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TheFlyingCamera

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One of my first negatives from the new 5x12, of an old roadside garage in rural Maryland.

I'd appreciate all feedback on this image - does it work for you, does it not- and how/why. I'm playing around with this format, and getting used to it. I've shot some 35mm pano stuff with my Xpan, but this is a very different animal.
Location
Rural Maryland
Equipment Used
Canham 5x12, Fujinon 250 f6.7
Exposure
unrecorded
Film & Developer
Ilford FP4+, Pyrocat HD 1:1:100
Paper & Developer
Bergger COT320, 5 PT: 8PD, PotOx
Lens Filter
N/A
Scott, I like the overall picture, I think panoramic is more akin to how we see.

As it is presented it doesn't grab me. I believe that the top R/H corner where the building slopes down and you see the B/ground, needs to be cropped. I would also crop the extreme R/H side by a few mm, that vertical is distracting and lighter than the wall alongside it.

I would crop what looks like a telegraph pole coming out of a tree on the L/H side, leaving the rest of the tree in.

My final bit of cropping is the tall weed growing out of the crack leading from the door, L/H side as you view it. This crop may not be needed, but I feel it may add strength to the composition. The concrete could start to take over as a dominant part of the picture and by restricting this largish light part of the composition, your attention will be forced back to the building, which I feel, is what you wish for.

Finally, on my monitor this looks a bit flat, perhaps a slight increase in grade selection or perhaps a slight pull in exposure, may give this a slight lift in snap.

My thoughts, Mick.
 
Mick- thanks for the feedback. This is a 5"x12" contact print in platinum. Some of the flatness you perceive is my scanning skills, and some of it is the inherent quality of the medium. The picture itself was a little bit rushed in the setup, because directly behind the camera position (about 1 meter away) was a country road, which was pretty busy for a country road.
 
What Mick is calling cropping I would call issues of composition and carefull camera placement as you are probably interested in using the whole film area for contact printing.

I agree with Mick that the slope on the right roof line is distracting. Also the exclusion of any end or frame to the window on the left unbalances the picture to the window on the right. the open expanse of the glass on the left just sort of empties out of the frame.

Make a composition card. Cut a 5x12 rectangle out of a large piece of stiff black plastic or cardboard. This will allow you really explore a scene and get a feel for where to set up the camera and what the compositional challenges of a specific scene are and help decide if it is worth exposing film.
 
I don't feel qualified to comment on the composition but for me it's largely fine in the sense that for me it's an old abandoned building which doesn't have enough to put it into context. Changes to composition isn't going to alter this for me.

As a stand alone it's a pity that there isn't anything to help identify it as an old garage. It could be any old building. I am left with the feeling that there is more here than I am allowed to see and if only I had a wider angle.... I hope I am making sense here in trying to get over my reaction to the print.

Might not matter if it was one shot in a series of shots on rural Maryland and abandoned businesses

It is a little flat but then this suits the subject of a neglected, uncared for, yesterday's business.

pentaxuser
 
Scott,
I like this composition a lot. Almost symetrical but not quite. It seems tilted to the right a bit?

Cheers,
Bill
 
Bill- the camera was level and square. I think it is the building that has slumped irregularly across the entire structure. If you look carefully, none of the window frames or door frames are parallel to each other. I tried to get the door frame as close to true vertical as possible without the camera being un-leveled.
 

Media information

Category
Critique Gallery
Added by
TheFlyingCamera
Date added
View count
592
Comment count
6
Rating
0.00 star(s) 0 ratings

Image metadata

Filename
gfreshpano.jpg
File size
107 KB
Date taken
Sun, 19 August 2007 12:00 AM
Dimensions
650px x 279px

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