Smithsonian Air & Space Annex
Apr 28, 2020 01:02:42 #
mwsilvers
Loc: Central New Jersey
This was taken at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the annex to the Air & Space museum in Chantilly VA. It was a cloudy day with mediocre light. The edits included, among others, straightening the verticals and removal of a large number of distracting objects to create a clean, stark, and somewhat futuristic feel. There are a few artifacts as a result of the removed objects and I will eventually get around to cleaning them up. As always I was using DXO PlotoLab Elite.
Apr 28, 2020 02:23:15 #
Apr 28, 2020 05:11:40 #
To my eye the heavy processing technique has resulted in the sky overpowering the image to the detriment of the building. The road is leading the eye directly out of the image. Suggest a crop in from the right making it a square picture and backing up the sliders on the sky.
Apr 28, 2020 05:42:14 #
mwsilvers wrote:
.....clean, stark, and somewhat futuristic....
(Don't lose too much in the sky. Backing off Contrast would probably be enough).
Apr 28, 2020 08:04:29 #
I like your idea of a futuristic feel, Mark. For me the road is competing with the building, mainly because it seems so 20th century 
Have you tried any cropping, and if yes, what prompted your decision for this result? Thanks!
Have you tried any cropping, and if yes, what prompted your decision for this result? Thanks!Apr 28, 2020 08:07:45 #
Apr 28, 2020 09:16:26 #
mwsilvers
Loc: Central New Jersey
Toleman wrote:
To my eye the heavy processing technique has resulted in the sky overpowering the image to the detriment of the building. The road is leading the eye directly out of the image. Suggest a crop in from the right making it a square picture and backing up the sliders on the sky.
Yes, thanks for the comment. That was exactly my point. I was going for an ominous sky and a road disappearing into the unknown. It was intended as a somewhat cold and bleak vision of the future, not just an architectural image. The road is supposed to lead your eye out of it, as you found.
Apr 28, 2020 09:33:45 #
mwsilvers
Loc: Central New Jersey
Linda From Maine wrote:
I like your idea of a futuristic feel, Mark. For me the road is competing with the building, mainly because it seems so 20th century Have you tried any cropping, and if yes, what prompted your decision for this result? Thanks!
Have you tried any cropping, and if yes, what prompted your decision for this result? Thanks!I thought about the road a lot. You say it seems so 20th century, but, sometimes I have to step back and realize that we are already 20 years into the 21th century! Roads haven't changed much in the last 75 years. I suspect they may not change much in the next 50 or so years which is the future I was envisioning. I didn't mean to imply that this was intended hundreds of years in the future. The road trailing off and being cut off abruptly was intentional to create the mood I was intending.
Apr 28, 2020 09:36:34 #
mwsilvers wrote:
Very helpful; thanks so much for the peek into your brain I thought about the road a lot. You say it seems so 20th century, but, sometimes I have to step back and realize that we are already 20 years into the 21th century! Roads haven't changed much in at the last 75 years. I suspect they may not change much in the next 50 or so years which is the future I was envisioning. I didn't mean to imply that this was intended hundreds of years in the future. The road trailing off and being cut off abruptly was intentional to create the mood I was intending.
Apr 28, 2020 09:43:30 #
mwsilvers
Loc: Central New Jersey
Linda From Maine wrote:
Very helpful; thanks so much for the peek into your brain
The goal was to draw the viewer's eye along the road, past the starkness of the cold looking silvered building with no signs of human activity, into the unknown. It is an integral part of the image, not an artifact. You will note that at the very bottom of the image the road is actually a bit more than half the width of the entire image. That was purposeful. The road is just as important as the building.
Apr 28, 2020 10:53:22 #
Apr 29, 2020 01:04:13 #
Apr 29, 2020 10:59:20 #
I feel that the sky adds to the starkness of the image. Agreeing with Linda, removing the road would add to your futuristic vision.
Apr 29, 2020 12:04:12 #
mwsilvers
Loc: Central New Jersey
drobvit wrote:
I feel that the sky adds to the starkness of the image. Agreeing with Linda, removing the road would add to your futuristic vision.
I intended this image to tell a story. The image represents the not too distant future and the road is an integral part of it. As stated earlier I wanted the viewer's eyes to follow the road past the stark, cold, almost lifeless, image of the building, off the picture to an unseen and uncertain destination. If I remove the road I'm left with just an architectural image which was not my purpose at all. I've shown this image to a lot of people over the last few weeks. Some understood the sense of foreboding I was attempting to convey, some didn't. It's all good.
Apr 29, 2020 13:39:11 #
mwsilvers wrote:
I intended this image to tell a story. The image r... (show quote)
👍 All is well. I read your response to Linda.
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