Deserted Barn

[kdoc856]

Weekend walkabout, stumbled onto a deserted barn in a most unlikley spot (have no idea how they ever accessed it) Really interesting old time carpentry. I had no flash or tripod with me, so the exposures are not what they might be. Any C&C apppreciated.

[Harpo]

Interesting indeed. is this where you live in Columbus Ohio? wonder if its a former Amish barn as I know the Amish have a large population in Ohio outside of Lancaster PA where I live. The style looks like some I see out here.

[kdoc856]

Thanks, Mike

This wss taken close to my cabin in southeast Ohio. No history of Amish around there that I am aware of. There is an Amish community about 10 miles outside of Columbus, but that is 70 miles north of this barn, so probably too far distant to be of Amish craftmanship.

[Geoff F]

Weekend walkabout, stumbled onto a deserted barn in a most unlikley spot (have no idea how they ever accessed it) Really interesting old time carpentry. I had no flash or tripod with me, so the exposures are not what they might be.

In this particular case, Kevin, I think using flash would have ruined the atmosphere.

[Donald]

I'd agree with Geoff on the point that you definitely didn't need a flash. Beautiful textures in the wood that you have brought out very well. I'm sure there are lots of possibilities. I could spend hours there.

I'm, not sure that teh 2nd and 5th images work so well. But the other three are well worth looking at a second time.

[kdoc856]

Thanks, Donald and Geoff,

I should have explained that. No doubt a direct flash would have mucked things up, but it was so dark in the barn that getting a reasonable exposure for the wood against the harsh light between the beams forced a seriously under-exposed wood structure.

With no tripod, I couldn't attempt any HDR stacking so I was curious whether adding some ambient light via a swivel head flash might have allowed a better-exposed wood structure- I had to crank the exposure on #3 in pp that lead to a noise excess that I haven't been completely happy with in spite of several noise reduction techniques.

So that was my rationale. Do you think it might have helped at all?

Thanks,

Kevin

PS Images 2 and 5 were interesting just for the carpentry aspects- that's my other avocation

[Donald]

I see your point, Kevin, but am wondering how you would have managed to throw light all around, for example, the area covered in image #3. Could one flash unit have done it? You would need to bounce it off some sort of reflector to really spread it around.

I suppose you could have made another image that was about properly lighting a selected area; e.g. that main vertical beam, and allowing what is behind it to fade off into darker tones with the light drop-off.

[kdoc856]

That was the thought , Donald. Blast the space behind me at full strength and hope for a miracle that it might have reflected off of something. Not likely to help, but I've got an infinite amount of free film to experiment with

[rpcrowe]

I have some images of the interior of an unfinished pre-Civil War Mississippi building on my smugmug site at http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Travel/Na...527103&k=wZvsm
The images are located towards the last of the gallery.

These were done using a 550EX flash bounced into a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro. The FlipIt portion of the Flash Diffuser pro was angled 45 degrees forward. I think that the feeling of this 150 year old unfinished building was kept. However, without the flash it would have been too dark to shoot.

[kdoc856]

Thanks, Richard. Very apropos, though the incoming specular light wan't quite as direct. I'm planning a reshoot, this time with a tripod so I can attempt an HDR approach, and if I can talk my wife into acting as an assistant (it's about a 90 minute mostly uphill trek on a very rough path), I'll rig some kind of reflector, with and without a flash. Enjoyed your Natchez album, I love the antebellum period architecture.

Kevin

[jeeperman]

I do like the old wood and the textures it can provide. You did quite well here but I do look forward to seeing what you come up with on the next visit.

[FrankMi]

Hi Kevin, under the circumstances you describe I am amazed at the detail you captured in the wooden beams. For the outside image, I would try to get the peak of the roof and a little space above to complete the structure provided you have to sacrifice the bottom of the building to do so.

If you ever find yourself in this position again with no tripod, try to find something you can rest the camera on and use the center focusing dot to pick a point on the subject and to get some multiple exposure images. You may be very surprised at what image alignment in post processing can do for you if you can keep the camera steady enough. You could end up with some amazing and unexpected results.

I tried this on my vacation where I didn't have a tripod and although not every indoor image taken like this could be used, far more than expected produced decent results. The down side is that you've used up a bit more space on your memory card.

[kdoc856]

Thanks, Frank

Good idea. I gave up on exposure stacking too early, just assuming the alignment would be unsatisfactory. There was enough internal stuff in the barn that I could have rigged something, and will next time. Appreciate the help. I have my kit all packed for a repeat trek tomorrow, if the weather co-operates. This time, I'll have a tripod, reflector, and 2 speedlights (and sore legs the day after)