Thank you both, chasis and Corran!
Corran-Yes, this is the recording studio where I work. It's fairly small but a good sounding room with my all-time favorite piano.
Reid
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rjbuzzclick/
Capt. Joseph Bourn House, Bristol R.I., built in 1804. This is the interior, looking towards the front entrance.
Tech data: Schneider 80mm XL, HP5+, Pyrocat HD. Metered f16-ish around 4 sec, exposed ~8 sec for reciprocity (exact details not recorded). This is a scan of the negative with some adjustment of curves; I haven't yet made a silver print.
I was unsure whether to post this in Interiors or in Mistakes. While I think it looks OK on screen via upload from Flickr, the negative is not as sharp all over as I expected with an 80mm lens, which I thought would give me good DOF even without any film plane adjustments other than focusing about 1/2 way between near and far focus. I used "B" setting to get my ~8 sec exposure, and wonder if by holding the shutter release in my hand I introduced some lens board vibration. I could have avoided that by using the "T" setting, I think. I'm pretty sure I had the lens standard properly locked down on my Canham, but given the negative, perhaps I didn't have everything locked down as much as I thought. Regardless, the hanging light fixture and area around the door look to me to show some vibration on the scan after zooming in a bunch.
BournHouse-2 by Peter Lewin, on Flickr
Since the film plane goes from left to right I think swing would have been more appropriate: Notice that the doormat, door, and floor appears not in focus. Also the exposure appears to be too high key and there is too much light coming through the glass panes. I would recommend re-shooting that when the lighting is better.
Thomas
Thomas: Thanks! I agree that front swing would have been appropriate. The full story is that we were on vacation, and the owner of Bourn House rents out a suite on the ground floor, sort of a high-end AirBnB. He makes it clear that he is very concerned with damage by including a high, but refundable, damage deposit. So I was unsure how he would react to finding a tripod and LF camera in his lobby (even though I was being very careful) so I rushed the set-up without taking the time to completely think it through. (Which also makes re-shooting almost impossible unless we go back for another vacation visit.)
As to the high-key, that is partly my choice in curve adjustment during scanning and sending to the web. The real problem was a huge difference in lighting between the left side of the image (in the hallway with no lighting) and the doorway, with light pouring in. I metered the (white) panels towards the left, and placed them on zone VII, which meant that the windows around the door were off-scale. I relied on (planned that) a combination of Pyrocat which is a compensating developer and burning during printing would bring them down. In fact, I turned the light fixture on, despite it being late morning, to get any light I could into the camera end of the hall. (I did consider re-shooting later in the day with less light in the panes, but without the intense sunlight the lighting was more even, but then everything seemed dark and flat.)
Please don't take this as rebuttal to your critique, basically you are spot-on; I'm just giving a little context. It also didn't help that I hadn't used my 4x5 in months, I needed to be in a fresh environment for some inspiration, and was rusty. Of course I ruined my first sheet by forgetting to close the aperture before pulling the slide ...
Thanks for contributing to this sometimes sleepy thread Peter. I like the image, and the higher key rendering. The composition is interesting to me. Shooting toward a window from an interior is difficult during daylight. I understand the comment on a hurried set up, it happens to me from time to time.
Great Northern RR station (1931) at Glacier Park, Montana.
Back in 1947, my father decided to start traveling after world war II ended.
He used the free passes available to railway employees (he worked for the Santa Fe).
We (my dad and his 12 year old son) voyaged behind heavy steam from Chicago, to Los Angeles, to Seattle, and back to Chicago.
The Great Northern was one of those legendary railroads that opened up the Northern prairies and Glacier National Park.
This is how it looked back then...
. . Glacier Park, Montana by Reinhold S., on Flickr
Neg# RR 764. Canham 8x20" camera, 210mm XL lens, HP5 film. 2007
Reinhold
www.re-inventedPhotoEquip.com
www.classicBWphoto.ocm
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