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Posted on 06/03/26 08:41:44 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7135 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
First to move into the apartment building this week was Ben Boardman, with an astonishingly realistic entry. Beautifully composed and lit, and I’m still trying to work out where you found so many people photographed below, from a distance. A glorious piece of work. Just one very small error: you’ve made the bottom of the billboard poster almost parallel with the bottom of the image, but remember we’re still looking up at this. I think you realised this in the more distant version. (Great sky, by the way.) The building seems to have vanished entirely in GKB's neatly patched entry. What can have happened to it? Ah – all becomes clear in the animated version. I like how the crane provides the sense of depth, and the architectural tremors are very effective. A very dramatic Tehran entry, with a particularly fine gilded cage at the top. Wouldn’t all that flame give the buildings a reddish tint? A touch of politics from Ant Snell, with the newly-renamed tower moving to what we presume is Epstein Island. Very imaginative and well-executed. There’s something a little odd about Trump and Mandelson in the foreground, but then there is something a little odd about both Trump and Mandelson. Acerbic comment from DavidMac, referencing the legend on the Statue of Liberty. Very nicely done. I’d have darkened the top of the rear section of barbed wire as it appears in front the tower, just to avoid that light fringing. I was going to say I hope your negative frame of mind improves, but later events of this week make it unlikely. A novel architectural approach from tooquilos, although the prospective residents might complain about the lack of windows. I like how you’ve replicated the building further down the street. Great to see them spinning in the animated version; maybe they should be corkscrewing up out of the ground? A glorious steampunk fantasy from dwindt, with the streetlight repurposed as a flying saucer. Beautifully composed, with all the elements blending together perfectly. Beautiful work. I’m intrigued by your source photograph – where did it come from? Collapsing architecture from lwc, as the crane appears to be bulling the whole building down. I like the detail of all the loose rubble falling out of the break. That’s a great group of people, but they’re obviously photographed in bright sunlight… tricky to change, I realise. The rebuilt apartment block is a good replacement, even if the perspective is a little extreme for its height. I see Mariner has proposed a new location for the controversial Chinese Embassy. It does fit in well on this street, and I like the fact of the reflections of the surrounding buildings. Just a couple of points: why are the reflections all blurred? I don’t think glass would do that. And the reflection of the building on the right of the frame is the wrong way round. From this angle the side of the embassy would be reflecting the side of that building, not the front: 
Entertained by your story of pretty little Polly Perkins. Perhaps you could perform the song for us at some point. |
Posted on 06/03/26 08:58:36 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3255 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
I tried three different reflections for each side, Steve, and none of them looked right. I finally lost patience and blurred them. Frankly I found the whole picture rather boring and nearly didn't publish at all. The only fun I got out of it was tracking down its location, which was very difficult as there were very few clues. |
Posted on 06/03/26 09:34:59 AM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1000 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
No Steve. You must have been out with the band last night...lol. It's the exact same brief photo. The buildings were constructed from multiple sections of the 2 column, 5 high window section left of the crane upright. That section was responsible for all the other brick buildings. The side of the tower became my freeway wall and walkway. I had to work out where the sun would be reflecting in the big building, together with the tower reflection opposite the sun burst in the windows. The reflection should have been more of a silhouette; however, the sunburst and secondary light reflected off the main building windows, would create a great deal of light on the tower therefor it's less than a silhouette. I think that's right. Seeing as I always use everything in my images, I had to give assurance that I could still Photoshop.  _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 06/03/26 09:40:50 AM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1000 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
I still had a lot of tweaking needed at this stage. Once I was happy with the result, I toned the image to sepia and added a grain filter.  _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 06/03/26 10:43:16 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6033 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
Strangely Dennis I like this better than the toned grainy version. I was fascinated by your explanation of how you re-purposed so much of the image. I have to confess that completely escaped me. I think perhaps because of the toning. It's much more evident in the original colours. There's still something about your first closer submission of the top I find much more compelling. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 06/03/26 11:11:28 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6033 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
That is so blindingly obvious I went back to my PS file to see why I didn't. (Or more accurately to see if I could find an excuse why I didn't ....... but there isn't one.) The barbed wire was a tricky extraction from another image and there was a lot of fringing everywhere. I did a huge amount of darkening to get rid of this. How I missed darkening this portion more is a mystery. I just tried it and it works perfectly. Thanks Steve! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 06/03/26 11:18:05 AM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1000 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
I don't know why i didn't post this copy. Failing the purple thruster burst reflection of the space mobile in the building window, this was the layer before adding grain and sepia. You're right. It's a cleaner picture but consider the photo equipment of the steampunk / industrial era and the atmospheric conditions in an environment that relied so heavily on steam and combustible energy. The atmosphere would be saturated with particles. Everything would seem dull.  _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 06/03/26 12:09:34 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6033 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
Yes that's quite right Dennis ..... and not so long ago! I grew up in last years of the steam age in Britain. Dim, dingy stations with soot blackened glass canopies and roofs. No one had central heating then, we all burned coal in fireplaces or cast iron stoves. Chimneys all over London belching out smoke. When it was foggy, a fairly frequent phenomenon, the smoke got trapped in the moisture causing the famous "pea soupers" a vile green tinted fog that often claimed the lives of elderly or those with respiratory problems. It seems hard to believe nowadays (I could never get my children to really grasp the idea) but I remember it well! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 06/03/26 12:10:35 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3467 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1094: Apartments for sale
An interesting challenge, thanks Steve! |
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