Old Salem Interior

[merckxman]

This shot was taken last Thanksgiving in the Single Men's Home at Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC. I particularly like the warmth of the colors in the shot and how the natural light coming through the old window creates a very soft glow. Taken with Kodak HD 400 on my Nikon N80.

[bingo pajama]

the use of natural light in this shot does it for me. i especially like the light on the bookshelf. very nice. was this a handheld shot? what was the shutter speed?

[merckxman]

Ugh--I need to remember...

I took this shot twice. Both were handheld using a Tokina 30-70/f2.8 lens--I braced myself up aginst a doorjamb. I'm pretty sure this is the shot where I spot metered on the table and opened up the aperture. I think the lens speed was 60 and the aperture was wide open at 2.8. I metered off the window on the other shot and the interior was a little underexposed and off color (a little green).

Thanks for asking!

[PuckJunkey]

Very nice job of capturing "the mood" of the place. My only suggestion: I would rework the existing photo a bit more by using the Perspective Correction tools in Photoshop, in order to straighten out that cabinet a bit. You should be able to make it "stand up straight" without distorting its appearance too much. Otherwise, it's pretty much perfect for the goal you were describing.

[LLMc]

This is a really nice shot. I like the mood and the warm colors. I think it's a little soft, but that does add something to the mood, it's not too soft. I agree with the suggestion about using the perspective tool to straighten the cabinet. One other thing I maght try is cropping a little closer to the table on the right, maybe just inside the thing on the wall. Nice work!

[merckxman]

PuckJunkie:

I've never heard of persective correction in Photoshop. I'll give it a whirl. As for the cabinet, I think it actually was leaning like that--the floor in the room is over 200 years old...:-)

Thanks for the comments.

[merckxman]

Lou:

I agree it's a little soft. That seems to have been an artifact of scanning, converting to jpg and reducing the size of the file. I use Paint Shop Pro for my photos, but I didn't really manipulate the picture at all for this forum. I just scanned it and converted it.

Funny that you mentioned cropping the pic. I did exactly what you suggested when I printed it in 8x10 and framed it. Thanks for confirming my thoughts on the composition.

[PuckJunkey]

PuckJunkie:

I've never heard of persective correction in Photoshop. I'll give it a whirl. As for the cabinet, I think it actually was leaning like that--the floor in the room is over 200 years old...:-)

*lol* Well, that's true isn't it? Hadn't thought of it that way. If it was as such, don't do a thing to it; it's perfect in that case. But in general, Edit | Transform | Perspective is one of my favorite tools in Photoshop. No architectural or interior photographer should "leave home without it".