This is one of the many empty factories made of the typical red bricks in Zyrardow, Poland. They used to produce linen over there. It was once one of the most important centers of linen in the world. Their products were even known in Japan. Unfortunately, the two world wars and the communistic regime destroyed most of the factory activities in the city. Currently there is only one little company left which is still producing this high quality linen.
The street is called K. Dittrich which is the name of one of the tree people who acquired the company in 1857. The name is written on the blue label on the left (not readable here).
TECH-INFO: I was carrying my tripod around this fantastic but very abandoned area. I took 7 JPGs with a stop difference. first I performed lens corrections in DxO Optics Pro. Then I merged them in Photomatrix Pro and tone mapped it. This was just to cover the still pretty wide range of light, and to enhance the details. I was very lucky with the light because the sun was getting ready to sleep. In Photoshop I used the perspective tool to straighten the building. Now it looks the same as using a tilt lens. Then I cropped the image to a 7/4 ratio. Afterwards I used several masked adjustment layers, mainly curves, to enhance the pavement, windows and the sky. Finally I only removed some noise of sky in Noise Ninja.
Abandoned - Red Brick Building
This is one of the many empty factories made of the typical red bricks in Zyrardow, Poland. They used to produce linen over there. It was once one of the most important centers of linen in the world. Their products were even known in Japan. Unfortunately, the two world wars and the communistic regime destroyed most of the factory activities in the city. Currently there is only one little company left which is still producing this high quality linen.
The street is called K. Dittrich which is the name of one of the tree people who acquired the company in 1857. The name is written on the blue label on the left (not readable here).
TECH-INFO: I was carrying my tripod around this fantastic but very abandoned area. I took 7 JPGs with a stop difference. first I performed lens corrections in DxO Optics Pro. Then I merged them in Photomatrix Pro and tone mapped it. This was just to cover the still pretty wide range of light, and to enhance the details. I was very lucky with the light because the sun was getting ready to sleep. In Photoshop I used the perspective tool to straighten the building. Now it looks the same as using a tilt lens. Then I cropped the image to a 7/4 ratio. Afterwards I used several masked adjustment layers, mainly curves, to enhance the pavement, windows and the sky. Finally I only removed some noise of sky in Noise Ninja.
That's crazy how you can explain all your steps like that. If you asked me how I did one of mine I doubt I could remember.
Your work paid off. I love the way the building nearly fills the entire frame from left to right. Your subtle HDR work brought out great detail in the brickwork and windows. The sky has a nice gradient and even the street looks cool.
LightningPaul: Thanks a lot. I keep the .psd files which contains all the layers. Also I mostly prepared my images a few days or hours in advance.
Excellent light!! I like little details like windows and the arrows on the wall.
LightningPaul: Thanks to HDR techniques it's technical possible to create whatever light we want. Though I'm not at that level. Here the low sun did the trick. I Also wonder what those signs and arrows mean exactly. Next time I visit this place I'll try to check out.
This is one example of an image where the HDR works for me. I love the clean look of this image, your work certainly paid off!
LightningPaul: Many thanks for sharing your thoughts, I appreciate it. I also love this kind of "natural HDR". I'm always balancing between keeping it real & natural and getting it punchy or dramatic. Just warn me if I'm crossing the border.
Excellent result and story. The red bricks building will remain non-fashioned subject to photography. The sky gradient is awesome. Bravo.
LightningPaul: Thanks! Those red bricks are awesome to see. It's something of more than 100 years ago, so before communism. Very typical for this period.
Wow, the hdr effect is really nice because is very natural and not overdone.. also the sharpness is great
LightningPaul: Thanks. I also like natural HDR tone mappings, though I learned to appreciate the ones with very artistic tone mappings. I consider them more like pieces of art. Have a look at www.stuckincustoms.com
but way starting from a JPEG
there is a lot more information in a NEF file
you can produce even better one's from NEF's and with your D200 that's not a problem
keep up the good work
LightningPaul: Hi Michel, thanks for your comment.
I convert all the JPGs to a 32-bit HDR file (stored in .EXR format) which is superior to RAW or anything else, AFAIK. When shooting enough JPGs I don't get any more information then using NEFs (RAW). In some cases NEF has significant disavantages. It takes lots of extra space when shooting all day sequences of 5 to 9 pictures (need to convert into HDR). RAW conversion is problematic, except for View NX (and Capture NX which I don't have) all converters suck; they are not able to preserve the colors like I like, especially they fail so badly for red and skin colors. RAW conversion takes another time consuming space during post processing and does not yield any better result (for making HDR files). Also View NX is very cumbersome and slow to use.
Of course there are times when NEF has big advantages. I use them when I cannot shoot a sequence (eg there is action or motion), I need lots of extra information for post processing, have problems to get correct white balance and exposure and when I'm not shooting a portrait. In all other case JPG is fine for me.
That looks very pre-war Russian kind of building, no? Very bulky, very effective and oh so ugly
Looks almost like a prison...
LightningPaul: The buildings date from the 19th century (so indeed before the world wars). I don't know if they are typical Russian. They were build by Polish build, though money transactions were in Russian rubles.
I never looked at them like prisons. Perhaps the metal bars where there for safety reasons. For instance in case of fire ;-)
Can't believe that this gorgeous building is abandoned.
If i can correctly guess the orientation of the building, it must be full of light all day long. Just imagine a studio in there.
LightningPaul: There are many of such abandoned buildings. Though many of them are getting a new destination as lofts. So I must photograph them before they are totally renovated.
This is shot in winter (so short days). The sun is going down, is it between South and East. The sun is at the right so my back is pointed to the East. Hence the right side of the building must be facing the South. In other words the side you are viewing on the image is not getting any sun in the morning. I hope this makes sense.
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Your work paid off. I love the way the building nearly fills the entire frame from left to right. Your subtle HDR work brought out great detail in the brickwork and windows. The sky has a nice gradient and even the street looks cool.