Dark Architecture
Brian Auer
Brian Auer is a photographer currently living in North Idaho. As well as being a photographer he also works an a mechanical engineer. He started to develop an interest in 2003 when he was on vacation and wanted to capture a moment in time and keep it forever. Brian Auer experiments with different types of photograph with various styles. He owns a collect of different cameras from old to new as the effects vary from camera to camera. As well as digital photography he also takes film photography mainly in black and white as he thinks this is his strongest suit and has the best impact on a picture.
His photograph is called Dark Architecture, it is taken of a building on the Princeton Campus in New Jersey in November 2006 using a Konica Minolta MAXXUM 7D. As he is just a photography enthusiast and does photography as a hobby on the side of working, the work was not made for anything specific other than his personal collection and to share with others. ' My dad and I were doing a little exploring last time he was out for a visit. Some of the buildings there are really something to look at. It's hard to believe that they use these buildings on a regular basis'.
I chose this photograph as I am taking similar photographs as my theme is architecture. My main focus is on old buildings rather than new .
The size of the chapel itself is large but to make it look even bigger he shot it at 18mm with his 18-200mm lens. It has a barrel distortion at the low end so it causes the buildings verticals to converge from the perspective he was shooting at.
Originally he shot the photograph in colour then edited it to give it a daunting scary effect. He did this by working in photoshop. step 1 - changed the channel mixer to 0%red, 0% green, 100% blue. step 2 - created a mask to separate the sky form the building and branches. Once he had his mask he applied it to a levels adjustment layer for the building and boosted the contrast by bringing the white down to 137 and bringing the black up to 55 which clipped some of the shadows. Step 3 - He used the same mask to apply a curves adjustment layer to the building with a moderate 's' curve to separate the tones. Step 4 - He inverted the layer mask from the previous steps and applied it to a levels adjustment in which he brought the black point up to 223 and left the white at 225. Step 5 - He added a layer of vignetting and a tiny amount of sharpening to the sky.
I chose this image because it related to my theme of architecture, and as I am doing old buildings rather than new. My first reaction to this photograph was that I was amazed by it, I like the angle he took it at as it looks like it is over powering you and makes you feel small compared to the size of the building. The effect that he has added to the building makes it seem more daunting as the sky looks like there is a storm coming and the building is surrounded by trees makes it seem that it is in a forrest or a woodland area, making it feel as if it is an abandoned chapel. This place reminds me of a set out of a horror film where people find them selves hiding from something in a chapel which is haunted. I like how he hasn't included a lot of the trees but just enough to surround the building giving it a spooky effect.
Originally he shot the photograph in colour then edited it to give it a daunting scary effect. He did this by working in photoshop. step 1 - changed the channel mixer to 0%red, 0% green, 100% blue. step 2 - created a mask to separate the sky form the building and branches. Once he had his mask he applied it to a levels adjustment layer for the building and boosted the contrast by bringing the white down to 137 and bringing the black up to 55 which clipped some of the shadows. Step 3 - He used the same mask to apply a curves adjustment layer to the building with a moderate 's' curve to separate the tones. Step 4 - He inverted the layer mask from the previous steps and applied it to a levels adjustment in which he brought the black point up to 223 and left the white at 225. Step 5 - He added a layer of vignetting and a tiny amount of sharpening to the sky.
I chose this image because it related to my theme of architecture, and as I am doing old buildings rather than new. My first reaction to this photograph was that I was amazed by it, I like the angle he took it at as it looks like it is over powering you and makes you feel small compared to the size of the building. The effect that he has added to the building makes it seem more daunting as the sky looks like there is a storm coming and the building is surrounded by trees makes it seem that it is in a forrest or a woodland area, making it feel as if it is an abandoned chapel. This place reminds me of a set out of a horror film where people find them selves hiding from something in a chapel which is haunted. I like how he hasn't included a lot of the trees but just enough to surround the building giving it a spooky effect.
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