Attempt at an old barn

[NorthernFocus]

During our visit to the tulip festival (before I broke my camera) I took a few shots of an old barn. That area is rich with them. You could spend a good bit of time on them. This particular barn wasn't in a great setting for an overall photo. So I mostly worked on isolating interesting aspects of the structure.

All shot with Nikon D7100 and Sigma 17-50 f2.8 DC.

1. Nearly an overall shot. Had to stay tight due to a lot of cars etc. in the area.
f/8 @ 36 mm, 1/640, ISO 400


2. From the opposite side.
f/8 @ 40 mm, 1/160, ISO 400


3. This one had to remain color for hopefully obvious reasons.
f/8 @ 40 mm, 1/80, ISO 400

[dje]

Works well for me Dan. Number one is my favourite.

Dave

[IzzieK]

I like all of them, Dan. The first one is an intro. I thought I saw an old chair at the side the barn there but I wasn't sure now...The second one I like the textures of the wood too. I wish, like you, I was able to go inside the barn I was meaning to photograph. Maybe if I ask nicely, the owners might allow me...

[Donald]

The way you have processed the sky in #1 is the perfect complement to the wonderful texture and shapes of the barn.

[Stagecoach]

Nice series Dan, I love that timber. It's sad to see such a wonderful wooden structure falling into disrepair like this.

[Kyle]

Great shots Dan. One is my favourite but three is close.

[kdoc856]

Nice job on one of my favorite subjects. #1 is a real beauty. Pushing up structure was an excellent processing choice- does nice things to wood textures.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for the comments, folks. The old barn had so many holes in the roof it amazed me that they bothered using it. I guess it at least hides stuff from view. There are a lot of them in the area. It would be worth a couple of days just hanging around and shooting them. The biggest challenge is finding ones that have complimentary surroundings.

I can't take any credit for the B/W processing. I tried doing the conversion in LR. But these were done with a preset in OnOne Photosuite 8 and tweaked a bit.

The first shot is a great example of B/W saving/making a shot. The pipes that were piled up in and around the barn were a very light blue-grey much brighter than anything else in the scene. With the conversion they nearly disappear. One thing lost in the B/W is the green moss growing on the roof, windowsills, etc.

No.3 is an example of the crazy dynamic range capabilities of modern cameras and raw processing. I took several exposures thinking I would have to use HDR, one of the interior and one for the flowers outside. But I was able to pull highlights/shadow back to center enough to produce the shot. Plus making the interior any brighter didn't really maintain the sense of age/mystery.

I'm beginning to appreciate B/W a bit more.

[Scouse]

Nice series Dan. That first one is an eye catcher.
I know a few old barns around here but not that one.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shots Dan, I especially like #1 and #3

[Shadowman]

Nice, I like the interior to exterior shot.

[PhotoRob]

Nice series Dan; mind posting the iso, f-stop, shutter speed, how much of that Sigma you were using and about how far you were from the subject in the 1st two shots?

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Ken, there are a bunch of interesting barns all around there.

...mind posting the iso, f-stop, shutter speed, how much of that Sigma you were using and about how far you were from the subject in the 1st two shots?

Sorry about the EXIF. I get lazy with that most times. I went back and added the EXIF data with each shot in the OP. I don't know how far I was from the subjects. I can say that in the first two shots I backed off a bit and used a longer zoom setting to eliminate the distortion of being real close with a wider aspect.

[FootLoose]

This is a very engaging subject, Dan. I was looking at the 2nd and wondering about all the different shades of grey there. I can see the moss on the roof and parts of the wall. There seems to be water stain from the run-off and then the affects of age and weathering. Nice shot.

[Lon Howard]

Great images, Dan, exposure and texture is very intriguing. Apparently I took a different road to see the tulips because I missed that barn. If I knew where it was I'd get back on the ferry and find it! Thanks for posting.

[terrib]

Very nice work, Dan. I guess I'm in the minority because I'm really drawn to #2. Perhaps because I don't think I would have thought to try that composition but I find it interesting.