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Kelvingrove
There's something slightly ironic about going to a world famous art gallery and museum and then photographing the building and ignoring the contents on display. A bit like giving a child a treasure chest and they are more taken with the box, rather than the treasure inside. Be that as it may, that's exactly what I did at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow.
While there is no denying the calibre of the art works in Kelvingrove, equally, there is no denying that the building itself is quite something. It is also the subject of various urban legends, the most common of which says the building was built the wrong way round, leading the architect to commit suicide. It is, of course, nonsense.
Kelvingrove is a location for several previous photoshoots, all of which have been very enjoyable. On this occasion, I had an idea of the shots I wanted to capture, but I also wanted to do something a bit different with them this time round. And that is when the idea to use a touch of HDR. High dynamic range (HDR) is a way of taking several images at differing exposures and then combining them together so that the tonal and luminosity ranges are greater than any of the individual images. HDR can give a very nice effect when used in moderation - overdone, however, it produces the so-called 'Disney effect' and generally looks ghastly and entirely unreal.
In the upper right image here, I liked the way the HDR was able to accentuate the contrast between the warm golden tones of the stonework and the cool blue of the marble floor. The central subject, the Love Seat, snakes through the image and take the eye deeper, suggesting and pointing to something wonderful in the the space beyond the archway.
The upper left image depicts a piece of modern art comprised of images of different peoples, cultures, ages in history - these individual images seem to be flying up and out of the central wooden plinth. The huge window in the background frames this ascent. I like the graphic quality of this image.
For the lower image here, I wanted an almost painterly effect, like looking into the depths of a painting. All the detail is within and beyond the alcove, the walls to the sides allowing the viewer to see that it is an alcove, and containing the real image within.
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