Picture of a Parking Area

Looking for some Architecture

I was driving around late one Sunday afternoon trying to find some interesting architecture to photograph. I could not find anything and after sunset gave up on my search. On my way home, I stopped for take-away coffee and for some reason I decided to drive through the underground parking garage at Lifestyle Center. I immediately saw the opportunity to take some photos. Armed with my camera, tripod and remote release I walked around in the garage looking for some interesting angles.

Scared and Lonely

Walking around alone in the garage and nobody around me made me feel uncomfortable and a bit scared and I wanted to take a photo that would express how I felt at that moment. My first attempt was a low and wide angle view with a drain cover in the left hand corner. The shot did not work for me as there was some distracting background and also did not give that "lonely" feeling.

Leading Lines

I eventually decided on taking position between two sets of different colour pillars. The pillars formed a leading line to the parking exit which I found interesting. I setup as low as possible on my tripod and took a first test shot. The final re-positioning was to centre the black line in the frame.

Looking for a Subject

Although the photo was already strong, I still wanted a subject that would stand out and basically portray the feeling of "lonely"...almost "left behind". The only subject I could find was a trolley. I positioned it roughly on the top left thirds position and took the photo. Although the setup and photo worked for me, I still wanted to capture a photo with some more contrast and almost "creepy" kind of look.

Remote Flash

I decided to place a remote flash on the ground, right behind the first blue pillar on the left hand side. The idea was to throw some flashlight onto the trolley which would allow me to play around with various settings to darken the garage and only highlight the trolley. The concept worked perfectly and I immediately realized that a combination of highlighting the trolley and various settings to correctly expose the natural light in the garage would be perfect.

Taking the big step - HDR

This was the perfect opportunity to try some HDR. I kept the same setup (tripod, low angle, flash behind pillar and remote release) and took several series each consisting of three shots at different shutter speeds. The final series that worked for me was this one,

6 seconds @ f22, ISO 100, 24-70 mm lens at 70mm

13 seconds @ f22, ISO 100, 24-70 mm lens at 70mm

25 seconds @ f22, ISO 100, 24-70 mm lens at 70mm

In all three cases, the remote flash behind the pillar was fired. The flash was set on manual 1/32 power and zoom 50mm. If you look closely at the final image later, you will notice the red handle of the trolley is almost over exposed.

Processing - Photomatix

I downloaded the photos and selected the above series which was imported directly into Photomatix Pro 4.2.
In Photomatix I played around with all the various default pre-sets and decided to apply the "Painterly 4" effect. It gave me the contrast and "creepy" feeling I was looking for.
The only adjustments I made in Photomatix was,

• Adjust the strength = 80
• Colour Saturation = 90
• Detail Contrast = 10
• Black Point = 1.196%

The final image was saved and imported into Light Room 4.1.

Processing LightRoom 4.1

The HDR image was looking good but had some terrible highlights which were caused by lights in the garage. The best way to get rid of this was to apply an almost panoramic crop to the image which further enhanced the leading lines of the photo. I then adjusted the final exposure of the image and cleaned a few spots, especially the wall left of the exit.

Equipment used

Canon 5DII, Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens, 580exII flash, tripod, remote release and Hahnel remote trigger for flash.

Software used

Photomatix Pro 4.2, Lightroom 4.1

Final Images

Two images stood out for me but the first one was my favourite and decided to submit it for the 9th July 2012 club evening. The result was a COM.

Final Image - COM

Another attempt and my original idea

Food for Thought

HDR is just another tool that we as photographers have. When applied to the right photo and in moderation it can give you something totally different. If you ask me what will I do different next time....take somebody with you, it is really creepy being alone in a parking garage!!

Francois Kotze