The Piano Technician's Perspective

hmmmm . . . . .

Interesting composition.

while the piano is the dominant mass in the composition, the eye is quickly led away from it toward the window. i wonder if lighting the insides of the piano to give it more tonal range would help it be the center of attention. as it is maybe it should be called The Distracted Piano Technician's Perspective.

As in a landscape, it is intended to be the entry point, but not the subject.

 

I've seen this on an old monitor where shadows in the tail end of the piano are all blocked up. It reads very differently.

 

I think your amended title says it all. :-)

Carl, I think you've achieved your aim but that may depend on the viewer. As one who has studied interior design, my eye started at the piano and then wandered fairly quickly to the interesting looking interior and furniture - modern and classy by the look of it. It is nicely framed by the lid and prop. Moving the piano a little to the left would have given me a clearer view of the dark chairs, but I assume you were there to tune the piano, not move it (~;

I would have thought that viewers would move from the piano to the LR to the back yard.

 

(Isn't anybody the least bit curious about exposure and lighting?)

Yes, the garden. I have to admit I think I stopped at the furniture. The lighting didn't cross my mind but now you do have me curious. I know nothing about photography lighting because I only use natural light, indoors or out. This light looks diffuse and the room looks white with lots of windows so I think it could be window light. A small aperture with long exposure to take us through the LR and into the garden. Now tell me how it really was.

I posted this for someone else who hasn't shown up yet, so I have to give them time to find it before I explain.

 

The only light source is the window you're looking at.

 

:-)

This photo is amazingly detailed, Correct me if I am wrong, but I imagine that you can control the level of dynamic range that is heightened by the HDR. There is a lot of clarity here. I am anxious to see what else you will do with it.

This is one of those times when the word WOW unexpectedly comes out of your mouth as a reflex reaction while the mind tries to wrap itself around the concept of what you are actually seeing.

 

I have very limited experience with HDR and I keep thinking there should be an easy way to accomplish my goals when I try to use it but it never seems to work out that way. So what I am really saying is that any insight you can provide would be very much appreciated. I don't think I have seen that many monochrome HDR images or at least if I have they were done well enough not to distract from the subject. Many of the HDR color images I have seen look great initially but then begin to wear on the senses and become a bit irritating in the end. They say that wisdom is knowledge correctly applied, so I am very interested in learning how to make use of HDR as another tool in the photographic arsenal.

 

This composition begs to be used as a magazine or book cover. It is an editor's dream photo with eye grabbing content and room for a masthead. It makes grizzled old hacks (where is he anyway?) want to use words like, "lovely and charming."

 

On the other hand this photograph could also be likened to the opening scene in the original "Star Wars" movie where we see a huge spaceship entering the screen and becoming progressively larger in the foreground until it fills the entire frame.

 

"Somewhere in a Mid-Century Modern Home in a galaxy far far away."

Actually, I have high hopes of publishing this as a magazine cover and left more room at the top in the original capture for that purpose.

 

I have no experience with the HDR function in PSCS2 and only recently bought Photomatix as a stand alone program. I find that it's easier to work in B&W because the colors get strange. It's also hard to work with exposure extremes, and I've found that even seven exposures one stop apart sometimes aren't enough. It isn't the wondertool I imagined it to be, and I've found that shadows/highlights in PS is sometimes the better solution.

One thing I have tried is using two or three exposures with layer masks to hide or reveal the shadows and highlights in each layer. It seems a bit more subtle than HDR, or at least I find that I am able to fine tune the results that way. My photograph of the Sun Theatre was done that way.

 

I'm not sure I see much point in using more than three exposures. That should give you well exposed shadows, highlights and midtones with enough overlap in each to properly blend them together. I might change my mind in the future but many of the seven exposure HDR images I have seen just do not look natural.

 

There is of course more than one way to skin a cat with Photoshop, I just prefer the path of least resistance whenever I can find it.

I think you have to take five, seven, or even nine exposures, even if you don't use them all. I have a shot of a light fixture that I used to introduce HDR to my critique group and no one raised an eye brow. Even though I don't think that even layer masks would have pulled it off. (At this point I should say that I've never used layer masks, but that doesn't keep me from having an opinion . . . :-))

 

It would be interesting to have several people take the same high contrast shot and let them use whatever techniques they wanted to process the exposures. Then show the results to a group of non-photographers first . . . . .

That is a great idea! Now how do you propose to pull it off? ;-)

I'm a bit late chiming in, Carl. Nice composition. If anything, I find the piano a bit flat (lacking contrast, filled with mid tones) compared to the remaining scene. Might just be the way Photomatix handles it.