Pride in your work

[gregj1763]

I'm fortunate in my profession to get the opportunity to work in some wonderful old houses, this one in central Tasmania was completed in 1854 but the original wing was erected in 1834.
It is under a major renovation at the moment and I lucky enough to be able to do all the pretty bits
This drawing room, which is the grandest room in the house took me two weeks to complete.
Stripping old wallpaper, preparation of walls, ceiling and woodwork then painting and re-papering as well as touching up the gold on the mirror.
Pretty happy with the result. To give you an idea of scale, the ceiling rose is about 6' across and the ceiling height 15'
Cheers, Greg

[pnodrog]

Looks amazing and your workmanship wins my admiration.

I'll give you free accommodation if you come and paint my house in return.

[FootLoose]

I realise you want to show the opulence of this house but as a photograph, I think you could crop the shot to just the mirror.

[John 2]

I realise you want to show the opulence of this house but as a photograph, I think you could crop the shot to just the mirror.

....or the mirror and above. Apart from the workmanship (photographic and otherwise), the view point is particularly well chosen to economically show off the maximum detail in the room. Must be a particularly satisfying job.

[gregj1763]

Looks amazing and your workmanship wins my admiration.

I'll give you free accommodation if you come and paint my house in return.

New Zealand is on my must visit list. I have friends that just got back from their honeymoon there. They said it was beautiful.
You supply food and wine and we could have a deal one day Paul

[gregj1763]

Thanks for the comments Greg & John, is this more what you were thinking

[deetheturk]

Very nice Greg, the crop works for me!

[Rebel]

Awesome image, I love the reflection/mirror thing you've done.

I do prefer the first image though.

[Loose Canon]

Beautiful work Greg.

I really like the composition of this shot. The mirror reflecting the ceiling and the chandelier is awesome and I think either crop works except in the second crop I wouldn’t cut off the bottom part of that beautiful mirror frame. I kind of like the ceiling in the first one too.

But if I had done this work and had taken this shot, I would want that mirror frame and wall behind it to really stand out and take your breath away. You are getting a lot of fall-off to what I would consider too dark towards the ceiling and that is a distinct disadvantage in showing that frame and wall. Especially with the window reflections in the mirror at the bottom which are quite bright.

To this end I think I would think about bringing up the brightness of the shot starting at the lower window reflections up to get the eye traveling in that direction.

I might even look at vignetting slightly around the mirror to further draw attention to it.

I’m also wondering if it needs a very slight horizontal adjustment. Seems like it is giving to the left ever so slightly.

[Brownbear]

Beautiful image... I like both but prefer the original for the inclusion of the ceiling with all its gorgeous detail.

[Wavelength]

Both are very nice

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Amazing work Greg.
It's funny, I didn't notice the mirrors reflective flaw until looking at the second crop.
Both are nicely done.

[IzzieK]

Like Matt and Christina, I prefer the original image as it shows your work more.

[gregj1763]

Thank you all for your comments, going to take my camera down today and see if I can make an improvement on the image. I don't like the blown out highlights in the windows so I will see what I can come up with and post tonight.

[mknittle]

Like Matt and Christina, I prefer the original image as it shows your work more.

So do I.

[gregj1763]

Ok, this is the best I could come up with.
I went down today with the intention of exposing for the highlights, (windows) and using flash to light up the mirror and wall.
To get the shot with the ceiling rose fully in the mirrors reflection I was sitting directly below the chandelier and no matter what I tried I wound up casting a shadow on the ceiling.
Bare in mind I'm on an hourly rate and my client was watching so I couldn't spend too much time working on the problem.
I eventually gave up with flash, exposed for the highlights and brought up the detail in the rest of the image in PP.
For those that liked the ornate cornice, sorry but I had to use perspective warp to make a decent image of it because of the angle I was shooting at and lost it when cropping.
An interesting exercise, working with mirrors but takes a lot of nutting out :roll eyes:
Oh well practice makes perfect.
C&C welcome

[Sam W]

I like the how you handled the blown out windows in the previous photos and captured your work in this photo. Well done. - Sam