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All images copyright © 2004 - 2012 Russ Bolt.
Those who have seen these images and then visited Fort Warren are surprised that the rooms don’t look as dramatic in real life. This has to do with limitations of the human eye.
When you look at the brightest area in any scene, the pupil closes to a size that allows the retina enough light to see the detail, but not so much to overwhelm it. If you then look at the darkest area, the pupil opens to again allow the proper amount of light to perceive the area of interest. Hence the eye can see detail over a wide range of luminance in a scene – but not all at one time.
A camera is similar to the eye in that you set the lens aperture to the size that will allow enough light, over a set period of time, to record the details of one chosen area. And like the eye, a camera can record detail in only one area of a scene.
A typical photograph of a room with a single window might show the window area as white and the other side of the room as black. The photo cannot reveal detail near the window or in the corner across the room. But if you had visited that room you would remember the scene with a vase on the window sill and a cat sitting in the corner because you looked at each area separately and pieced them together in your mind.
Likewise, if you take a number of photographs at different exposures and blend them, using only the
parts that reveal detail, you can create a photograph with detail in most areas. High dynamic range (HDR) photography uses various techniques to accomplish this and some were used in capturing the images of Fort Warren’s rooms.
A second limitation of our vision is that when the intensity of light decreases, the eye’s cones that perceive color can no longer function. But vision continues because the rods without color sensitivity are still active. The digital camera sensor on the other hand is still capable of recording color as long as the lens lets in enough light.
The colors in these photographs of Fort Warren’s rooms are real. Inside the Fort, a chip from a brick or a sliver of wood each look almost gray. When taken into brighter light the brick is seen as intense red and the wood reveals coats of paint in different colors.
In addition, moisture intensifies color - as we know from the way a wet stone looks on the beach as opposed to when it dries. The rooms of Fort Warren are very damp, not only from the sea air and lack of drying light and temperature, but also because above the rooms’ ceilings is a layer of soil many feet thick. Designed for protection, the soil absorbs water, which seeps down the walls. Some of the best photographs of the rooms were taken a few days after a heavy rain.
Technique