Nov 14, 2013

Farm house revisited

Nature using synthesized nature as a habitatual asset?
As I mentioned yesterday, I am working nights this week. Yesterday I got a little stir crazy and decided to grab my camera and head over to the old farmhouse I had walked through, back in July of last summer. I didn't stay long but I was challenged with a particular scene for quite a while. On the second story of this house, at the staircase landing, is a window that illuminates the 2nd story hallway. Its window pane has been broken out, but the curtain still hangs neatly, with no idea that its intended job is no longer needed. Quietly; mute, it sails with each intruding breeze and mimes congenially, in eerie oblivion. I like how the stationary red curtain top contrasts boldly against the dingy interior of the house. This scene just begs to be photographed but I grew frustrated trying to best capture it. If you were to shoot this window, straight on, the extreme difference in exposure (bright outside & dark inside) would produce what I call an "exorcist style" image where the window is completely overexposed and white, and the interior would be underexposed and dark. The technical way around this issue is to create an HDR image (a combination of multiple exposures taken at extreme EV stops). Not a huge one for HDR, I opted not to shoot it head on. I played around with different wide angle perspectives up close, from the floor and from the ceiling, as well as some long shots of the window, set up at the other end of the hallway. I walked away feeling like there was something I was missing; not in terms of the exposure, but in the composition. I'll just have to go back and give it another shot sometime!

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