B&W Stairs & Balcony

I like tbe B&W not sure about the border effect as Im not a fan of borders - though it does suit the image. To be honest, I would never have guessed it was a shot of a library as there's no books so the photo isn't giving away much as far as information of location, but I really like that lower staircase and the reverse-S shape.

If there was a shot of some book shelves and a window with the Eiffel tower in the background, that would say it all but perhaps that wasn't possible?
 
Nice image, but not getting the fake rebate and attempt to make it look like film. Effects like this invariably cheapen an image. It's obviously not shot on film. I think it would be better if it had less processing and lost the cheesy border.
 
Thanks for your comments gents. I know what you mean about the border (rebate?). I often think that B&W images need a white border for them to contrast against when seen on the web, in much the same way that a white mount is used in a picture frame. I guess picking the fake old film type one wasn't a great choice but I thought it went with the film noir style of the photo.

I just mentioned it was shot in a library to say where I took the photo. The picture isn't meant to convey Paris or a Library, I just like the architecture of the stairs and the balustrades. I am not sure why the library was in our guide book. We weren't allowed in the main part of the library although looking through the door window it did look impressive.
 
I've got a real soft spot for elegant curvy staircases and this ticks all the boxes for me.
Great choice to go for B&W with this one - keeps all the focus on the curves and textures without any distractions and it's very nicely executed.
I think I may have been tempted to clone out the light fitting on the downward staircase portion to the right, but really a minor thing and personal choice.

My only niggle, if you can call it that, is that the patterns get a little bit muddled and messy where the stair banister crosses behind the balcony rail (especially since it coincides with a change in direction in the staircase) but in the absence of a handy set of ladders to get you at eye level with the banister I don't think there's anything you could have done about that.

Looks a beautiful building and a well captured shot of one of the features - hope you had fun there.
Seems like there was an interesting floor in there too from what we can see at the bottom. Do you have any wider shots where we can see more of it?



p.s. Not a fan of the border either, but that's already been done above :p
 
Idlefrog said:
(rebate?)..
Click to expand...

That border plug-in, or whatever it is, is replicating black and white printing using a larger than standard film holder. Back in the day, to avoid cropping (and because the effect was popular around 30 years ago) we filed back the film holder aperture to allow the clear rebate to show (printing black obviously as it's a negative) which is what those rough edges are.

Here's a genuine example.

zLtXNsC.jpg
 
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Really like this image, well spotted and well shot.
I think a border can set off an image 'just right' although I admit I prefer either a solid black or white plain border rather than some of the 'skuffed' versions you can get nowadays.
 
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