Another door of the Reök palota

One of the (many different) door in the Reök palace, Szeged,Hungary (1906-07), architect Ede Magyar. It is the only remarcableexample of floral Art Nouveau in Hungary.

 

thank you for your time

Maria

It's quite blur. It seems that you had focused on infinity and there is also a motion blur. If you want to shoot this door good, try to set up you camera to around f/5 to let the background (the cars in the yard) be blur, focus on the door and fasten you camera or try to hold it as still as possible. Another thing is composition. I don't know why have you cut off the plate on the left. Also it would be better IMO to shoot this door with straight angle.

Hi Robert,

 

thank you for the comment.

 

Well, I am quite sure I did NOT focus on infinity. The floral details in the middle are sharp ... But, as it can also be seen in other photos I made 1998-2001, I was indeed setting the diaphragm in a way that the middle of the photo was sharp and the perimetre not. It can be seen in the other photos from Hungary: this one or this one (both August 1999, like the photo we discuss), in the photos from Nice in 2000, here, for example (this is the most obvious that it isn't infinity, but there are more shot with similar focus configuration in the folder), or from Leipzig, like this one (the Nice and Leipzig photos are from 2001), and even earlier, those from Darmstadt, for example, which are from 1998. If I recall it correctly, I've set 5.6. Well, to most of those locations I am unlikely to return to take a better shot, not to speak that in 4-7 years (6 years for this photo), many things might have changed; maybe there are no cars there, it is a pedestrian zone, and the writting also removed, who knows ...

 

As for taking orthogonal picture: I guess I could not get further to get the whole door into a frame due to the statue in the park vis-a-vis. This is why the plate is also cropped - there simply wasn't enough place in the frame ...

 

For the whole plate I attach another image. 1024 largest size, because in it the focus issue is even more visible: the letters in the middle are very sharp (my oppinion - if they aren't, I really do a mistake not wearing those glasses), and on the perimetre are not, although in the same plane. Does it look like focused to infinity?

 

Thanks a lot

Maria

The best thing you should do in order to take better pictures and advance in learning is to get a better camera. I would recommend you a digital one, so you can learn very fast and you don't have to throw out money for films and scanning. A small 3.2 Mpx camera is not expensive now. With such lenses you have is very hard to take a good photo.

Hi Robert,

 

thanks for the follow-up and I apologise I did not reply earlier. I had a lot to do this week and additionally there are 35 degrees outside mid-day - not really a temperature to wish to switch on the computer for additional heating ;)

 

Well, I will probably need a camera soon, as my Practica is not working any more (the curtain) since I was in Vienna end April. But lacking the money I asked my mother to send me the old Zenit, which she did ... The lenses are though the same; this was the reason of buying a Praktika after the Zenit; not to change them.

 

The old photos I cannot do anything about them though; it is enough that I have to revisit Budapest because there I catched some bad light :( In any case; I improved. The photos more recent than 2002 are done with better diaphragm; at least I hope. When I'll have time I might do presentations of the photos sorted by years.

 

Strange enough, to see how different tastes are. At my Romania photos somebody left a couple of comments about that any single B&W negative I have deserves to be edited, as old photos of unknown places are more worth than digital new ones. Although I do not really find 10 years olf photos old; but it is indeed a fashion on 50 year old ones, and I thought of myself that I am innovative using newer ones.

 

Attached, again in 1024 width (so the decoration on the door becomes visible) a photo of the front of the palace, where it can be seen that, ideed, I recalled well that the door was vis-a-vis of statue (people say I have the memory of a computer ...), although I guess it was the car in front of the statue not allowing me to go further of the door.

 

kind regards

Maria

I agree with you that the photograph could be "better" in the common technical sense. But the notion of quality is prety subjective in all art and in photography in particular. Architetural photography does not have to be "nice" in the same sense as, for example, insect photography. Every time I visit Maria's portfolio I LEARN something NEW that stays in memory FOR EVER. Here, this is fine example of Hungarian Art Nouveau. Instead, most of the cutest "top photos", taken with the best equipment in the market, give me pleasure for the few seconds that I spend on them and then they are gone.

Ciao,

 

and thanks for the comment. And especially for the support!

 

Sorry to come so late back to you ... I start thinking that I started doing more work than I can ...

 

It seems that I will have to fight with the new technique (digital photos) very soon, since none no of my both analogue cameras works and after the first one stopped working I had to use the older one for not being able to find anybody to repair the other.

 

many thanks again, I am glad you like my photos.

 

Now some from Romania will be coming

 

see you around

Maria