Empire State

Shot this from an unusual place, a scaffold that was erected to rehab the light towers at the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC.

 

I have never seen the Empire State Building shot from that angle. Its quite interesting because it shows the grittiness of the City. It is not a romantic or artistic shot, but shows the city how it actually is.

Agree that it's neither artistic nor romantic. Not sure about the grittiness though. Have you tried grayscale with a red filter effect?

Ask and you shall recieve!

 

Interesting viewpoint. The scaffolding is sharply focused against a soft background and Empire State. That's OK if it's what you intended. But you should have focused on the building if that was the main subject. Nice shot.

Ask and you shall recieve!

 

[ATTACH=full]1423281[/ATTACH]

 

 

Hmmm! Mind if I play with it a little?

Prefer the b&w version. The unusual taking position caught my attention, It appeals to me because I've worked on construction and taken photos from a similar height with a pocketable camera the boss never knew I had. The depth of field is a little too short though IMO, I would have liked to have seen the buildings more in focus.

For me, the color works. Especially the yellow and red building off to the side. Very New York and eye-catching. The focus feels deliberate but perhaps it was a mistake, you never know. I assumed the focus was part of the storytelling, locating the photographer and viewer right on the scaffolding, scaffolding which is such a part of the New York City landscape. The pointed use of the scaffold as a frame also suggests to me why it's in focus. The Empire State Building, well, yes, we all know it, icon that it is. But this is not a tourist shot of the skyline or the skyscraper. It's more of a mood piece where the skyline hovers in the background to the more earthy (and earth-toned) life on the streets, suggested by the perspective, the point of view and the way the content is presented. I've never worked construction but my guess is, when you do, your concentration is where you are and the distant skyline is probably just that.

your concentration is where you are and the distant skyline is probably just that.

 

Lol, not always, not to an amateur photographer who happens to be also working on the site ... Just don't get caught taking photos

Lol, not always, not to an amateur photographer who happens to be also working on the site ... Just don't get caught taking photos

:)

Here's my rework attempt. Was trying to give it a more gritty\grungy look. Not quite sure how successful I was.

Used the color version, and these are the steps, using photoshop.

Auto Tone > B\W + High Contrast Red > Auto Levels > Curves + Increase Contrast > Brightness\Contrast +5\-25 > Layered White Building (Lower Right) and changed its brightness and contrast relative to the rest of the image > Flattened > Tweaked Brightness\Contrast over whole image > Added Noise > Closed and reopened in Elements 2020 > Auto Haze Removal > Closed and Reopened in PS > Sharpen > Sharpen Edges > Tweaked Brightness again > Saved as ReworkOfJCsES.