So its settled, time to learn tricks; Mountain Cottages

[Arild]

This photo, this kind of photos is very important to me.

Taking exterior and interior of all them nice cabin and cottages (gamle tømmerhytter, eldgamle setre og fjøs) I am passing by in the woods/ mountains

Thats why I bought that 18-35 in February 2016. And thats why, partly, I bought d750 in August 2016.

So, how am I doing. I do not want any flash, I want the natural light coming into the windows.
The photo is at 18 mm, 10 000 asa, no crop.

I am happy with this photo, please help me to get even happier.....

[armando_m]

I would try to get the angles of the wall to show straight, to do so keep the camera leveled and if possible stand parallel to the wall

Looks to me like this image is to bright, I'm guessing, if it is brighter than what it looks to you reduce the exposure a bit, either in camera or in post processing

[CS]

This photo, this kind of photos is very important to me.

Taking exterior and interior of all them nice cabin and cottages (gamle tømmerhytter, eldgamle setre og fjøs) I am passing by in the woods/ mountains

Thats why I bought that 18-35 in February 2016. And thats why, partly, I bought d750 in August 2016.

So, how am I doing. I do not want any flash, I want the natural light coming into the windows.
The photo is at 18 mm, 10 000 asa, no crop.

I am happy with this photo, please help me to get even happier.....

Okay, but there is not enough "natural light" coming through those windows to give a correct exposure unless you go to extreme ISO settings. At that, you either went to far and over exposed the scene in camera, or post processing, as Armando has pointed out.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Brightness isn't that far off the mark - these wooden walls are not dark (made from spruce, or more probably, pine; both of which are very bright).

[David H. Hartman]

The wood on the back wall looks like the knotty pine used in the open beam ceiling of the house my parents built in 1962. The finish got honey colored over the years and that had more knots but my first guess is pine.

The image looks a touch to bright to me but not a lot since the wood is light. The foreground papers need burning in. There is some flare on the left seen against the dark garment.

I usually try to minimize the tilt of the camera so the walls look straight. These days perspective can be corrected in post in Capture NX-D or other software. If close to begin with, there won't be a noticeable loss quality with a 24 + MP camera. Then again the perspective may be desirable. It's a matter of preference. I think I'd way under correct the perspective to have the floor and cabinet meet the corner of the image where I'd like it, not necessarily in the deep corner. I wouldn't try to fully straiten the walls. Too much would be lost on the lower left and right.

I'm really thinking about several minor touch ups.  It's an old cabin so maybe it should be crooked.

Standing on a stool can help keep the same items in the photo and on can keep the back of the camera more vertical to keep down convergence.

Oops! There is a modern spray bottle on the right. Time to clone it out with Photoshop?

Dave Hartman

[Arild]

Some facts.
This is Hotel Phoenix. The base of Linges Company during ww2 when performing Thamshavnbanen Raid.

Phoenix was not properly taken care of after the war. Just recently some volounteers rebuilt it. There is not much left, some furniture is of ww2 orign, in the far right you see the corner is the old original. So most of it is 2014 timber. Too bad they couldnt rescue the fireplace, an interesting piece of stone and clay They had to renove it completely. Thats why the ceiling is...2014 not 1944. I dont know, I am guessing that the stove is from another place, just brought here as an ornament.

Well we could retouch any contemporay pieces like that spray bottle. But I see this as a nuseum, as a rememberance to those who fought the war, brought into todays world using bits and bobs from back then and nowadays.

[pluton]

You have created a clear, sharp photo of the subject, so the basic work is done.  There are two things that might be worth experimenting with:
1. Increase the contrast in the lighting.  It appears that the room is lit from multiple sides, maybe 2/3 sides. Reducing or eliminating the light from one or more of the sources should increase the presence of shadow areas, increasing the apparent contrast of the scene.  Turn the existing "flat' light into directional light.
2. As has already been mentioned: The camera tilt.  I'd experiment with dead-level camera to eliminate the keystone effect of the downward tilt.  Angle of view of even of such a wide angle lens can be moderately increased, if needed, through the use of panoramic stitching software.
Use of tripod would allow precision framing and the use of lower ISO values if desired.

[Hugh_3170]

Most Nikon cameras in recent years have electronic spirit level options buried way down in their menus that if deployed will allow the correct level to be displayed in the viewfinder or (usually) on the rear LCD as well.  Even my old D700 has such an option (only single-axis for it), so I am guessing that the D750 will have something similar as well - but quite possibly 2-axis for this newer camera. 

Since deploying this tool/option/training aid - call it what you will, I am getting much better at holding the camera level, and especially in avoiding any downward movement to the right side of the camera when I press down on the shutter button.  I use the front (bottom) function button on my Df for deploying its spirit level display.

EDIT:  This functionality is enabled by use of the VIRTUAL HORIZON function in Nikon DSLRs.  Most recent advanced Nikon DSLRs have this function.  I particularly like the way it is implemented on the D500 with its new rear panel control "stick" which can be used to turn the levels function and display on/off in the OVF.

I would try to get the angles of the wall to show straight, to do so keep the camera leveled and if possible stand parallel to the wall

Looks to me like this image is to bright, I'm guessing, if it is brighter than what it looks to you reduce the exposure a bit, either in camera or in post processing

[Les Olson]

I think you are doing well. 

I agree that the image looks brighter than one expects.  That is partly because every mountain hut I have ever been in was much darker than yours because they usually have small windows, and partly because if you are after a sense of memorial the convention would be a more shadowy look; on the other hand, that is a cliche that you might prefer to avoid.   

If you are trying to make a formal portrait of the place I would prefer not to have the non-vertical verticals, but if they don't bother you that is fine. 

[Arild]

This is the second photo I took of Hotel Phoenix.

I just turned on my heels. You can see how tiny this cottage is, barely room for two soldiers.'
Most of the sleepingquarters are the original 1940ies - except the floor which is shiny new spruce boards.