Sandburg goat barn from inside

While Carl Sandburg was writing poetry, his wife, Paula, became internationally famous for raising goats. (Actually named Lilian, she was the sister of Edward Steichen, who was for a time the highest paid photographer in the world.) Their former home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, is now a national historic site, and goats are still raised and milked there. This is a view from inside the goat barn.

I'm sure someone will notice the horizon isn't quite level. That was intentional. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

9-stop HDR
100 ISO, f/22, 30mm lens

Photomatix tone mapping
Color Efex -- Glamour Glow
masked the door and window openings to reveal one of the exposures (processed with shadows/highlights, Color Efex Foliage, and locally with Viveza)
Topaz Simplify
Snap Art -- Stylize line art for dark linear details
Kassen texture (masked out in door and window openings)
gradient vignette -- dark brown

Dennis, I love the interior view and the way you chose to shoot it off kilter. I like how you processed this. I do wish the white thing outside were not grabbing my eye so much. I love the story and this must have been so much fun to explore the many shooting options. :S3:

The effects on the interior wood of the barn are fantastic! I'm not crazy about the off-kilter angle and I agree with Denise about the white outside the window. The wood is so exceptional I don't want to be distracted and would consider toning down the colors and lines of the outside.

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Originally Posted by denise ippolito

Dennis, I love the interior view and the way you chose to shoot it off kilter. I like how you processed this. I do wish the white thing outside were not grabbing my eye so much. I love the story and this must have been so much fun to explore the many shooting options. :S3:

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Thanks, Denise. The white thing bothers me, too. It was a year ago, but I think it's glass or plastic attached to the outside of the window. I'll take a look at subduing it.

That whole area of western North Carolina is incredible. There are lots of waterfalls. The Sandburg site is really unique. I think it's something over a hundred acres and was originally the home of the treasurer (???) of the Confederacy. After Carl died, his wife donated the property with the stipulation that everything remain just the way it was. While I was snapping photos outside and in the working buildings, Mary was in the house. She said it looks like the Sandburgs were still living there but that time had stopped in the 1960s. Even the magazine one of them had been reading was still beside a chair.

Dennis, I really like the warm feel of the colors in the image. The rotation is an eye-catcher. The barn has nice leading lines and great detail. Agree on the white thing. Good work.

Thanks, everybody. It's unanimous about the white thing. The first thing I did was replace it with that area from the most underexposed image in the HDR series. That certainly toned it down, but it was still distracting. So, I copied a section from the doorway, flipped it horizontally, moved it, and spot healed (content aware) the part that was really distinctive -- that dark forked branch of the deciduous tree.

Repost rocks, Dennis! Love the processing and the story. :S3:

Excellent repost Dennis, Did you flip the other tree and back off the processing a touch for the "white cover-up" ?

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Originally Posted by denise ippolito

Excellent repost Dennis, Did you flip the other tree and back off the processing a touch for the "white cover-up" ?

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Sorry to be so slow responding, Denise. Had minor outpatient procedure on a finger today. Am typing with one hand. Your eye is incredible. I didn't intentionally back off. Instead, I accidentally copied or moved a mask to the Simplify layer with the result that the door and window openings were no longer affected by it. I realized something was amiss after doing the re-post. Fixed it a few minutes ago on my copy.

Actually, I also messed up some near the window, too. Didn't catch that until doing the other fix.

Dennis, You did a great job. Hope your finger is back in action soon:S3: