Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham


The Building

Designed by RHWL Architects and opened in 1982, this striking building is attached to the older Theatre Royal in the centre of Nottingham.

The Photograph

I took this on a photo walk with Rushcliffe Photographic Society, it is a 2 image panoramic image taken using a Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Shift lens on Sony A7RII.
I have visited this location a number of times, but this is the first time I have been there with the Laowa 15mm which is both ultra wide but also lets me to take multiple images that I can later stitch together. Using this lens, you can get reasonably close to a building whilst still getting it all into the frame which allows me to try to emphasise the overall structure. 
Glass is often a feature in modern architecture and always proves a challenge when presenting this type of photograph. In this case, I applied two very different approaches to the main areas of glass. For the LHS section, I used a multiplication layer with a gradient, so if you look closely you can see some detail coming through. The main RHS had a prominent reflection (of the Nottingham Trent Uni building) so for that section I selected just the glass and applied a normal gradient.
See this, and many more of my pictures at my main website andymcdonaldbnwphotos

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Former Chesterfield Magistrates Court

Image
  The Building Former Chesterfield Magistrates Court house built 1963-65, converted into residential accommodation comprising 30 luxury flats in 2022. Designed by Prof S Allen and Robert Keenlyside for Chesterfield Borough Council, altered in 1975. Reinforced concrete, with decorative stone cladding, and timber roofs clad with copper sheeting. Double fan shaped plan, three storeys. Original east entrance front has recessed ground floor with central double glazed doors now blocked with glazed side lights. Either side four windows with concrete louvres to the offices. Above eleven bays topped with gables, the three central bays have recessed windows to both floors. Either side the two storey courts have grey slate panels with side lights and set back grey! green slate cladding. West front has recessed ground floor with eleven windows each with concrete louvres. Above eleven gabled bays, the central three and outer tow with grey slate cladding and side lights with set back grey green ...
Read more

Glasgow Science Centre Mall

Image
  The Building Designed by BDP Architects and opened in 2001, winning RIBA Award for Architecture 2002, Glasgow Institute of Architects Design Award 2001, Bentley Success Award 2003, Dynamic Place Award 2002 the overall Glasgow Science Centre scheme was the largest Millennium Commission-funded project in Scotland. This is the Mall, the largest of the three main titanium-clad buildings.   The Photograph Modern architecture tends to feature glass quite heavily. This example is no exception. I have developed a few different approaches to rendering the glass in images, sometimes I abstract the glass completely as it if is a solid surface and other times I use gradients to darken the glass to partially obscure what is behind it. In both approaches you end up treating the nearest glass wall as pretty much a solid wall.  Reviewing my pictures from this trip, I initially discounted this image because it seemed too simple a shape - due to my normal approaches to the glass wal...
Read more

Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith

Image
  The Building The theatre was originally a music hall dating back to 1888 before being twice renovated before reopening in 1895 as the New Lyric Opera House. The theatre was saved from closure and demolition in 1966, instead the auditorium was dismantled and reinstalled piece by piece in its current location before reopening in 1979. This picture shows the redeveloped box office and entrance, designed by Rick Mather Architects and opened around 2007. Work has continued to redevelop and the theatre was nominated for RICS Awards in 2016. The Photograph This was taken back in February 2024 but was only processed this week. I like buildings with a good mix of contrasting shapes, and this is certainly one of those with multiple angles and the prominent curved wall. My main aim when processing this picture was to emphasise the bold, standout sign but also showing the entrance and box office plus the side windows. From a technical point of view, I used a shift lens to ensure that all of ...
Read more