Bedroom decor

[Doug Kerr]

A few weeks ago, Carla worked as a volunteer sales aide at a large rummage sale conducted by the local women's club, of which she is a board member.

She came home with a treasure, a beautiful custom made bed quilt (whole-cloth, for quilt aficionados) plus two large matching pillow shams (decorative pillow covers), a couple of matching-accent throw pillows, and a bunch of fabric that was left over from the original project.

The quilt was to become the centerpiece of an alternate decor scheme for the bedroom. Carla decided to use the loose material to make a valance for over the windows. (There was already a nice rod there, originally used to carry the vertical panels that were part of "Decor scheme A".)

The valance ended up in a balloon style (I call it "sausage style"). She did a wonderful job on its design and execution. Here is the result:

For this shot, I used some very common tools and techniques which I personally have only infrequently used (other than in a "test" situation). Thus I will comment here on some technical details that would normally be considered unworthy of mention.

The shot was taken with a Canon EOS 40D using a Sigma 12-24 mm f/ 4.5-5.6 DG HSM lens at 12 mm. ISO 800, f8.0, 1/20 sec. The camera was on a tripod.

Lighting (other than for the sunlight illuminating the windows and the bedside table lamp) was from a Canon 580EX II on the camera (aimed at the ceiling) and a Canon 550EX in its little "display" stand (we call it the "little penguin feet") atop a dresser just outside the frame to the right, also aimed at the ceiling, linked with the Canon wireless flash system. The ceiling is a light "tan" color.

I used the camera raw output (actually one of the few times I have done this for an actual photograph). White balance color correction was done during raw development with Canon DPP, based on a white target placed in a test scene (a custom-made Spectralon target, with reflectance nearly 100%).

Getting the proper point of view and frame content called for a downward lens axis in the shot, and so I made a perspective adjustment with PTLens (correcting for the lens geometric distortion while I was at it). I stopped short of rendering the vertical lines in the scene precisely vertical in the image for practical reasons (I ran out of "stuff" in the original image).

In the resulting image, the table radio in the lower left has "unnatural" proportions, but that seems benign.

 

[Jack_Flesher]

Looks to me like the walls in that room do not meet at 90 degree corners? Fortunately your bed is skewed out of square by the same amount! Also, love that pointed -- or is it triangular? -- side table too ;-).

All jesting aside, there are a few more tricks you'll want to learn when trying to render a rectilinear perspective from a spherical capture...

PS, tell Carla it is a very nice looking quilt and certainly seems well color coordinated with the room.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Jack,

Looks to me like the walls in that room do not meet at 90 degree corners? Fortunately your bed is skewed out of square by the same amount! Also, love that pointed -- or is it triangular? -- side table too.

Ah, yes - they just don't build them the way they used to!

All jesting aside, there are a few more tricks you'll want to learn when trying to render a rectilinear perspective from a spherical capture.

Well, here I was starting with a nominally rectilinear, not spherical, capture, but one whose actual point of perspective did not produce the result I was looking for. [It's the same issue that gives rise to shift lenses.]

But indeed I need to learn much more about perspective manipulation. And part of the secret is having enough "stuff" in the original image to survive the "stretching and squeezing" that occurs.

PS, tell Carla it is a very nice looking quilt and certainly seems well color coordinated with the room.

Thanks. I'll pass that on. She has a great eye for such things.

Thanks for your input.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Lighting (other than for the sunlight illuminating the windows and the bedside table lamp) was from a Canon 580EX II on the camera (aimed at the ceiling) and a Canon 550EX in its little "display" stand (we call it the "little penguin feet") atop a dresser just outside the frame to the right, also aimed at the ceiling, linked with the Canon wireless flash system. The ceiling is a light "tan" color.

Hi Doug,

Well done. Personally, I'd have reduced the "fill" flash amount, to something like a 1-2 stop "under-"exposure, to allow a bit more 'ambiant light' into the lighting setup, but that also involves personal taste (and the amount depends on scene reflection).

I used the camera raw output (actually one of the few times I have done this for an actual photograph). White balance color correction was done during raw development with Canon DPP, based on a white target placed in a test scene (a custom-made Spectralon target, with reflectance nearly 100%).

Again, well done. I helps to get some good references when it might be difficult to return to the "crime scene". Being able to reconstruct the actual situation, especially with mixed lighting, without having to resort to notes, IMHO, always pays off. It can save a lot of time/money in a valuable time limited workflow.

PS, tell Carla it is a very nice looking quilt and certainly seems well color coordinated with the room.

I agree, the quilting seems to be of high quality.

Bart

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Bart,

Well done. Personally, I'd have reduced the "fill" flash amount, to something like a 1-2 stop "under-"exposure, to allow a bit more 'ambiant light' into the lighting setup, but that also involves personal taste (and the amount depends on scene reflection).

The flash wasn't "fill" - with respect to almost everything in the room, it was the only light source. The external daylight made the window a self-luminous object, but didn't put any substantial illumination into the room. Similarly, the table lamp contributed essentially no illumination to the room in general.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug