The Midland Theater Photo

Photographer’s Note

I took this shot of the newly-restore Midland Theater to commemorate its first billing: the opening act was comedian Bill Cosby. I didn't get any closer than the marquee!

Located on Courthouse Square in downtown Newark, the Midland originally opened in 1928. The Midland's website not only has the current show schedule, but also a lot about the theater's history, including reprints of original newspaper articles dating back to its opening.

The re-opening of the Midland has brought some night life back to our town as some restaurants stay open late on show nights, and a local hack service offers carriage rides around the Square. Our town has done a lot to renovate the downtown, and it does look nice.

There's one thing that saddens me in all of this. With the exception of the movie series they offer (second-run and classic movies), their ticket prices seem pretty high for a fairly small town. I know the popular performers they book do not come cheaply; I also realize that, as a business, they of course want to recoup their renovation and maintenance costs, but it's a shame a broader cross section of our community can't enjoy the shows due to high ticket prices.

This shot was hand-held at twilight at ISO 100. Post processing: I cloned out an annoying telephone wire which went across the front of the building, and ran curves and USM. I made a separate layer of the sky and softened it a little using gaussian blur. I also upped the overall saturation a little since it was just past sunset and the light was marginal.

carper, digi-mom, dsidwell has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

carper (64026) 2004-08-24 5:24

lovely shot Kimberley,
Very good composition, good lines in it, nice lines and good colours, very nice job

RandomCameraGuy (3063) 2004-08-24 15:09

A very nice composition. It's like an ad for the cinema. My only suggestion here is to adjust the curves on the pic instead of increasing saturation. With curves you have more control of the pic quality and it adjusts both saturation and contrast.

Oh I also suggest trying b/w--I always suggest b/w! For this pic it's b/c of the old time feel of the subject matter. Add some noise and bolster that feeling!

pamastro (7213) 2004-09-02 0:29

I like these old, small, theaters. This is a nice one. You captured it nicely. The marquee is great. And the flag hanging from the window sort of gives it that rejuvenated, grand re-opening feel. I like the lighting, too. Except maybe only that it's so dark under the overhang making it look dark and closed. Tell them to turn on the lights next time. ;) The inclusion of a bit of street with the angle parking adds more of a small town feel to this shot which adds to the atmosphere. I would agree with the saturation and contrast boost for this shot. Nicely done. I'm surprised they re-modeled it in this manner for live performances. Around here, in Ann Arbor for example, the two old theaters are now art film houses. The much larger movie palaces of Detroit, however, have been turned into live venues.

dsidwell (9745) 2004-12-24 17:40

If the colors weren't so lovely, I'd recommend b/w for this old theatre. The composition captures quite nicely the "classic" view of one of these structures. Nice work, Kimberley.