I spotted this on a walkabout in the Theatre district of MK a few days ago. This is a building I’ve walked past on many occasions, but perhaps I hadn’t looked up at it from this direction before.
There are balconies at most levels as you can see if you click here to view the unedited original. But it was the balcony with the very obvious chair that caught my attention, and so the image was progressively cropped during processing until I arrived at what I felt was the most satisfactory composition.
The final image took a round trip through Topaz plug-ins as well as undergoing Solarization. A recipe that is becoming part of my repertoire for processing B&W conversions.
Click on the image to see a higher quality enlargement.
LensScaper 
I do like this…reminds me a bit of Escher’s drawings…
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I can see what you mean, James – I once tried to complete an Escher jigsaw puzzle – nightmare.
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nice image
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Thank you Shimon.
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Escher, yes, I can see that too. Solarization? I wouldn’t have guessed that. What an “electric” effect you’ve achieved with the light and the crop, Andy! 🙂
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Hi George. Thank you for your comment. Solarization isn’t always as obvious as you might think – but it can certainly add contrast.
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An excellent image Andy. I met up with David Penprase last week and one of the things he impressed on me was cropping for compositional and creative effect, and here, you really demonstrate the power of the technique. I must check out solarisation when processing black and white. Thanks for the tips.
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Thanks Adrian. I had several chips away at the original until I narrowed the final composition down to the central features. It seemed strange initially to change the shape from a vertical to a horizontal orientation. Solarization is a technique that is so easy and yet can have quite profound effects on an image – it works best on images with strong lines and I find urban ‘scapes are often ones that benefit the most.
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I like the image that you have brought out of the original. A good reason to keep shots we may not be too sure of at first. You never know what you may find next time you look at it.
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Thanks Frank. This one only sat on the hard drive for a few days before I tackled it. This type of image with strong lines takes me back to the old days of processing B&W in the darkroom and aiming for a high contrasty print.
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What a huge difference from the unedited version. Great job Andy.
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Thanks Edith. It’s very gratifying to look back at the original sometimes in situations like this and see how far the image has moved on.
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Lots of great lines in this composition Andy. The tones in the image are killer.
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Thank you Len.
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I like this composition. I almost never use the Solarization tool but now I think I might give it a go.
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Thanks Ken. Solarization is so easy digitally – nothing to be lost by running an image through the filter. An urban shot with strong lines and plenty of contrast would be a good starter. You probably know this, but when you Solarize an image it will look grim until you sort out the levels. Occasionally it’s also worth inverting it.
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Really like what you did to it as the expression goes!
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Many thanks Kathryn
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Anytime Andy !
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Your processing really paid off nicely, Andy. You turned an ordinary image into a work of art, very nicely done.
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That’s very kind of you – thanks Jimi
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