Reichstag
I shot this panorma some time ago while on a business trip to Germany. I managed to get into Berlin one evening and subsequently took a lot of pictures of the architecture. I've put more effort in to this picture than it was really worth on the basis that I've learnt a lot while producing it. It was three images handheld at 18mm x 1.6 crop factor. There was some significant mismatching in the stones making up the foreground which I've repaired although if you look really carefully you might just be able to spot an oddity that I've left in! The image has also changed a lot since it started. I started off doing it in colour with a natural look (it was taken in the early evening so it was lightened a bit). I then started going with a bit more of a fantasy look with more of an overdone HDR look (although looking at some peoples HDRs you have to wonder whether there is a limit to how far you can push them into fantasy-land). The final image is obviously black and white and I'm personally more happy with it this way. Taking this image through a process of evolution has been interesting in making me more aware of what sort of look I like and given me lots of (not necessarily wanted) practice at masking!
IF YOU USE FIREFOX YOU MAY HAVE TO FIRST 'ZOOM OUT' OF THE IMAGE TO DISPLAY IT AT FULL SIZE.
Original panorama size = 5100px x 1738px
- kat's blog
- Login to post comments
- 6028 reads
Comments
Reichstag
I don't usually like black and white, being brought up in an era where it was the only option available for film or photo but I prefer this. It suits the subject and gives it an air of menace. I found the flagpoles deviation from vertical interesting. Presumably it is an unavoidable side effect of such a large panorama. In my opinion, the picture could be marginally improved by including the feet of the person with the tripod taking a picture of the building but perhaps that was not in your original shots. It's only a personal preference, to have a photo including someone taking a picture of the same building. I'm surprised it wasn't bombed but is this a rebuild in the original style? Anyone know? A quick Google search seems to suggest it is an original.
Have a look at
http://christojeanneclaude.net/wr.html
It shows pictures of the building in a different light.
Feet et al..
I prefer the black and white as well. One of the guys on the panorama forums I'm a member of uploaded a version where the verticals were all straightened. I must admit that I didn't like that as much. The non-vertical verticals make the viewpoint seem quite low so you're looking up to the building which is quite imposing and impressive (something I'm sure the original designers were going for). With the verticals actually vertical I felt that the viewpoint was very much higher and the building didn't look nearly as impressive.
I wish I had the feet as well but unfortunately I didn't get them in the shot :-(
Wikipedia has a picture of the Reichstag as it looked in 1945 after the bombing. It seems like they rebuilt it extensively. You may be able to see some of this in the photo as I noticed that some of the columns don't have the same stone pattterns in that others do. Maybe this indicates that they were a later addition?