Abstract Art (Museum)
by James Howe on Jul.02, 2010, under Ann Arbor, Architecture
(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 29mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/500 sec @f/8.0)
This image shows the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As you might be able to guess, the original photograph was ‘tweaked’ just a bit. My original plan was to do some perspective correction, minor cropping and curves adjustments to create a reasonable architectural image. One idea I had was to create both dark and light versions of the image and create a single image HDR just to see what it would look like. As I worked on creating the darker image I found that I liked the pattern that was being created by the tree on the main wall of the museum. I decided to see what things would look like if I really pushed the blacks. With some additional work in Lightroom, including cropping, I took the image to Photoshop where I painted over some light spots which existed in the black expanses of the building.
As a point of comparison to the finished image, the raw, out of camera version of this image is shown below.
While working with the image I played around with some additional options. One idea was to try a pure black and white. With a deep blue sky it was pretty easy to drive the sky either black or white. The white sky was interesting in how it played with the fins on the roof, but I didn’t like how the main side of the building lost its top. A black sky worked well with the roof line, but I didn’t like how it turned the tree into more of a blob. The image below is somewhat of a compromise where I turned the sky a darker grey. I think I still prefer the color version.
As always I’m interested in hearing your comments.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Locomotive Brass
by James Howe on Jun.29, 2010, under Mechanical, Michigan
(Nikon D700, 70-300mm at 270mm, ISO 2500, Exposure 1/125 sec @f/5.6)
This image was taken at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan during the recent Motor Muster car show. The village has some great exhibits, one of them being a railroad roundhouse. One of the permanent items in the roundhouse is an old steam engine. The engine has wonderful brass detail, particularly in the control area.
Processing was done in Lightroom and included increasing the blacks, reducing the exposure just a bit, an increase in clarity and some noise removal. The noise wasn’t terrible out of camera and Lightroom was able to clean things up nicely. The original capture can be seen below:
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Machine Shop
by James Howe on Jun.26, 2010, under Mechanical, Michigan
This past weekend I visited Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan to see the annual ‘Motor Muster’ car show. I got some nice pictures of cars and other items (which I will be posting over time) but I also spent some time in some of the historical buildings which comprise the Village. One of the buildings houses the ‘Armington and Sims’ Machine Shop and Foundry. This building contains a working machine shop with lots of interesting machining tools. When items are needed around the village, they still use this shop to fabricate them. The picture above shows one of the various machining tools found in the building. All of the tools are driven by belts which are hooked up to one driving machine.
The shop is fairly dark and I was using a telephoto lens to get some visual compression. I bumped the ISO of my D700 to 1600 but still ended up shooting at 1/30th of a second. I experimented with adding a bit of flash to the shot, so I set the camera on manual to capture some ambient light and then use the on-camera flash to add a bit of fill. Processing the image included several changes in Lightroom, including warming the image a bit and enhancing the contrast. As I worked with the image I thought that it might look good using a ‘Simplify’ treatment using my Topaz Simplify plug-in. I like the effect it has on metal.
The image below shows the raw, out of camera image for comparison.
Please feel free to leave comments below. I appreciate any feedback you might have.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
’35 Chrysler Airflow
by James Howe on Jun.23, 2010, under Automotive, Uncategorized
(Nikon D700, 28-80mm @ 56mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/4000 sec @f/4.8)
Every year the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology holds a benefit car show called Eyes on Design. The event is held at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan. What I like about this event is that it always has an interesting collection of automobiles. Each year the event has a particular theme. This year is was on automotive design: past, present and future.
The image you see above is the tail end of a 1935 Chrysler Airflow automobile. It was a very bright day and as I was walking around the show I saw this car and I really liked how the light was highlighting the curves.
In post processing I darkened the blacks to emphasize the shadows, but that was the way I saw the shot when I took it. Additional processing was used to blacken the windows.
Feel free to leave comments below.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
1958 Corvette Dashboard Detail
by James Howe on Jun.14, 2010, under Automobiles
(Nikon D700, 28-80mm at 68mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125 sec @f/8.0)
One of my favorite subjects to shoot are classic automobiles. In the past I’ve focused on exterior details, but after a while you need a break from taking another fender shot. As a result, I’ve started spending some more time trying to get some interior shots to go along with the exterior shots. Interiors are harder because the lighting is generally bad, particularly for coupes and sedans. Also, most owners don’t let you climb in the car so you have to find a way to get your camera in a position which will take a nicely composed shot.
The image above is of a 1958 Corvette which was on display at the first ever “Cars R Stars” car show held at the Packard Proving Grounds in Shelby Township, Michigan. I like this shot because of all the circles and curves. There is the curve of the steering wheel, the semi-circular speedometer, the circular gauges, etc. The lighting isn’t great, but you work with what you have when you shoot at an outdoor show.
Processing included some preliminary work in Lightroom where I brought up the blacks and brought down the exposure a bit. I then took the image into Photoshop where I used Topaz Simplify to smooth out some of the less attractive elements. I reduced the opacity of that layer and then painted on a layer mask over the numbers on the speedometer to keep them clear.
I’d be interested in hearing what you think. Feel free to leave comments on the image below.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.