What Was There Versus What I Saw; Old Barn; Now, What Used To Be

What I saw.  This terribly backlit old, vine covered barn, complete with trash
in the foreground was slated for demolition sometime in the next few days. 
But this is not how I envisioned it. (click to enlarge)
Nikon Z7; 24-70mm f/4 lens @ 28mm; !/80th sec. @ f/8; ISO 64

As has become part of my new routine, I was out wandering and saw an old group of farm buildings in the middle of demolition.  This old main barn, as well as a smaller tobacco barn, were still standing.  Other buildings, including the historic 1730's farmhouse, were already demolished or being demolished while I was there.  I knew I wanted to record these structures before they disappeared.  

My problems were three fold.  First, there were "No Trespassing" signs posted everywhere.  After all, it is a de-construction site.  Makes sense.  Second, the only view I had of it was three-quarter backlit.  The side of the barn to which I had access was in deep shadow as the sun was shining brightly.  Third, there was a bit of white trash scattered on the ground in front of the barn.  None of those three impediments discouraged me from recording this old building.

In posting this, I just wanted to demonstrate what I saw as opposed to what I envisioned.  Quite a difference.  That Nikon Z7 has tremendous ability to pull fine detail out of the shadows with no digital noise.  In fact, there was no noise reduction applied to this image at all.

This is how my mind's eye saw it in the form of a finished image. (click to enlarge)

How did I edit this image?  In Lightroom Classic, I warmed the color balance slightly as I didn't want the wood a neutral gray but a bit warmer.  I opened up the shadows, then straightened the verticals.  The upper left was blown out so I added a bit of graduated filter and brought down the highlights.  Since I warmed up the barn wood, it turned the sky just a bit cyan, so in the HSL panel, I moved the hue of the Cyan slider over more towards the blue to shift the hue of the sky back to where it was.  The grass in the sunlit foreground was also darkened slightly as to not draw your eye to the bright grassy area.

For me it is important to not only 'see' potential images but also to 'envision' as to how I want the final image to look.  Sometimes that comes easy and is straightforward and sometimes it takes a bit of work in editing software.  In either case, I end up with an image I like.

UPDATE:  This barn and all of the other historic buildings are not GONE! (see below)  Torn down for in the name of some sort of progress.  Shame...  However, it is understandable as the article I found about this demolition stated that the historians and engineers estimated the cost to be $500,000 US to shore up and restore the farmhouse itself.  As it was, all of the buildings were unstable and dangerous.  No one, agency or entity came forward offering to help offset the cost, so approval was given to demolish the entire suite of 1730s farm buildings.  Still, it's a shame.

A few days after I made the top image, I drove past and this is what I saw.  I'm standing in the same
place, using the same focal length.  The entire complex of old farm house, tobacco drying barns,
main barn and the other outbuildings had been completely demolished.  Progress! (click to enlarge)

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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