Pauline Jaffe  


Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque by Pauline Jaffe

May 2023 - Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque

May 2023 - Pauline Jaffe

Original

About the Image(s)

My image this month is the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
It is one of the worlds largest mosques and is a massive achitechtural work of art.
Its design is inspired by Ottoman and Persian architechture.

I shot several images at different shutterspeeds and created an HDR image in Photoshop. The original image was in color and I turned the color image into a Black and White.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
5 comments posted




Zina Mirsky   Zina Mirsky
This is a striking image. What lens did you use; how did you achieve the correct perspective in this architectural challenge? The choice of B&W is excellent - it heightens the attractiveness of light and shadow.   Posted: 05/18/2023 17:38:15
Pauline Jaffe   Pauline Jaffe
Thank you for your feedback. I took this image with my Nikon 5600 camera and Nikon 18 to 55 mm. lens.   Posted: 05/18/2023 19:21:58



Rick Taft   Rick Taft
Pauline,
Very nice shot. I prefer the B&W version because interestingly it allows more of the architectural detail to stand out, especially along the rail in the foreground.

There are two things I can suggest to improve it a little. One is to fix some of the perspective distortion from the lens on such a wide angle shot. The railing in front is not quite straight, but when I put a guide over it I see it actually bows down a little bit in the middle. Likewise the minarets, especially the one on the right, are not quite vertical. I'm guessing you were zoomed closer to 18 mm than 55 which starts to produce effects like this. In my visual feedback I imported your image into Capture One and applied the auto-keystone-correction tool which did a pretty good job fixing the optical distortion, but at the cost of cropping off a bit of the right side minaret as part of the adjustment.

While I had it in Capture One I also played with the luminosity of the gray sky a bit to darken it just a little bit to see if it helped the white buildings pop out a bit. I'm not sure if it is an improvement to your image, but it is an interesting variable to play with since I think strong contrast is an important part of the visual impact of your shot. But of course, easy to go too far and overdo that.

Very nice shot.   Posted: 05/19/2023 17:38:11
Comment Image
Pauline Jaffe   Pauline Jaffe
Rick,
I always appreciate how you provide a thoughtful response on how I can improve my images. Many of the images that I share here are with the intent to, at some point be submitted for competition... so these comments are very helpful. Many times, knowing where your colleagues are coming from and what their intent with their images are is important. Thank you!   Posted: 05/21/2023 10:56:06



Alec Chester   Alec Chester
Pauline, This is a striking image and black and white was the right choice. I do think that the modification by Rick was a help.   Posted: 05/25/2023 14:56:18