in my mind and you have treated it well to bring it to life.


Comments by Julie M. Dant on Wed, 02/13/08 13:35

Well I think it was definately worth all your efforts, Dave! It's a mystery to me how you made the building stand up straight and tall like you did. It's a wonderful photo! I love it, and you DID make it come alive as Jan noted above. ;0)


Comments by Dave Geyer on Wed, 02/13/08 14:09

Well, thank you Linda, Jan, and Julie! I guess it was worth it! It makes it worth while to get positive feedback like this, and I thank you again!


Linda: I have no idea what hay grinding is, or if they meant grain. Maybe someone from the Midwest would know.


Julie: The perspective correction was all done with a $15.00 Photoshop plugin from PTLens (google it). Probably the best fifteen bucks I ever spent on digital imaging software.


Jan: Ask, and Ye shall receive. Here are some real, live, people working on the loading dock - and this one was much easier to process!! There were no cars or trucks at the time, but I preferred it that way personally.




Comments by John Long on Wed, 02/13/08 15:58

Very impressive Dave - you certainly achieved a high level of corrective manipulation here and you should be congratulated for your efforts!
An interesting building indeed!


Comments by John Wise on Wed, 02/13/08 16:09

My hats off to you, Dave! Great results. I think more than I would have undertaken.


Comments by G.B. SHETTLER on Wed, 02/13/08 18:29

Good JoB, Dave. And I like the added post with the Funk's Hybrid sign .


Comments by Dave Geyer on Wed, 02/13/08 20:30

Thanks guys! I'm still not sure that putting this much time into this image was the best idea I ever had. But, now that I've done it, I'm glad to have the picture.


Comments by Mo Fridlich on Wed, 02/13/08 22:01

Good shot and excellent work! Love the people shot too.


Comments by Rory Hudson on Thu, 02/14/08 04:17

It certainly is an interesting tableau of quaint signs and designs with a lot of character and it all comes together as an effective composition. Good reworking of the original. The only thing that bothers me a bit is the sky - it looks a bit odd to me, but maybe that's just how things are over there!


Comments by Dave Geyer on Thu, 02/14/08 05:14

Thank you Mo, and Rory! We do get some interesting skies here. This is the piece of the other image that I took most of the cloned in sky from, unmanipulated but shot at a much faster shutter speed (underexposed). The cloned in parts look close to this, but they do show some repetitive patterns I suppose from cloning.


Comments by Ruth Rittichier on Thu, 02/14/08 08:47

Well worth the work to reveal a timeless and interesting structure. Selecting the sky, feathering it and pasting in the sky from the other image would not be so noticeable.


Comments by Dave Geyer on Thu, 02/14/08 10:31

Thank you Ruth. Yes, that would have been a better way had it been possible. Unfortunately the piece of "good" sky I had to work with was only a fraction of the size of the area I had to fill. I would have had to paste it in several times, and then smooth out the seams. I think it would have come out about the same as it did.

Since this seems to be something I may do again, next chance I get I'll do what the 19th century wet plate photographers used to do: I'll go out and take some full frame pictures of interesting skies to use in situations like this.

If the sky is really troublesome in this image, I could just tone it down a little (less contrast and saturation in the sky only). I actually "printed" the sky down and increased the contrast to make it more dramatic. Perhaps that is what is troublesome to some.


Comments by Michael Hibbitts on Thu, 02/14/08 11:29

Was interested in your technique and the focal range - similar to your shot here, if you're ever in Mitchell, SD and want to photograph the "Corn Palace" (why else would you be in Mitchell,SD?) you'll need a 14mm or have to composite the structure, my 17mm wasn't wide enough unless I stood on a roof across the street. You did a good job of getting everything in and correcting the faults as well!! Good work!


Comments by Maria Salvador on Thu, 02/14/08 17:03

Got a great result from that original! And I like the last one too. Very interesting building and detail.


Comments by DebbiK on Sun, 02/17/08 00:19

you did amazing post-processing work here. I'd say it was definitely worth it (not knowing what you gave up on the other end). The colors are wonderful and the image itself is very interesting.