Abandoned Homestead

I spent the other day photographing around this old homestead and

decided to try the Sepia shooting mode in my HP 945. Was I

successful?

Susan,

 

I think the capture is excellent. Personally, the sepia detracts from the overall image. I think you would have been better off showing it in color or B/W.

Thanks Stephen for taking the time to comment, I thought shooting and or converting to sepia or black and white would give the image an "old time" feel to it. I'll have to try your B&W suggestion to see how I like it.

Nice composition.

 

Do you use PS? If yes, then you can try to apply sepia as well as other tones in PS to your original colour images and check the result. This is just my opinion as an amateur, not any criticism.

 

Kind regards...

Thank you Pulok, I have PS Elements 3 and do very little manipulation in editing. I had two cameras with me that day and just decided to see the results if I shot in sepia on one of them. Comments, suggestions and critiques are how us amateurs learn.

Generally, the in-camera B&W and sepia modes are to be avoided. They tend to produce very flat, boring results. The sepia is little more than a gimmick. The B&W mode, however, can be used to see if a scene would suit a B&W treatment, or if the colours are holding the scene together( for instance, see this discussion). After taking the B&W, its best to delete it and retake the scene in colour, and then convert it with the channel mixer in the editor later. Click on the link just above, for info on the mixer if you don't know much about it already.

 

Anyway, composition wise, I like the low angle. The foreground logs may be competing too much with the house, though. The sheer number of them filling the foreground makes them a subject rather than a bit of foreground interest. This isn't necessarily a bad thing( the house doesn't have to be the main subject), and they are at least linked in both being wood, but different in that the logs in the house are ordered and the ones on the ground chaotic.

There is some order in that pile, though, and a slight crop might make more of that long, straight log, rising diagonally from the left corner. On the right, that other diagonal branch is working with the left one to take the eye up the ruin and then further back to the house. The background post on the right, slightly leaning back, is helping balance out the lean of the left side of the house.

Sorry, the channel mixer discussion is on this photo by the same person.

You are so intelligent when it comes to all this information it'll be years before I'm up to your speed! I looked at the image of the Water Girl and then Green Man, the discussion there lost me at about "choose Split channel, Split to RGB...."

I haven't gotten beyond the quick fix editor. The changes you made to my image work in every way and make for a more dramatic photo. But I found the graphic interest of the logs imposed before the house to be a strong contribution to the composition, it helps "tell the story" of the hardships of this family (and there were lots) and the pile of branches were their firewood. The next time I get the urge to try sepia or B&W I'll convert in PS Elements 3, will be yet another new experience for me as I'm still pretty much at the point and shoot stage. I took a quick peek at your assorted B&W & Toned portfolio and see why you have such a good eye compositionally and a real flair for editing. This has been a very informative and inspirational critique, thanks.

Your bio says you studied photography a while ago. The channel mixer does exactly the same thing as coloured filters do for film users. The red channel would make these yellow(I assume) grasses white and the blue sky, dark. The blue channel would lighten the sky and darken the grasses, etc.

 

You can ignore the Split channel thing, its just a quick way to see what the picture would look like if you applied each of the three channels to the photo... red with a value of 100, blue 100, etc. One file is created for each channel. Normally, you may not want to use a value of 100, anyway, as it may be too strong. A split, say red(70) and the remaining 30 in green or blue would be more appropriate. Some amount in blue might bring out the wood textures, for instance. Its just a matter of experimenting with different combination of numbers in each channel until you get something you like. I quite like the red filter look, but others don't. Trying to use all three channels might produce more 'acceptable' results, with a good tonal range. Just make sure that all the values add up to 100. You can occasionally go over 100, but only if there are no strong highlights.

 

Oh, and remember to tick the monochrome box in the mixer( at least its a box in the editor I'm using, might be different in Elements)

I like this a lot! I have PS Elements 3 also, and have so much to learn. There are good books out there, an Elements website, and a monthly magazine that all teach how to use it (my problem is taking the time to sit down and go through the steps to learn). I love old cabins. You could do all kinds of seasons and views with this cabin. I do like this one, however.

I like sepia and grayscale to be a bit darker, but that is my personal opinion. I'm honored to be the eleventh person to rate this and therefore cause it to be added to your "most frequently-rated photos" folder.

PS, I'm pleased that you like my abstract folder because I do to. I have a knack for finding and being abstract and weird.

This is beautiful also! and thanks for your comments on Alexander Flag Waving! Look forward to taking more time to look through yours! Melody. P.S. - I like the above crop left, but still like your variation in sepia.

great image very well done on this and all your photographs

Susan,

 

I think you captured the homestead and its surroundings very well (especially the tangling of dead logs and branches in the foreground). Not sure is sepia was the best choice here (some of the natural constrast may have been lost). Good work overall, though.

I agree with you about the composition, I very much liked the perspective but with the sepia I'd have liked more contrast and a wider range of tones, I was going for that "old timey" look. This place is inaccessbile right now, come spring I'll try a color version. Thanks for stopping by and your valued opinion.

I like the mood of this photo Susan. The composition and sepia lend a genuine atmosphere to the setting. Good one. Regards, Neil

I really liked this one myself, but now that my editing skills have improved I'd like to redo it so that it has more contrast. I hope to reshoot this in September with my 20D, hopefully I'll have some nice clouds to compliment the old homestead.

This is one of my favorite couple of images in your portfolio. I do agree, however, that this would lend itself to a straight B&W treatment much better than sepia. When you go back to shoot it, I would try to get a bit more elevation from my camera while keeping the foreground intact but getting more of the bottom of the house. Very nice image with lots of great potential here.

When I reshoot this come Fall it will probably be grazed over and the base of the old cabin will be more visible, and I will try some different angles. I'm anxious to try this with my 20D instead of my old HP945, I shot in camera sepia as an experiment now I'm giving some serious thought to giving raw a try, I'm soooo slow to embrace all this new technology. Thanks for the encouragement and advice.

I think it's a damn fine photo, and I'm even more impressed that you did not use a 2000 dollar camera and a fourteen channel red-blue-green synthesizer thingy. The composition is good. The sepia seems right for the evironment shown. Now, if you were to make this into a 14 X 20 print, and I were to see it in person, maybe it wouldn't work. But for what it is, it's super. I am going to make one other remark, and I hope it is not taken as offensive by the teckies. I love Ps and all the high tech stuff as much as the next person. But, I can recall back to the coursework and seminars I took in the old black and white days, and there were always those who could quote you book and verse of Ansel Adams' zone system, or this and that desitometer reading crap, but many times they never produced a picture with guts and emotion. Don't let the technology get in the way of instinct. IMHO that is one thing that painters understand far better than photographers.

I'm planning on going out to this old homestead sometime in Sept. and want to try some different compositions and shoot it in color then decide whether or not to go B&W or sepia or stay in color. I would like to improve my editing skills using Elements, it seems I can spend hours studying and trying just one technique only to have to look it up again a week later. Every time someone is gracious enough to show me an improvement with one of my images by making some simple changes it motivates me (and frustrates too) to try a little harder. I've resisted all this computer technology most of my life and struggle to embrace it, I'd be happy if I could turn the clock back a hundred years. Thanks for stopping by.