Brick Wall Lens Test

Photo forums and review sites are full of photos of brick walls, in fact, some photographers take nothing but photographs of walls!

Am I doing this right?

(inspired by: https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2021/04/selecting-the-proper-brick-wall-for-photographic-tests/ )

Lens, should anyone actually care, is a TTartisan 23mm f1.4, probably stopped down to about f4, pramheld.

Wall is one of my favourite local semi-abandoned houses.

Compositionally, I should have included all of the rock that anchors the rope that keeps the door shut.

Anyone else got a wall to share?

Photo forums and review sites are full of photos of brick walls, in fact, some photographers take nothing but photographs of walls!

 

Am I doing this right?

 

[ATTACH=full]1422607[/ATTACH]

 

(inspired by: https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2021/04/selecting-the-proper-brick-wall-for-photographic-tests/ )

 

Lens, should anyone actually care, is a TTartisan 23mm f1.4, probably stopped down to about f4, pramheld.

 

Wall is one of my favourite local semi-abandoned houses.

 

Compositionally, I should have included all of the rock that anchors the rope that keeps the door shut.

 

 

Anyone else got a wall to share?

I think your wall is a perfect test for you--this is subject matter you like and the lens seems to be performing to your satisfaction. I have always felt that "subjective lens testing" is the best kind. I suspect that neither you nor I photograph brick walls for a living, so why test a lens on one?

A mix of bond types the lower half is Flemish Bond not so sure about the top. Not bothered enough to worry about lens tests.

This one had the "flue" :)

Yashica 230AF

Pennsylvania Barn Wall

Pentax 67, 90/2.8 Takumar 6x7 LS, Verichrome Pan

It was hard to see, so I closed my eyes and pointed towards some brick walls in NYC.

I ran into another wall. . .

A mix of bond types the lower half is Flemish Bond not so sure about the top. Not bothered enough to worry about lens tests.

[ATTACH=full]1422615[/ATTACH]

The top one is Not Very Good Bond.

I don't know that I've kept the ones I've used to test lenses, but here's one I took for other reasons:

Some vandal ruined this perfectly good brick wall by dumping some old rubbish in front of it.

And another brick wall ruined by clutter.

I got distracted and didn't notice the big hole in this wall.

Another perfectly good wall vandalised by graffiti.

Photo forums and review sites are full of photos of brick walls, in fact, some photographers take nothing but photographs of walls!

 

Am I doing this right?

 

[ATTACH=full]1422607[/ATTACH]

 

(inspired by: Selecting the Proper Brick Wall for Photographic Tests )

 

Lens, should anyone actually care, is a TTartisan 23mm f1.4, probably stopped down to about f4, pramheld.

 

Wall is one of my favourite local semi-abandoned houses.

 

Compositionally, I should have included all of the rock that anchors the rope that keeps the door shut.

 

 

Anyone else got a wall to share?

Lovely wall! I love the difference in textures and surfaces.

I almost got hit by a car coming around the corner when I was taking this! When you are on "vacation" or holiday, people are supposed to stop and let you take your photos!

This is a brick contrast test. Or an optical illusion. Or social commentary. Or nothing. You choose!

I almost got hit by a car coming around the corner when I was taking this! When you are on "vacation" or holiday, people are supposed to stop and let you take your photos!

Roger omits to mention in his article, but taking photos of brick walls can be hazardous to your health. Yes, it's true, they're often very poorly placed, forcing the photographer to stand in the middle of the road in order to get the shot!

Several posters have mentioned that brick walls are occasionally photographed as a means of testing lenses for distortion.

Recently, this subject came up in a very different context - in a discussion of a post regarding the collapse of the condominium tower in Surfside, FL. It turns out that a couple of weeks before the collapse, someone noticed that the masonry facing on a flower box toward the back of the pool deck was failing. They had an engineer visit the site to inspect the flower box to see if the failure was indicative of some other problems. A set of photographs was taken, but apparently they weren't examined closely. More recently, since the collapse, someone took a closer look at the photographs and noticed that they depicted curved grout lines between the deck pavers (grout lines are always straight).

The discussion centered on whether this curvature was lens distortion, or whether it was an early indication that the deck was sagging. The general consensus of those in the discussion was that because the curvature appeared to pass through the center of the image and not along the sides, it was more likely to be a true representation of the conditions at the time the images were captured and should in fact have been interpreted as signs that the deck was sagging between columns.

So the point is that photographs sometimes disclose important information that is simply overlooked until much later.

A bit of barrel distortion. 16mm, f:5.6, Sony 16-50mm lens on Sony NEX 6. Not yet corrected in software.