On the coast.
A scant one hour south by rail from London – if the trains are not on strike – Brighton is a showpiece of glorious Victorian architecture, replete with ornate cast iron and beautiful masonry work. These snaps were taken in February, 1974.
Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX, ‘scanned’ on a Nikon D800.
A vibrant time in America.
You can read about Googie architecture here. This futurist style from the middle of the past century is never less than fun but, as is the American way, many exemplars of the genre have been torn down.
Here’s a superb example which has been ‘repurposed’ by an interior design firm in Boise, Idaho, having started life as a gas station:
Googie at its best.
iPhone 12 Pro Max, processed in Photoshop and Lightroom to remove the telegraph poles and ugly wires.
Lovely architecture.
It was a full half mile after I shot past this building that the synapses kicked in and said this is something worth checking out.
It’s unclear what the original use was but it is being lovingly restored in the original Spanish style. A new cobbled forecourt has been laid down and work proceeds on the facade and interiors.
Except for one click keystone correction in LR (Develop->Lens Corrections->Basic->Vertical) these are SOOC. Or should that be SOOiP? (Straight Out Of iPhone).
iPhone 11 Pro snaps.
Lightroom workaround: LR was shutting down on a first boot with the iPhone connected. I discovered that if I plug in the iPhone and steer it to the Photos app before invoking LR, all is well. That and standing on my left foot with my right arm extended upwards. Thanks, Adobe.
Not a right angle in sight.
My local library is one of those wildly abstract and severe designs which denies the existence of the ninety degree angle. This sort of architecture is fodder for the camera, as the above image discloses.
One of the complaints I have seen aimed at the ultrawide optic in the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro is that it is fixed focus. Such opinions are expressed by those with no training in the physics of photography. A 1.54mm focal length lens (13mm FFE) will render everything sharp all the time, as I illustrate here. There is no need for focusing. And if you want to change depth of field, Focos awaits. The other complaint is that saving the image in RAW format is not possible. Only compressed JPG is available. What this opinion denies is the extent to which computational photography and Apple’s always-on SmartHDR technology obviates the need for RAW. (RAW is available in some camera apps like Halide, not in the stock Camera app). Finally the third complaint – excessive lens distortion and vignetting – is justified, but easily resolved with one click in LR or PS or ACR using my lens correction profile. Apple’s claim that they left distortions uncorrected for the UWA lens to emphasize its ‘wideness’ is so much rot. They clearly rushed the product to market along with a disastrous series of iOS 13.x releases, each replete with bugs.
It is the small file sizes of JPGs for the UWA – and indeed JPG is standard for all three lenses – that is one of the unsung secrets of the camera’s design. As the data for the above image disclose, the RAW image is some 12mp (3024 x 4032 = 12.19 mp), whereas the JPG is a mere 2.88 mp. Now a file from your enormous Nikon D850 with its 50mp sensor and no less gargantuan optics will come in at some 150mp when converted to TIFF or PSD, which is what LR or PS has to do before you apply any processing corrections.
And by contrast, so sophisticated is SmartHDR in the iPhone that those corrections are rarely called for. So suddenly LR performs once more like the spring chicken it once was, loading those 3mp files in a trice and creating full size previews in like time, whereas your D850 image dictates ever larger capital outlays on more storage, faster storage and improved GPUs. Why, process just seven of those images and there goes a gigabyte of storage …. And while you are processing all of those bytes, I have crafted a blog entry, written a suitably inflammatory narrative and am out on the street searching out new subjects for my camera. Plus, you are $5,000+ out of pocket and your shoulder is sore. I suffer from neither affliction.
Magnificent.
Say what you may about the legal system, the 1842 Classical Revival building which is home to the New York Court of Appeals is impressive. Endless marble columns frame the entrance and it looks like entry would be tricky to obtain.
The view from the steps is no less impressive:
Both images taken using the ultrawide lens in the iPhone 11 Pro. For this sort of architectural work, where straight lines really need to be straight, my lens correction profile fixes the uncorrected barrel distortion in the ultrawide optic. Regular correction of distortion in PS or LR does not remove the ‘mustache’ curvature I address in that link.