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Anybody any comments on the two pictures below?


It's a local school which is about to be demolished - prefab lasts only so long. I like the way these buildings have very defined planes and rhythms which sometimes interlock and sometimes jar. I also like the mix of standardised parts and ad hoc joinery/ repairs/ decorations, which gives the ensemble great texture.
I look forward to hearing what you make of them and what you think could be improved. Thanks for looking,
Charles

Could these be suitable candidates for lith printing?

Before you mentioned it I looked at the first picture and thought "School" It's so common of the comprehensive type architecture.

I think the first one is an exercise in angles and lead-in lines - you've got a kind of L-shape which leads you from bottom left, up the steps and takes you past the buildings behind. From an architect's point of view, you've got a decent shadow on the rear wall (corridor to the gym or main hall?) - apparently it's something they have to get at a set angle when recording buildings (can't remember whether it's 45° or 60°).

The lighting's not bad but it might improve it if there was a bit more contrast in the sky and a slight overall darking to give it a bit more mood without overdoing it - keep the clouds light and fluffy but drop the blues down a few levels to give it some impact and take it away almost from the "another dreary day at school" feeling.

For the second one, please don't enter it in the "World's Worst Postcard" competition - you'd win by a mile I can see that you're trying to have a study on angles but it just doesn't excite me at all. It looks like it's the place in the school round the back where you weren't allowed to go - the entrance to the boiler room or substation...

P.S. wot, no watermark?

Thanks for your comments. I think you're basically both saying the same thing: the bottom end needs to be darker while maintaining the highlights. Jo and I were talking about the need for this in reference to Helen's light-house shot. There seems to be a demand for darker prints from traditional B&W'ists, and indeed it does look better even to my eyes(cultural baggage). Prints without the exaggerated shadows almost look too much like the real thing - they need to be more artificial.
I am also interested in the lith comment. Do folk on the forum have suggestions on how to mimick this printing technique in Photoshop? Is there a source for methods which ape other darkroom techniques?
Finally no watermark. No, well, I have realised how inadequate my scanner is and realise that my scans would not help anyone. Plus the fact that I know these pictures are not great (although, like you Andrew, I like the first one; the second was posted to see whether anybody out there might have a different view and might actually like it).
I have put them here in the hope of getting comments on how to my technique. So thanks Andrew.
Here's a re-jig for your appraisal:

Charles

Hmm - I don't consider myself to be in a position to offer anything other than personal opinion - and to that end, I prefer the second version...although I like the framing anyway.
A

Charles,

The blacks look a bit deeper now and it doesn't look a "lightweight" print so much.

It's not something can do with this negative but do you think the upright near corner of the taller building almost splits the picture into two halves? I've been trying to work out whether it would be possible to move left a bit and rotate to the right to put the buliding corner off to the right hand side but still keep the lead-through of the steps... Putting the corner towards the RHS third may mean that the steps are getting very much to the right of the picture and you're startiing to separate the foreground and background (steps on RHS if you move to the left which opens up the middle ground between the steps and building) and then the steps lead you up into nothing.

Anyone still following this?

Does the sky darken a bit? It's possibly the monitors but I suspect the highlights may be blown in the clouds - would histogram and curves rescue these and put a bit more detail and contrast in?


Andrew

I'm sure there was once an article in Black & White Photography on digital lith, but I've no idea when.

This version (I'll take it down anytime you like) I converted to Greyscale and then whacked up the black in Curves. Then a Duotone, then Add Noise, then Surface Blur, and back to RGB. That's a quick and dirty approach lacking subtlety, but it seems to get close(ish).

There's a section in The Digital Printing Handbook by Tim Daly on creating darkroom effects with digital, and it includes a recipe for creating lith printing effects using curves.

I believe Tony Worobiec has also brought out a book very recently on digital black and white printing which includes alternative processes, haven't seen it yet though.

On the subject of blacks...I went to a John Blakemore seminar recently and he has produced a body of work with no blacks at all - very high key and quite surreal. He advocates 'what if' as a principle for developing one's artistic side.