This is the old Laurens County Courthouse, sitting in the middle of the town square in Laurens, SC. It was constructed in 1837-1838, and is a granite ashlar and brick Greek Revival style building. The original projecting porticoes in the front and rear have four Corinthian order columns and two simple pilasters. Wings were added in 1858, and in 1911 further additions were made to the wings, the windows remodeled, and the Palladian stairways added. At this time the low elliptical dome was constructed.
I followed my TPE app to the town square early yesterday morning and, standing on my jeep to get a straight on shot, was able to catch this (I think) beautiful sunrise sky in the background. The sun had just risen off to the right and was finally high enough over the other buildings to give the front of the courthouse a warm glow.
Lately I've taken on a project of photographing historic buildings like this one, and really want to make these images the best they can be. What could I do to make this better? CC is greatly appreciated!
I dig the colors - I think a lot could be done with the subject. One of the unwritten "rules" in architectural photography is to keep the walls as close to vertical as possible - you don't want the building "falling backward" due to perspective issues. in this case the problem isn't that bad, but it's something that you may want to correct quickly using something similar to the lightroom transform tool.
One other item is the exposure of the subject. The building itself as well as the trees can be brighter. It appears you've exposed for the sky, in which case the first thing anyone sees for this particular photo isn't the subject, but the sky, due to the way it pops compared to the building or monument in front.
If I was to consider shooting this as a portfolio piece, I would possibly visit the site twice - once in the evening to grab some soft direct light hitting the front facade along with the landscaping and monument, and another to grab that killer sky that you've captured. If I could get both on the same visit, obviously that would be ideal. The photo would look great if you were able to really get some light on the building as well as bring some of the detail out of the landscaping and monument.
Lastly, due to the positioning of the monument and the way it sort of fades into the subject matter, I may consider taking the photo at more of a 2/3rds perspective from whatever corner has a more photogenic take on the foreground and background. I'm not sure what the sides of the building look like, but it would really help to isolate the monument from the front facade so that you can get a better view on both.
I really like the subject matter and would love to see more of these types of photos from you. Thanks for sharing it!
Thanks for the guidance, Rob! I will admit, since I normally shoot outdoorsy/nature scenes, I did get a little too focused on the sky and didn't even notice the building falling backwards until you mentioned it. I straightened up the building's walls in LR and then brightened it up a little more.
As for other angles, I do have a photo from the front left corner that I'm working on. There's a definite separation of the building, flag, and statue. I'll use your advice on that one as well. And if it comes out as anything better than a cheesy snapshot I'll post it. Thanks again!
Here's the shot from the corner. This was a little earlier in the morning so there was a difference in light.
This is a great example - imagine if you were to shift your position to the right a ways so you could see more of the front facade but also have the monument to the right of the building. Say 10-15 feet or so. This would give a great idea of the architecture of the building while also keeping the monument separate and easily identifiable. Couple that with the exposure discussion from the first post and you should have a killer shot. Those skies are amazing. Thanks for sharing!