Temple Eaves

Image Critiques
1

Temple-Eaves
Temple-Eaves2000×1352 1.13 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I thought about putting this in the Abstract category, but that would be presumptuous - 95% of the credit (or more) for this photo has to go to the makers of this beautifully decorated temple roof. To give some idea of scale, the cylindrical beam facing you would be about 1.5 feet in diameter, and it is 30 feet at least above the ground. The left half of the picture is running “north”, while the axis of the right half goes “east”. Decorations like this are found on nearly all temples in Korea.

Specific Feedback

No birds or flowers showed up today, so in desperation I drifted into the temple grounds.

Technical Details

OM1 + 60mm macro 1/200 f4 ISO 200

Two shots stacked in Zerene. After basic Lightroom treatment, went into PS. By mistake my finger hit the HDR toning tab instead of Shadows/Highlights, so I tried that out, adjusting the sliders, and was surprised at the result. The eaves are already vibrant, but sun and dust have faded them a little. I also removed some dust with the Adjustment Brush in LR, and removed an ill-placed lamp with the Healing Brush in PS. Sorry, monks!

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2

This is really cool, Mike. I was thinking it could fit in abstract as well, just figuring our what it was, but agree that this forum fits better. I was thinking that the paint job looked fairly new, so it’s interesting to read about the hdr tab which I’ve never used.

By the way, have you ever seen that NOVA episode on the way the roof and vertical structure were joined in the forbidden city structures? That turned out to be an ingenious solution for earthquakes and this looks very similar.

4

Mike: what a great blast of color and pattern. Thanks for giving us a sense of the scale.

5

@Thank you @Dennis_Plank @Sandy_Richards-Brown and @Richard_Sandor. Dennis, all the woodwork is jointed, I think, with occasional use of wooden pegs. I must check out that NOVA episode. Sandy, it’s all wood, without fabric; the paint seems to hold its color for many seasons. In fact, the whole effect is startlingly vibrant, and not exaggerated even by my use of the HDR tab.