The typical basement in a typical middle-class mid-western suburban home. It’s got the dark wood paneled walls, furniture from the 1970s, carpet from the 1980s, acoustic tile drop ceiling complete with water stains, fluorescent light bulbs, and that musty smell that really never goes away. And the color scheme, perhaps at one time hip and cool, is WAY out-dated. But, it is comfortable and cozy and like the best friend you haven’t seen in years, it is familiar and welcoming.
With this image, I decided to focus on the textures and tones in the room, so I went with a black and white conversion. I left the overhead lights off because I liked the way the lamp lit the two chairs. To capture the tonal range from the bright light of the lamp to the shadows in the corners, I created a 7-shot HDR file with which to start my processing. The light from the stairs was added in Photoshop since I couldn’t quite get the look I wanted in camera. And a confession: this photograph was actually shot almost exactly a year ago, but I only really processed it today. So it’s new to you!
And that makes it day 185 of my 365 photo a day project.
If you’d like to see what I started with, here is middle exposure of the 7 shots. And as always, I’m willing to answer any and all questions as best I can!
