The Fenner-Mathewson Mansion in Central Village, Connecticut was built in 1855 by Arnold Fenner. Fenner had a controlling interest in the Central Manufacturing Company’s cotton-spinning mill located across the street from the mansion. The architecture is representative of the Italian Villa style of the mid-19th century. The diverse and abundant designs and flourishes highlighting the exterior are characteristic of this period’s Victorian architecture. The mansion was later occupied by Fenner’s daughter Helen and his son-in-law Philip Mathewson, and the house remains a single family dwelling.
When I set out to photograph an historic building today, I was thinking “black and white” for post processing. After seen the rich colors of this house, though, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The bright yellow against the deep blue sky was just too good to pass up. Instead, I brought the image into Topaz Adjust and used a Simple Pop filter. This brings out color a bit, but preserves image sharpness. From there, I applied a Color-Color filter. That plug-in provides saturation without being destructive of sharp focus and without adding noise. I then spent a bit of time removing a power line and also removing an annoying contrail from a passing jet that I found extremely distracting. I applied a very slight levels adjustment as a final touch.
