Saturday, October 29, 2011

Help Me Decide: Color or Black and White?

Five Handles, Color
Five Handles, Black and White

I would appreciate some feedback. I do realize that not everyone is into industrial imagery, but I think this is not a bad study in early twentieth century technology.

The Evolution of The Carter House Photograph

The Carter House Revised in Photoshop and in Lightroom

I was commissioned to photograph the house. This has been a nice learning experience for me. I seldom take specific photographs at the direction of others, but that is what I did here. The main challenge with this photograph was to get even lighting on the building without having washed out gray sky. I figured out how to add the blue sky using layers in Photoshop.

I realize that a project like this could go on forever. I could go back time-after-time and take photographs in various lighting conditions. I could also incorporate HDR techniques to balance the subject with the sky. HDR could also be used to balance the contrast of front/side early morning light. By doing so the effects of the shadows could be lessened.

Overall, I think this image is successful. It will be fun to do a few follow-up sessions in the morning light with this building and others. I think I need to photograph the Carson Mansion. I never have taken photographs of it, and now I think it will be fun.