Delft - Revisited

[Prospero]

Hello everyone,

Back in December I took some pictures in Delft, the city in which I go to university; here is the old thread: http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?p=182087#post182087. Back then the weather was entirely overcast, so I definitly wanted to go back again in better weather.

Today the weather was very nice and I had a free afternoon, so I decided to take my camera with me to Delft and take some pictures. Again, like my pictures of The Hague lately, I used HDR techniques on some of the shots.

I hope you will all enjoy my pictures. More can be found on my flickr site. Comments and criticism will be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Dennis

#1: The Markt - The Market

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#2: Channel through Delft (HDR)

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#3: Kerkstraat - Church Street (HDR)

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#4: Church by the Bridge

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#5: The Windmill of DelftRed

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#6: building facing the oldest channel of town

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#7: Saint Jan's Church

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#8: De Oude Delft (HDR)

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#9: Doves on the Markt

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[jcon]

You know how much I love your photos, I dont think I have ever said anything bad about them before... until now:o


The first picture looks strange, to me. The buildings are leaning towards the background and its quite distracting. In the same picture, the buildings on the right look dark and the ones on the left look well lit. Maybe that had to do with the position of the sun?

With the one negtive thing out of the way, those 2 B&Ws are incredible! They look like something straight out of a movie, but better! Over all you did very well, yet again. I just cant say enough about those 2 B&Ws! Thanks for sharing!

What a beautiful place!

[Gsquared]

Kudos Dennis... I love the way you capture water reflections!

[Rooz]

i love #8.:)

but tell me, whats the deal with the distortion in the buildings in #1 ?? is that an effect or lens barrell or what ?? :confused:

[tcadwall]

Awesome AGAIN!

I understand the distortion in #1. Yes it could be straightened in post, but I kinda like the effect. Wouldn't it require a PC lens and a lot more work to correct it on capture? Not barrel distortion, it is just the perspective.

The only thing that looked weird to me, was the windmill shot... Does it look like it is falling over in real life or is that a perspective thing? Unusual look if perspective, unless the pic is cropped to center it.

[Prospero]

Thanks for the replys Jason, Rooz, Tracey and GSquared.

Jason, thanks for the critique. I appreciate it, helps me to improve. The difference in brightness of the two sides of the square is indeed caused by the position of the sun (it was to the right of the square). For the sky this position is great, since the polarizer works best when pointed 90 degrees from the sun. However, the effect on the buildings is not so good. The scene would probably have been better later in the afternoon.

The leaning of buildings is indeed perspective, which comes from pointing the ultra wide upwards. Keeping it horizontal eliminates vertical perspective, but in this case I couldn't really keep it that way without cropping of the top of the tower. I could have stepped back, but in this case I took the picture that way intentionally. I feel that the perspective contributes to the picture, making the scene more dramatic (though perhaps to the point that it gets distracting).

Tcadwal is right, you can also get rid of the effect with a PC lens, but I don't think there is an ultra wide one for a dSLR (due to crop factor). It can be fixed in photoshop as well.

Tcadwall, the windmill is not falling over. It is again perspective, but the lower side was cropped (there was nothing interesting there, only pavement).

Gsquared, I used my polarizer to enhance the reflections. Also, blending the exposures in the HDRs helped a lot, because it brightened the reflections and removed some of the ripple in the water.

[herc182]

I like the leaning of the buildings. Its creative. Like you said, you could fix that on the PC but it adds a sense of perspective. Good shooting.

I of course like the HDR ;)

THe black and white can make them look even more stunning.

Its a talent :D

[Kellie]

Just amazing!! I like the perspective in these shots. I love the color in #2 and the B&Ws have so much depth and feeling.

I really enjoy looking at your photos - they are very inspirational. Thank you for sharing!

[Prospero]

Just amazing!! I like the perspective in these shots. I love the color in #2 and the B&Ws have so much depth and feeling.

I really enjoy looking at your photos - they are very inspirational. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks a lot for the compliments, Herc and Kellie.

[coldrain]

Very nice photos again, prospero!

I would have tried the 1st photo portrait style, and the 2nd one looks all weird and fake, strange colours that make it look like an old fashioned coloured in post card...
But I really like the rest a lot.

Very inspiring! I live in Eindhoven, not so beautiful... but I will surely try to make some nice photos from around here, inspired by you.

Hmm... we should team up and start a travel photo agency, haha.

[Prospero]

Very nice photos again, prospero!

