Ode to Black | Black Hope III – Animus Black
Ode to Black | Black Hope III – This is the second image of this building. You can find here the first one, Mystical. This image is a long exposure image and one of the best examples of what I call “making the world look perfect”.
To better understand what I mean by that you should see the RAW version of this image, which is the “reality” and then see the processed one, which is “my reality”.
I will make a demonstration of how I worked on this image at the Athens Workshop next month, so whoever will be there will perfectly understand what I mean by making the world look perfect, which is practically the philosophy behind my way or interpreting the world in my images. In short, and speaking about buildings, every building is conceived to look in a certain way by the architect.
Many times, from the initial idea to its realization there is a long way that changes the first image of the architectural object, the “ideal” one. Then, once built and left exposed to fight the elements: rain, or sun, or wind, or simply the years that go by, the building changes again, sometimes not for the best. In the old historical buildings, this aging has a certain charm and shows history, telling their story and I love that, but for the modern buildings, the aesthetic is different.
What I try to do when photographing modern architecture is to search and show the best moment in time that the building has lived and this means trying to improve in any way its present aspect. I’ve been asked many times what I do to make my buildings look “perfect”. I will try to explain this at the workshop and this image was the best possible example, since it was shot up-close and from an angle that showed all the signs of time. Which, I can tell you, were quite evident.
TECHNICAL DATA
Camera settings:
285.0 sec. @ f/11, Tamron 16-270mm f/3.5-6.3 AF VC PZD @ 18mm, ISO 100.
Processing:
LR4, PS CS5, NIK Silver Efex Pro 2, Topaz B&W Effects (Topaz Labs B&W Effects 2 Full Review) +Topaz DeNoise + Topaz Detail
Update 2013
Adding a few pieces of info to this post, since in the meanwhile (this post was written last year), this image has become part of a series that won Bronze and Honorable Mention in two categories (Advertising & Fine Art) at PX3 2013 – Prix de la Photographie de Paris and the series has evolved into a very personal study that uses buildings as subjects to express my personal experiences and reactions to the world I come in contact with. More about this in the last post I did about this series: Ode to Black | Black Hope V – Persona Black
See the entire final series here: Ode to Black | Black Hope
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You can find more resources about fine art black and white photography, (en)Visionography, long exposure photography and architecture photography in my extensive collection of photography tutorials. To receive my future tutorials directly via email you can subscribe to my website.
Learn more about how to create fine art photography, from vision to processing and the final image in my video course From Vision to Final Image – Mastering Black and White Photography Processing, in my video tutorial Long Exposure, Architecture, Fine Art Photography – Creating (en)Visionography, in my book From Basics to Fine Art – Black and White Photography, or by attending one of my workshops.
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Julia Anna Gospodarou is an internationally acclaimed award-winning photographer, an architect with a Master’s degree, a best-selling author, and a highly sought-after educator, teaching workshops and lecturing around the world. Founder of (en)Visionography™ and creator of Photography Drawing™, author of the best-selling book From Basics to Fine Art – Black and White Photography, multiple times awarded in the most important photography competitions worldwide (Two-Time International Photography Awards IPA Photographer of the Year 2016 & 2021, World Photography Awards SWPA Top 10 Finalist, and Hasselblad Masters Top 10 Finalist, as well as 100+ more awards), widely published internationally in books and magazines, Julia is passionate about art and photography and striving to spread the ideas of fine art photography and (en)Visionography all over the world.