Some of my favorites from India

[John B]

Yeah, I know I posted these in 2006, when I took them.

Man sitting against the wall in the entry way of the Taj Mahal.

[John B]

Family enjoying a day at the Taj Mahal (Look! I'm touching the top! Take the picture!)

[John B]

Kind of a cliché shot, but I like it.

[John B]

One of the Qutub Shahi tombs.

/center]

[John B]

Inside the Tomb of Salim Chisti, looking out through the marble screens. Visitors make a wish before tying a thread on the screen, left. I believe I wished for world peace. The tomb is within a large mosque (no shoes allowed!)

[John B]

All 6x6 photos were taken with this camera, a Holga plastic toy camera which costs around $20. It shoots negatives that are 60mm x 60mm, compared to a 35mm camera which shoots negatives that are 24mm x 36mm. All halo and vignetting are as a result of the high quality build of the camera - which requires me to tape up all openings to avoid light leaks (e.g., tape the back of the camera on).

Let's hear it for Russian camera technology!

All panoramic shots were taken with the Horizon Perfekt swing-lens panoramic camera. It's negatives are 24mm x 58mm.

[sekhmet]

Great gear!

No one could fault you for being a gearhead.

Thanks for posting John. I like the one of the wall and the inside shot.

I think the Taj Mahal outdoor shot has a decided green cast and could use some saturation.

[John B]

What would you recommend? I'm absolutely horrible at balancing color. I press "auto correct" and hope for the best. On the one above I didn't do anything to it aside from cropping.

It was definitely a weird day - no clouds to speak of, but the sky wasn't really blue. Just hazy.

[sekhmet]

John, I don't know what software you're using but, when I see a colour cast I go to hue/saturation in Ps or the colour bar in Lr and dial in some of the opposite colour.. in the case of green, that is red. That will tend to bring colours back to the normal end of the spectrum. There are plenty of technical ways to do it as well, and I used to do that, but now I trust my eye.

Mind you, the entire deal depends on your monitor. Monitors will tend to move to a particular colour as they age, and when they get to a certain point they are good for Word and Excel but not photos.

I calibrate my monitors, but it's expensive. There are lots of other ways you can do it. Check out calibrate on google.

Forgive me if you know all this stuff. I don't want to be a pompous ass, just helpful.

Here's a slightly messed with Taj Mahal

[Cornflake]

You have a good eye, John. Listen to Sekh and ignore me.

[John B]

Well, I'd have to hear what you have to say before I can ignore it...

[Cornflake]

Ignore the fact that your first photo is my favorite.