I would have tried the 1st photo portrait style, and the 2nd one looks all weird and fake, strange colours that make it look like an old fashioned coloured in post card...
But I really like the rest a lot.

Very inspiring! I live in Eindhoven, not so beautiful... but I will surely try to make some nice photos from around here, inspired by you.

Hmm... we should team up and start a travel photo agency, haha.

Thanks Coldrain
Travel photo agency LOL. I like the thought of that. If you pay for the travels ;).

I have a portrait shot of the tower as well, but from much closer so it has the same perspective issues. Next time I'm there I'll try a portrait shot from the position I was standing with the first one. The colours in the second are caused by merging multiple exposures. I still find it a bit difficult to get the result to look natural.

Have fun shooting in Eindhoven. Though it might not be the most interesting place for photography, I am looking forward to seeing the results.

[Kellie]

Very nice photos again, prospero!
and the 2nd one looks all weird and fake, strange colours that make it look like an old fashioned coloured in post card...


That is exactly why I like the second one so much. It isn't what you would expect. I thought that was intentional. LOL

[Prospero]

Kellie, it wasn't entirely unintentional either. The colours are unnatural, but that is not to say I didn't like the effect. I guess that's just a matter of taste. I kind of like the colourfull surreal effect, but I can well imagine that somebody does not.

Anyway, I made a more natural conversion as well, which one do you prefer?

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[tcadwall]

which one do you prefer?
I like the sky more on the first one. But I like the street level more on the recent one. Also the first one seems to have that deal with the trees, where the tops of the trees show so much contrast (look darker) and the lower parts of the trunk are more exposed. I know it is the tendency of HDR, but sometimes I see this come out just right. NOt sure if people photoshop to blend it, or if it shows up less with more exposures, etc.

[Kellie]

This is purely from a non-technical point of view, but although the new edit you posted looks more natural, I still prefer the "other wordly" feel of the original one. :)

[jcon]

To me, the latest one looks too saturated, the reds realy distract the picture. Just my opinion:D

[Prospero]

I like the sky more on the first one. But I like the street level more on the recent one. Also the first one seems to have that deal with the trees, where the tops of the trees show so much contrast (look darker) and the lower parts of the trunk are more exposed. I know it is the tendency of HDR, but sometimes I see this come out just right. NOt sure if people photoshop to blend it, or if it shows up less with more exposures, etc.

Yes, the stuff with darkening trees is anoying to get rid of. It has something to do with the setting involving the smoothening the tone-map, but I haven't figured out how to adjust it to get rid of it. It seems the tone-compression method of Photomatix does not suffer from this.

I created a third version by using the sky of the first and houses and the rest of the second. I blended them in photoshop. I also desatured the reds a bit ;) . I think this version has the best of both:

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This is purely from a non-technical point of view, but although the new edit you posted looks more natural, I still prefer the "other wordly" feel of the original one. :).

Thanks for your reply. I am not sure which one I like best myself. The second or third looks technically better. However, the non-technical aspects of a picture are to me just as important, so that makes me doubt which one I like best.

[Camerajunkie]

I didn't like picture #1 (the perspective thing.) Picture #2 was best in the last version of it (I really liked that one A LOT where I didn't like the first version.)

Now, if #3 got any better then I'd fall over from finally seeing perfection. That is one awesome shot. And a great b/w conversion. I liked the other b/w but I think the cars killed part of it.

Really, really awesome pictures!

CJ

[Prospero]

I didn't like picture #1 (the perspective thing.) Picture #2 was best in the last version of it (I really liked that one A LOT where I didn't like the first version.)

Now, if #3 got any better then I'd fall over from finally seeing perfection. That is one awesome shot. And a great b/w conversion. I liked the other b/w but I think the cars killed part of it.

Really, really awesome pictures!

CJ

Thanks a lot for your compliments and comments, CJ.

[Geoff Chandler]

I really enjoyed all these photos - particularly #9 not sure they are doves - they look like pidgeons.
As for the reworked one - I think I prefer the last one - but I am a bit biased towards more natural looking shots anyway
nice one - all of them!!

[Prospero]

I really enjoyed all these photos - particularly #9 not sure they are doves - they look like pidgeons.
As for the reworked one - I think I prefer the last one - but I am a bit biased towards more natural looking shots anyway
nice one - all of them!!

Thanks for your comments, Geoff. I think you're right about the pidgeons. In Dutch both a dove and a pidgeon are both called 'duif', so I wasn't sure which word to use.