A different point of view

 

I pass this object many times during the day and have often thought how could I make it interesting. So today I decided to take my camera to work and during my lunch look to make our office staircase interesting.

As I stood contemplating my approach a staff member came down the stairs and asked what I was doing in the stairwell. 

"I'm going to photograph this staircase and rail" I replied

"Why?" came the reply,

"Because I reckon I can take an otherwise boring object and make it interesting"

"You are clearly nuts!!!" came the response.

Un-phased by the lack of appreciation  or understanding from a member of the accounts department,  I decided to spend a few moments thinking about my approach and proceeded to take a few test shots.

After a quick review, my vision became clear.

By changing my point of focus and my angle of approach I have been able to create a new perspective of the rail and the surrounding wall. I liked the idea of the wall light becoming a floor light and the actual steps working towards providing a wall feature.
So here is one of my original shots.
The lighting is not the best so it forced me to have to use a slower shutter speed. I compensated for this by increasing the ISO up to 200 and I avoided using my flash.

So I held my camera up against the wall, flicked on Live View and proceeded to find my starting point.

f2.8 ISO200, 1/60 18mm (White Balance Custom)

To keep things simple the post processing on my first image was very simple.
First I converted to Black and White by using a Gradient Map I find gradient maps much better for converting to B/W as you can control the grey levels across the whole spectrum. 
I then cropped the image so as to create the illusion you are perhaps in an other room. I think the steps have provided me with a great wall effect and with the original wall now becoming the floor it has completely changed the look.
I used the hand rail to provide the visual line so as to lead you into the image.

Black and White conversion, Cropped

I added an additional Levels adjustment layer to do some finer tweaking across, a finally a curve so I could adjust the light beams that where projected across the surfaces.
My second image followed pretty much the same process except this time I didn't convert to B/W instead pulled the colours back but enhance the yellows by using a Gradient fill and 4 different Yellow colours to provide a warm feel.
Again Rail the rail was used to provide the lead in.

A bit of fun and just goes to show you can make an ordinary item look interesting.
So next time some says "That's boring"..just tell them to "Flip It"