Day 7 - Ready for Occupancy

2012 366 Days 366+ Pics Project

Day 7: Ready for Occupancy
Canon EOS 550D
10 seconds exposure, f/10
ISO 400 
18mm focal length

I had some problems on the post-processing on this one. The light was from a strong amber streetlight, on a yellow ochre painted house. The sky was a bit cloudy, with a waxing moon (about three-quarters). 


[Tech talk follows. You can skip this part.] I do my post-processing on GIMP, and usually limit it to adjusting the levels. I'm not sure if I could have gotten better results with the Canon RAW file editor. The MacBook needs to visit the shop. I think it's a hard disk problem. But I digress.  


This time, I had to adjust using the curves as well. If you're familiar with the tools and the pictures, you can imagine that the histogram would be high on the dark end, with the red spread thin from up to the highlights. The green and blue would be spikes on the shadows and that's it. You need to adjust the curves on the greens and blues to get the dark blue sky. Otherwise, the black sky would blend with the top of the house, resulting in an invisible roof. [End tech talk.]


I am learning a lot about my camera and what it can do. In an ideal world, I would have used a wider lens. The 18mm on a Canon EOS 550D is roughly equivalent to a 2mm on a full-frame DSLR or a 35mm film SLR. For this kind of a shot, I would have wanted a wider lens, bordering on a fish-eye. Like any photographer, the wish list is very long and keeps getting longer. [End of more tech talk.]

I don't blame the equipment, in fact, I am pushing my camera to see both my limits and the camera's as well. This is the edge of the envelope as far as this goes.


This house was finished before Christmas, but the owners have not yet moved. This is the same site as the bulldozer pic I posted a while back.