House in the Buckinhamshire countryshire. This image has been post processed in Lightroom
This was a house that I passed in the small village of Hawridge in Buckinghamshire, UK
Again, taken on a bike ride, and a subject that would ordinarily be ignored, especially as this was taken outside of golden hour and taken in harsh bright sunlight.
The trick with photography is always to get the composition right, if that happens then no matter what, the image will always look good, if not spectacular.
I’m a great believer in honing photography skills in places that may be called mundane, especially places where people live, as this will build up your skills ready for that once in a lifetime trip.
I have to admit the light in the original didn’t show off the house and trees in a way that I imagined when I was there, so I removed a lot of colour , added a blue colour cast, and darkened the image. That gives it a night time feel, but more importantly the architectural shapes of the house are now emphasised and the leafless trees look very graphic against the sky.
Those are the elements that inspired me to take the photograph, but the original didn’t capture any of that. The original version can be seen below.
This kind of processing is an alternative to converting to black and white and applying dodge and burn techniques, and for this particular image, I think it works well.
What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below….
If this were my photo I would be inclined to go all the way to B&W and boost the contrast a little to increase dramatic effect.