Interiors from the empty house

[Alastair]

A couple of interiors from an empty house, shot yesterday. CF-39 with a touch of Alien Skin Exposure Love...

[Dwayne Oakes]

Your camera is dialed in great !

good

-the comps work here
-exposures are right on
-nice natural colors
-good contrast and detail
-good DOF

nit

-photos lack mood or not compelling enough

tweak

The second photo has lots of potential with its dark shadows and sidelight
from the window. A sure way to add mood to a photo is add a blue Duotone
tint.

-straightened the photo as there is a slight tilt to the left when placed on
a grid

-changed the photo to black and white then added a Duotone tint by
adding a lot of cold White Balance this will add more mood to the photo

-dodge (lightened) the light bulb to turn it on to add more mood to the photo

-dodge (lightened) the floor to show the light bulb's light falloff

PS Hope you don't mind me tweaking your photo, hope this helps
and thanks for posting !

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes
http://dwayne-oakes.artistwebsites.com/

[Alastair]

Funny you should say they lack mood - I thought they were incredibly moody. This is the old family home, now sold, it'll probably be torn down and all those things that made it a warm place to visit are gone, with nothing more than some junk in the basement and a few bits of paper on the floor. The walls have those light spots where paintings once were.

Thanks for the suggestion on the 2nd photo, but I was going for the moodiness of the light for the window, rather than the light bulb. If the bulb had been on, it would also cast a large hot spot on the wall , the table and the ceiling as well as on the floor. For me what is interesting about this shot is that I had never noticed that there was a window there. I have known my wife for 15 years and never managed to see the window. It is in the basement, after all, but still. I thought about turning on the light but decided that I liked the window light better.

Thanks for the suggestions - I thought it interesting you would go for a blue duotone tint, as I purposely warmed the photo up.

[andrewr]

It's interesting to see how different people would approach the same subject, but personally I prefer the warmth and colour of the original.

Originally Posted by Alastair

CF-39 with a touch of Alien Skin Exposure Love...

What happened to the 4x5 Alastair?

[Alastair]

Originally Posted by andrewr

What happened to the 4x5 Alastair?

4x5 is still extant. I just need a holder for my Imacon scanner and I'll bring it back to life. For the time being I'm thinking digital, but that'll change soon enough. I do miss shooting with that camera...

[Stephen_Caissie]

I prefer them as shot, myself. The only other thing I might have done differently would be a focus stack with the chandelier in the top image; it seems such a prominent feature, it's a shame to let it be out of focus like that. And maybe straighten the verticals. I do find the overall low-sat/low contrast to be appropriate to the subject, and the added warmth helps tie the shots together IMHO.

[cuttingedge]

IMHO....they are both lacking as far as your composition is concerned....pretty centered shots which makes them lack any interest....they lack any real moodiness that ultimately comes with a deserted place.....where you shooting in manual? raw?....your second shot could have really really kicked ass with that light coming from the window on the right....but you shot straight on and didn't seem to take that into consideration....sorry don't mean to sound harsh

[Alastair]

Originally Posted by cuttingedge

IMHO....they are both lacking as far as your composition is concerned....pretty centered shots which makes them lack any interest....they lack any real moodiness that ultimately comes with a deserted place.....where you shooting in manual? raw?....your second shot could have really really kicked ass with that light coming from the window on the right....but you shot straight on and didn't seem to take that into consideration....sorry don't mean to sound harsh

But that's how I shoot - I tend to go for point-of-view images. How would I compose things differently? The rooms themselves are pretty much empty, so that light coming in the window was going to fall on the wall and the bench and not much else. I guess I could have bumped the light to make it more dramatic, but it's coming from a stairwell, we're in the basement. I suppose I could have put a head out there to pop it a bit but I was just there with a camera and tripod.

If they don't work for you that's fine with me - but I'm interested when you say '....your second shot could have really really kicked ass with that light coming from the window on the right....but you shot straight on and didn't seem to take that into consideration...'

How could I have changed things, in your opinion? Seriously, I'm interested.

Oh, and I don't think the Hasselblad shoots in anything except RAW. Manual, I guess - I just kept on adjusting things until the histogram looked good.

[cuttingedge]

I would have shot from the left side of the room and would have focused exclusively on the table with the window in the background, the light coming in and it's position to the table would have made a very moody shot so you shoot film?

[Alastair]

Fair enough. As for film, I shoot everything, really. 35mm Digital, medium-format digital (that's one Hasselblad - the expensive one). I have a couple of old rangefinders that I shoot 35mm film with - a friend just gave me 50 or so rolls of film so I have to figure what I'll to with that... I also shoot medium-format film with another old Hasselblad and my favourite camera is a 4x5 Linhof. I did, finally, get a holder for my scanner for 4x5 but MAN, that film is getting expensive. Well, film in general is getting expensive but I still love shooting it. Of course, the cameras are dirt cheap so it's easy to get in. If I had to pay retail for any of my film cameras I wouldn't do it - but they were all used.

But I also have little point-and-shoot digitals, a paper pinhole camera which is cool and weird at the same time; a couple of ancient other cameras that aren't really worth much but every so often I'll put a roll or two of film through them. Holgas - a couple of those, of course.

I love film for a couple of reasons. One, you don't get to check to see how well you did so you spend less time guessing and more time shooting properly. Two, at $8 or so PER SHOT I don't have too many loser frames when I'm shooting 4x5. It's amazing how an expensive mistake will make you super-duper careful when it comes to shooting things. As a consequence I find I get more good material with film than I do with digital, because I have to work harder for it. Most of my best work is with my 4x5. Or that old Hasselblad film camera.

Of course, the guy in the Caddy was shot with the digital. And that is one of my favorite shots, too.

My clients never get to see any film. No one has any patience for film. Most people don't even know you can still shoot with it.

My next two promos are all shots I did with film, though. And I have about 30 rolls of 220 that I want to get through by the end of the summer, if I can...