Graffiti Bike – Ann Arbor
by James Howe on Jun.08, 2010, under Ann Arbor
(Nikon D700, 16-35 at 31mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/15 sec @f/11)
There is an alley in Ann Arbor, Michigan which is noted for its graffiti. I was wandering around town recently and decided to see if there was anything new to be found. To my surprise, there was this bike just laying on the ground but it had been painted to fit with the surroundings.
For processing, I decided to use Topaz Adjust and Topaz Simplify to strengthen the colors and make the image look more like a painting.
Comments?
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Rubber and Leather (it’s not what you think!)
by James Howe on Jun.06, 2010, under Automobiles
(Nikon D700, 28-80 at 56mm, ISO 250, Exposure 1/125 sec @f/11)
It’s almost summer so that must mean its time for classic car shows! I recently attended the Classic Car Club of America Museum ‘Experience’ show, held annually at the Gilmore Car Museum in Western Michigan. The show always has a great collection of classic automobiles, all of which have been beautifully maintained and/or restored.
The image above shows some of the spare tire detail from a 1929 Sport Phaeton Cadillac which was on display. For some reason, I found the combination of the leather straps against the black and white of the tire to be visually appealing and I tried to capture that feeling in this shot. The original shot was just a little bit larger, but I decided to crop it down to focus on the elements which caught my eye originally.
Processing was fairly minimal. Aside from a minor crop, I used an Hue-Saturation layer to remove a blue cast which came from the overcast skies. I also increased the contrast and bumped the saturation of the reds to bring back some color to the leather which I felt was lacking in the raw image. Some final sharpening and you have the final image.
I took several shots at this show and I suspect they will be appearing in this blog over the next few days!
Comments?
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
1938 Mercedes 540K Sport Tourer
by James Howe on May.16, 2010, under Automobiles, Michigan
(Nikon D700, 35mm, ISO 500, Exposure 1/125 sec @f/8.0)
This image shows a portion a 1938 Mercedes 540K Sport Tourer automobile. This particularl automobile is on display at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan. If you love cars, the Gilmore Car Museum is a great place to visit. They have a couple hundred classic automobiles on display in various barns located on the premises.
The car itself has a very interesting story. According to the information displayed at the museum the car was stored by an enthusiast in Dresden after WWII to hide it from Soviet officials. The man’s house had a basement garage and after securing the car in it, he bricked up the entrance and filled the driveway with topsoil, planting a rose garden above it. With the fall of the Berlin wall, he felt it was safe to bring the car out and sell it to earn badly needed retirement funds. At the time, the car was highly original, but significantly deteriorated by age. The restoration of the car was completed in 2005. Some other images of the car (not taken by me) can be seen here.
The image took a bit of work to create. The car is on display in an old barn. The lighting is typical museum lighting, mostly dark. The front of the car was primarily lit from light from the open barn door which is near where the car is parked. The side of the car that I was shooting was mostly in shade. I had a flash with me and I experimented with hand holding the flash in various positions to put light on the car.
I was using a higher ISO and although the grain wasn’t really a problem, I didn’t like the overall sharpness of the image. I did like the basic lighting and shapes created by the lines and the shadows, however. I decided to use Topaz Simplify to create something which looks like it belongs on a poster. I used that filter and some curves to darken some areas. I also used the new Content Aware feature of the healing brush in Photoshop CS5 to eliminate some of the lights which were reflecting in the car.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Richardson Oil Pump
by James Howe on May.02, 2010, under Mechanical
(Nikon D700, 50mm, ISO 6400, Exposure 1/125 sec @f/2.0)
One of the nice places to visit in Southeastern Michigan is the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The museum contains a wonderful collection of artifacts, mostly centered around manufactured items. One of my favorite areas of the museum to photography is the area which contains a collection of old generators. These things were originally installed in manufacturing plants and most are quite huge and quite impressive. This particular image shows just a small portion of a huge generator which used to be installed in a Ford Motor Company automobile plant in Highland Park, Michigan. The item shows an oil pump used to feed oil to this huge piece of machinery.
The museum has typical museum lighting, which is to say that it is quite dark. I could have used flash, but with the metal surface it really wouldn’t look good. Perhaps if I were using a giant softbox some interesting lighting might be possible, but that really wasn’t practical. If you look at the EXIF data you will see that this was shot at ISO 6400. I recently purchased a Nikon D700 and one of the reasons I purchased it was for its high ISO capability. Overall I think the quality of the image is quite nice, but when I shot it, my intent was to add a bit of processing to it to make it look less like a photograph and more like a painting.
The primary bit of work was to use Topaz Adjust and Topaz Simplify to add some additional contrast and create the painterly look. I then masked out part of the image to keep the pump itself, along with the writing on the pump, sharp. The rest of the image was allowed to go ‘fuzzy’. For more details on the processing, along with some before, during and after versions of the image, check out my tutorial post at imagenotebook.jameshowephotography.com
Please feel free to leave your comments!
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Cobblestones in Old San Juan
by James Howe on Apr.28, 2010, under Travel
(Nikon D700, 28-80mm at 31mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/250 sec @f/8.0)
One of the defining characteristics in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico are the narrow cobblestone streets which wind their way through the old city. The blue color is particularly striking, particularly in the right light. I took this shot on a recent family trip to Puerto Rico.
Processing included some slight cropping and adjusting the exposure and black level to make the colors come out. The raw image was quite bright because I exposed ‘to the right’, and bringing down the exposure and increasing the black level just a bit in Lightroom made a huge difference in the image. From a composition perspective, I think the image might be better if there were some object on the street, perhaps a large leaf or something, just something to add a bit of contrast to the stones. What do you think?
Comments?
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.