Every year they organize Open Company Day in Belgium. Many companies open their doors and give you free demonstrations and tours. This is made at a company which supplies gas and electricity. It is part of gas meter dating from 1909.
Note that the timing of posting this image is a bit of a coincidence despites gas is now a hot topic in many European countries.
TECH-INFO: shot one RAW file while holding my SB-600 flash in my left hand. Doing this I set my flash in wireless i-TTL mode. According to my experience, the camera calculates everything pretty well as long the distance between the flash and subject is the same as between my camera and the subject and if background isn't too dark. In case it under or over exposes, you can easily correct it using the flash compensation button on your camera or by just adjusting the distance between the flash and subject. I use the latter technique the most. I converted the RAW file in DxO into 3 JPGs with each one and half stop difference. Then I turned them in to a HDR image and tone mapped it with Photomatrix Pro to enhance details and contrast. In Photoshop I used the selective color tool to enhance the blacks, whites and yellows (the latter is for the tubes at the top corners). Finally a small contrast boost and a very small vignette was added.
Gas Meter Display
Every year they organize Open Company Day in Belgium. Many companies open their doors and give you free demonstrations and tours. This is made at a company which supplies gas and electricity. It is part of gas meter dating from 1909.
Note that the timing of posting this image is a bit of a coincidence despites gas is now a hot topic in many European countries.
TECH-INFO: shot one RAW file while holding my SB-600 flash in my left hand. Doing this I set my flash in wireless i-TTL mode. According to my experience, the camera calculates everything pretty well as long the distance between the flash and subject is the same as between my camera and the subject and if background isn't too dark. In case it under or over exposes, you can easily correct it using the flash compensation button on your camera or by just adjusting the distance between the flash and subject. I use the latter technique the most. I converted the RAW file in DxO into 3 JPGs with each one and half stop difference. Then I turned them in to a HDR image and tone mapped it with Photomatrix Pro to enhance details and contrast. In Photoshop I used the selective color tool to enhance the blacks, whites and yellows (the latter is for the tubes at the top corners). Finally a small contrast boost and a very small vignette was added.
Nicely done, these old engines are poetic somewhere !!
LightningPaul: Thanks! Most people were just passing by. And if they stopped the where looking at me and wondering why I was making close-ups with my flash in my hand :-D
These fascinate me, but I never can seem to get one right. I think I've been trying to be too tricky with the composition. This is perfectly simple and very strong, though. You let the details do the talking and your processing really brings them out.
LightningPaul: This is this type of straight-on images. Very simple and if you come really close you get a perspective that you normally don't have or see often. Some people are indeed looking for something more complicated. I like straight-on or I take images from a totally different or strange angle (which most people also wouldn't do).
I'm not sure getting gas from Russia is all that good an idea. I like your topical picture Paul
LightningPaul: For sure for some people it is. Well currently they don't get any gas at all, so not good at all. I feel bad for them. Some are playing not so "clean" games.
It is fascinating to read your tech-info section for each image. I do very little post-processing of my (don't have the software or the knowhow), but the end result of your images has inspired me to at least look into different software options.
LightningPaul: Many thanks Travis. A few years ago I didn't use any software too, except PSP 7 of Jasc. But it was (too) cumbersome for me. One day I discovered DxO Optics Pro, which I really like for the lens corrections and the Lighting module. The latter is great, it does some kind of dynamic lighting (improving local contrast and making too dark parts much lighter).
As soon I realized that many (great) images are more or less manipulated (not only Photoshop but also in the dark room), I started experimenting a bit with Photoshop Elements).
Anyway in my opinion every image is showing us only a thin slice of the truth, it is mostly a creative result of our view and descisions we took during photographing and post processing (in camera or/and on PC).
Interesting! Perfect depth of field chosen. I see the volume unit are in french. Thank to post this non-singular item.
LightningPaul: Thanks! In half of Belgium they speak French. Hundred years ago this was the dominant language, now it changed to Dutch (= the same as in Holland).
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