Available Light

It's a dark day and rain is forecast for days to come.

In my study I have this clutter of sculptures in one corner and the ever-so-gentle light was almost caressing the head of this piece of lime wood carving. Lime wood has a beautiful pallid colour and no visible figure (what we'd call 'grain' but that's a more structural thing). 

Lime wood was favoured by the great German Renaissance wood carvers like Tilman Riemenschneider for its durability, very even grain and relative softness. They usually stained or painted the carvings once made. Not that this piece here is very finished nor intricate. But I finished with it in exasperation. That happens a lot.

I wanted to try and capture the true colours of the wood and the subtle tonality of the soft, cool light. I got my tripod out for the first time in ages and fiddled with different exposures and white balance braketing. Then did some post-processing with filters and levels and even slipped into some 32bit channel  option that I didn't understand. I got confused and in the end liked less the truer colour shot than the composition here.

It's funny how the photograph gradually takes over from the photographed and seems to be 'truer' than the 'reality' staring you in the face.

Then I turned my back and I was signed out of Blipfoto and had lost all my text.