Old Homestead C&C

[Harpo]

Out riding the other day, passed this old homestead slowly being consumed back to nature. Been tinkering with the composition, saturation and am still not sure about the image quality. Any advice? Thanks in advance.


Exposure 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 100

[Donald]

Mike

Obviously to go with that amount of perspective distortion is an artistic choice to be made. It's perfectly legitimate to do so, if it adds to the mood that you are trying to create. And for this image, I think that works.

I did wonder about a couple of things:

It is a 'bright' image with an air of springtime and life bursting forth. I wonder if it needed a darker more sombre treatment, almost to induce a depressive tone into it? I wonder if it would be a very good candidate for a black & white conversion where you could really get to work with the lighting and the contrast?

But even if you go want it in this colour version, I wonder if adding in Local Contrast Enhancement would give it more strength as it would add in that crucial 'pop'. The CiC tutorial on Local Contrast Enhancement is as good as it gets

[Harpo]

Thanks Donald... Ive been playing with both color & BW. Im still learning photoshop. However, I checked out the tutorial on enhancements and applied it to the color version. Also added a BW version from CS3 with my limited knowledge in manipulating it. Ive been doing my post primarily on iPhoto so far. I do see a little bit more of a pop in the second color version.

[Donald]

I think they are definite improvements all round. And it is a process of learning. So, well done.

I do like the B & W. I think you can work up a whole lot of atmosphere into that. As it is, I think it's got a lot more impact than the colour version. Others (including you) may, of course, not agree. I hope some other folks come in an give us their view.

[jiro]

I like the b&w conversion as well. It brought more separation between the house and the background. I agree with Donald, this shot can benefit more by adding a sense of sad or abandoned atmosphere by doing some selective dodging and burning. A very interesting point of view or perspective to shoot and abandoned house, if I may say. Nice work, Mike.

[Harpo]

I need to figure out this selective dodging and burning and changing the atmosphere in photoshop... thanks for the advice and comments guys.

[MiniChris]

When I read the thread, I kept thinking it really looked like an image that would benefit from both color and B&W...so, yes, I played a little - mostly using saturation, layering with combinations of multiply and overlay in each image, then combining the two and subtracting most of the color...it's a thought.

[Harpo]

Now that is interesting Chris... Looking forward to when I get over the hump and become more skilled with post processing!