Columbia University: Butler Library

I have no real understanding or appreciation of architectural photography, so you should take this critique with a full shaker of salt. It's more of an exercise for me than anything else, but perhaps you can find something of use in it, so I will go ahead and post it.

The overall impression that I get from the photgraph is one of solidity and permanence, suggested by the character of the building itself plus the symmetric straight-on framing. It's appropriate for the view of a library as a storehouse of knowledge, and in that sense the photograph works. The relatively sparse population of people implies a kind of abstract quality; the knowledge exists as a sort of disembodied truth, removed from the people who create and use it. The positioning of the figures on the inner lawn seems disjoint from this however--they look more like sunbathers than knowledge seekers :-). Perhaps the photo would be more emphatic either with no people (or at least none on the lawn), or in the middle of the busy part of the day when teeming with people, depending on what you want to emphasize.

Technically, I would prefer the shot with three changes. First, there seems to be a slight keystoning and/or barrel distortion. It's subtle, but that's the impression that I have, and it disturbs me in what is otherwise such a geometric framing. Second, I would like to see a little bit of dodging to bring out the details between the columns. Third, I think the sky is too bright; it almost looks like it belongs in a different photograph. Either some burning, or perhaps taking the photo during a different time of day would help.

Just my 0.00002 cents...

David

I thank you for the comments. I recorded this image using a 45mm wide-angle lens on the Pentax 67II. Because the focal length is so short, some distortion may arise, but it is barely perceptible, if it is present at all.

The lighting was particularly difficult, because the sun was not lighting the front of the building directly. Most likely the sun was blocked by clouds. As a result, the facade is partially in shadow, and the sky is too bright and overexposed. To mitigate this problem, I printed the picture using a #3 multi-contrast filter to increase the contrast, and I burned in the sky using a #0 filter. The actual print does show detail in the darker regions behind the columns. This feature is partially lost in the digital representation. Actually darkroom technique saved a high-contrast negative.

I visited this campus on a Sunday afternoon, while I was spending a weekend in New York City. Students were moving into the residence halls for summer session. So I had little choice in the context of lighting or the presence or absence of people.