Penitentiary corridor
A shot down one of the eerie corridors of the Eastern state penitentiary in Philadelphia. It is now a museum and historic site....
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A shot down one of the eerie corridors of the Eastern state penitentiary in Philadelphia. It is now a museum and historic site.
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Nov, 2014Views
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People's Choice in Abandoned interiors Photo Challenge
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken whilst I was on holiday in the states. I went on a day trip to Philadelphia and visited the Penitentiary, which is now a museum.Time
It was around midday that this photo was taken.Lighting
The light in the building was very low. It was mostly lit naturally via roof windows and any artificial lighting was mostly very dim anyway. To overcome this, I did have to use a wide aperture and quite a high ISO, higher than I would've liked, as I didn't have my tripod with me. I am happy with the end result taking into consideration the wide aperture and high ISO. I like the sections of light shining through the roof windows along the corridor as I feel that it gives the shot more depth. Also, the lack of artificial lighting adds to the abandoned and eerie atmosphere.Equipment
This was shot with a Canon 1100D with the 18-55mm kit lens.Inspiration
I mainly wanted to capture the abandoned look of the corridor and also the symmetry and lines drawing your eye to the end of the corridor which gives the shot its depth, which I am quite happy with considering I used a wide aperture. The people in the shot give the corridor scale and I like the old and weathered look of the walls and the closed doors leading down the corridor, it gives that feeling that the building is no longer used as a prison and has been vacant for a long time. The lack of artificial light and the little natural light adds to the empty and eerie atmosphere of the corridor.Editing
I did use post processing in Photoshop CS5. I shot this image in raw and made a few adjustments to the lighting and clarity of the shot, mainly to bring out a bit more detail. There isn't a lot of colour in this shot, the only bit of colour is the green in the hand rail where it is lit and a few bits of orange in the walls and the floor, so I did make these colours a little more saturated to make the shot more interesting. These are all very subtle adjustments though, the shot barely differs from the original raw image.In my camera bag
I normally carry around with me three lenses, a wide angle Sigma 10-20mm EX DC HSM , which unfortunately I hadn't purchased at this time! A telephoto lens which is a Sigma 70-300 apo dg macro and the Canon 18-55mm kit lens. I also carry a few filters including a uv, nd and cpl filter and a Jessops external TTL flash. I make sure I have a couple of spare sad cards and a spare battery.Feedback
I'm no proffesional photographer but the advice that I can give about a shot like this so is to try and get a good contrast between dark and light which of course means getting a good exposure. Luckily in this shot there is not much of the outside to view, so there isn't much of the image that can appear blown out, which can be a problem with low light interior shots. The symmetry and leading lines in shots like this can also give the image depth, leading the eye to the end of the corridor or room. Also, try to catch anything in the shot that adds scale to the interior like the people in this shot. Good luck and happy shooting!
