Old Barns/Houses images techniques?

I like really old barns and houses, but my images never convey the scene, example below.

Any suggestions for next time?
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In addition to my interest in landscape, I like looking for old buildings as well, mostly from a historical perspective.

The biggest challenge I've found is whether to take the picture from further back (which means the building is given context by its surroundings) or to take it up close (which means the interesting features of the building are its details.

Good question and I look forward to other answers.

PS - When I get home I'll post a couple of mine.

The posted image is really too small to evaluate anything. Can you post a bigger version?

chauncey wrote in post #5914929
I like really old barns and houses, but my images never convey the scene, example below.

Any suggestions for next time?
.

Only you can decide what constitutes "the scene". For me, it's sometimes the textures of the old, rough-sawn and weathered wood. For others, it's the pastoral setting. For still others, it might be the process of the structure returning to a natural state with overgrowth, etc. Each person will bring their own point of view, and they have to identify that for themselves.

Then, the trick is to photograph the stuff that contributes to that point of view, and not photograph the stuff that detracts from it. Move around so that the image is filled with what is important to your comprehension of the scene.

For example, if a structure impresses you with its majesty, find a low camera position that looks up to the structure. If it's the texture of logs on a log cabin, then move in close. If it's the desolation of the setting, then make sure there are no people or modern structures in it. If it's the juxtaposition of old and new, look for people and the trappings of modern life, preferably such that the two are unconcerned with each other.

I didn't say it was easy, and my own attempts are hit and miss.

In terms of technique, it's the same as with landscape photography. One is always trying to establish the scale, and usually that means making the image three-dimensional by including foreground, middle ground, and background elements in the image. Try holding the camera vertical when photographic buildings to prevent vertical perspective convergence. This may require a wider lens and subsequent cropping. So be it. Do all the things you'd normally do in composition--arrange elements to have a clear focal point, draw the viewer's eye into the picture, avoid backgrounds that interfere, and so on. Of course, these are not rules. They are just frequent characteristics of many successful photographs and therefore should not be applied as doctrine.

But the most important part is in examining your own response to the scene. Man, I wish I could do that better.

You image is not bad. Were it me, I would probably have gotten low and much closer to the trough--near the right edge of what you included in the frame, pointing back to the left to include a close-up view of the trough with the log cabin behind it. The trough would be receding into the frame, pointing at the cabin. That would catch some of the texture of the old wood, and a little of abandoned nature of the setting. That might not work, but that's where I would have been standing and pondering.

Rick "recognizing that mere technical proficiency is not enough" Denney

egordon99 wrote in post #5916316
The posted image is really too small to evaluate anything. Can you post a bigger version?

What would that show?

Admittedly, I'm leery of depending on print size to make up for lack of clarity in the composition because I try it so often and it so rarely works.

Rick "thinking great compositions are great even when printed small" Denney

The fact that the image posted is small has nothing to do with the question, as I'm asking about composition.

That log ruin is an original Dalton Gang Hideout, I didn't do it justice and I getting another chance this summer.
Want to do it right this go-around.

chauncey wrote in post #5916618
The fact that the image posted is small has nothing to do with the question, as I'm asking about composition.

That log ruin is an original Dalton Gang Hideout, I didn't do it justice and I getting another chance this summer.
Want to do it right this go-around.

Maybe you want to catch the view from the gang's perspective, by standing inside the cabin and looking out.

When Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater, he put the house right in the middle of the view. This came as a bit of a shock to the owner at first. But he rightly understood that the important view was that of the people IN the house.

Something to consider.

Rick "who has made many images from the inside looking out" Denney

Rick has some great ideas there. And a dynamic signature line. I like it.

To follow up on my point, heres a shot I took (with a Powershot S20) a number of years back of an old miners cabin in northern BC - near Barkerville.

Rather than zoom in on the cabin, I decided that the shot was better if it included the old bridge leading to the cabin and the creek as well.

My mistake was not taking the close-up as well.

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Hmmm,, probably get lots of comments as to how I could PP that shot to give it more pop. I'm having trouble getting time to PP the shots I took last week - let alone the ones I took with a P&S 10 years ago.

Anyway, the point was context.

Boy, that shot really needs some "pop".

That's for input guys, it does help.