This was a commission with a difference. When my good friend, Ronn Bechler, turned 50, his wife commissioned me to photograph the weathered 'ghost' signage that still adorned the old brick wall of the shoe factory that had belonged to his grandfather nearly one hundred years earlier. Located in Chapel St, Fitzroy, just back from the intersection of Johnson St and Brunswick St, it was a miracle of sorts that it hadn't been bulldozed for redevelopment a long time ago. While a more elaborate version of the project might have called for a cherry picker to lift me up and in line with the signage, I was able to take a stable enough shot with my Nikon D610 and Manfrotto tripod to then correct the perspective in Photoshop so as to accomplish a perfectly square image.
Another challenge was getting the timing right so that the telegraph poles weren't casting shadows across the signage as was the case the first time I attempted to get the source shot.
As I wanted to make it a large, art-grade print, I was able to upscale the edited image using software called Topaz Gigapixel and then had it printed on archival paper by a group of fine art printers in Brunswick called Hound & Bone. The final printed item was then beautifully framed by Icon Frames in Malvern who specialise in gallery grade artwork.
In addition to the finished photo here, I have included the source shot, as taken without the corrected perspective, as well as a longer shot of the building, and a final shot of the framed artwork as hung in my friend's study.
Client
Maxine Bechler
Agency
Adrian Elton Creative*
Items
Art Photography
Role
Photography
Post Production
Credits
This was a commission with a difference. When my good friend, Ronn Bechler, turned 50, his wife commissioned me to photograph the weathered 'ghost' signage that still adorned the old brick wall of the shoe factory that had belonged to his grandfather nearly one hundred years earlier. Located in Chapel St, Fitzroy, just back from the intersection of Johnson St and Brunswick St, it was a miracle of sorts that it hadn't been bulldozed for redevelopment a long time ago. While a more elaborate version of the project might have called for a cherry picker to lift me up and in line with the signage, I was able to take a stable enough shot with my Nikon D610 and Manfrotto tripod to then correct the perspective in Photoshop so as to accomplish a perfectly square image.
Another challenge was getting the timing right so that the telegraph poles weren't casting shadows across the signage as was the case the first time I attempted to get the source shot.
As I wanted to make it a large, art-grade print, I was able to upscale the edited image using software called Topaz Gigapixel and then had it printed on archival paper by a group of fine art printers in Brunswick called Hound & Bone. The final printed item was then beautifully framed by Icon Frames in Malvern who specialise in gallery grade artwork.
In addition to the finished photo here, I have included the source shot, as taken without the corrected perspective, as well as a longer shot of the building, and a final shot of the framed artwork as hung in my friend's study.
