SoFoBoMo: a day of learning

SoFoBoMo sixth image, April 2008

Off around town for my second day of shooting today. Today I learnt a few things about this series, and the process in general:

1. I need to treat these subjects like architectural photography rather than street shooting. That means good view-points and perspective control (in post-processing here). While single images of building with some distortion are OK, putting multiples together and running up a series needs a more consistent approach. Today, I spent more effort working out where to shoot from.
2. I can't hold a camera straight for love nor money. I'm finding the results out of the camera are set off at all kinds of jaunty angles. I'm definitely not going to be using a tripod - I get enough odd looks from people on the street as it is.
3. A streamlined workflow really helps, especially with all the distortion and resizing needed. I've cur right back on the amount of colour/tone adjustments I'm doing. Suits the subject fine and saves me a bunch of time.
4. Leafy suburbs are not good for shooting buildings. I was walking around one of the parts of town that is favoured by families - lots of open spaces, little traffic, houses with gardens etc. Plus a lot of trees. That meant it was virtually impossible to shoot any of the buildings or their features. Still, plenty of other parts of town to explore.
5. This series is actually proving to be quite interesting to shoot. I'm exploring parts of town I've not been through before or re-visiting with fresh eyes. it's really interesting to see how people define their living spaces (how about a bedroom in a street-front, ground floor room?). If the results prove interesting enough, I might well continue with the theme past SoFoBoMo.
6. Paired images need more careful control of colour & brightness. Putting two mis-matched shots together really shows up badly. Easy enough to deal with but certainly something I hadn't thought about up front.