Colonial house at bloody corner

[DanK]

Encouraged by a comment by Mike, I worked a bit on an image of the front of the same house from which I had posted a photo of a rear door some days ago. C&C welcome as always.

[Mike Buckley]

I like the overall look and the crop at the top, mostly because that crop leaves up to my imagination how tall the roof is. I don't like the crop at the bottom because it eliminates the major display of the third dimension. Indeed, that area of the image in your version in the other thread is one of my favorite parts of it.

[ShaneS]

Dan,

I love the shadow of the tree across the facade of this building but agree with Mike that a little foreground would be in improvement and lead the eye into the image. BTW, I bet you could make it look really haunted in BW with that shadow

[flashback]

Dan, I would love to see more of the house. I'm a big fan of early American building and furniture.
Question...is this a restored house, private home or museum? I'm curious because there is no paint and, at the least the better homes would have been painted (mostly red, I understand it was cows blood and milk, at least early on.) Usually in this style home there would have been either chimneys at either gable end or a center chimney, hard to tell if there is either.

[JBW]

Dan, one of the things I have come to appreciate in composition is that the horizon should be about 1/3 of the way from the top or bottom. Could this shot use more roof and door?

[Mike Buckley]

one of the things I have come to appreciate in composition is that the horizon should be about 1/3 of the way from the top or bottom.

Sorry, Brian, but that's either your own preference, which is understandable, or it's rooted in a so-called rule that is actually a myth. There are just too many successful, widely-recognized photos displaying the horizon dead-center to assume that the horizon should be one-third away from the top or bottom of the frame.

[JBW]

Sorry, Brian, but that's either your own preference, which is understandable, or it's rooted in a so-called rule that is actually a myth. There are just too many successful, widely-recognized photos displaying the horizon dead-center to assume that the horizon should be one-third away from the top or bottom of the frame.

fair enough.

[FootLoose]

+1 to Shane's remarks. The shadow lends the building some gothic connotations.

[IzzieK]

Another +1 to Shane's remarks.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Wavelength]

Classic

[DanK]

Thanks for the comments. I'll play around with keeping more foreground. It won't be fast, since I cropped the bottom in LR before using Nik and PS (is there a lesson here?), so I will have to recreate all if that.

[Brev00]

I might go with the image you have and, since it is already tightly cropped bottom and right, I might crop the roof right off. The tilt to its line is distracting for me. This would bring out more of the abstract qualities and might lend itself to a more grungy, textured look.

[DanK]

.is this a restored house, private home or museum? I'm curious because there is no paint and, at the least the better homes would have been painted (mostly red, I understand it was cows blood and milk, at least early on.) Usually in this style home there would have been either chimneys at either gable end or a center chimney, hard to tell if there is either.

It's now a museum. It has a center chimney, which was a very common design in early colonial times here. They could build fireplaces in different rooms that shared a chimney.

The tilt to its line is distracting for me.

Yup. I need to check when this house was built, but I would guess early in the 18th century. With simple a simple stone foundation and this sort of construction, nothing is plumb. Straighten one part of the image, and something else tilts. I finally decided to level the lintel over the door.

Re cropping: I just went back to the original, and I think the foreground is boring. It's just a short bit of dirt. Cropping the roof is an interesting alternative.

thanks for the comments.