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chromasia.com

As I mentioned in my last entry, one of the things that Jason wanted to cover during his 1-2-1 training was 'seeing creatively'. As such I decided to take him up to the old wrecked boats in the Wyre Estuary (e.g, this one and this one).

We did take quite a few shots of the boats, and I'm sure that Jason will blog some at some point, but we also spent quite a bit of time photographing various bits and pieces that we found there: an old fire extinguisher, bits of old rope, and so on.

I also found this snare drum, part-buried in the mud just to the left of this boat. I decided that there wasn't much point trying to photograph it in the mud so we moved it. The one that worked best for me was the one you see here, i.e. the drum on the deck of one of the boats, just to the left of the scene you can see in this shot. Normally, I prefer to photograph 'found objects' as I find them, but in this case it was a lot of fun trying to find a good location.

The post-production was relatively straightforward, but I should mention that I used Topaz Detail to bring out the detail in the skin of the drum.

And if you're interested, Jason's latest image from our various shoots is linked below: a different take on the shot I posted a few days ago.

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=247

captured
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
plugins (etc)
cropped?
1.34pm on 10/4/10
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
68mm
f/8.0
1/400
aperture priority
+1/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
ACR
Topaz Detail
minor
 
3x2 + beachcombing + show the original
comment by Kevin at 06:07 PM (GMT) on 16 April, 2010

Wow! I really like the grungy rusted and weathered look of the drum. This looks like a really neat place to take photos!

This training looks like an excellent opportunity; I'm a little jealous of Jason, not gonna lie...

:-D

comment by djn1 at 06:28 PM (GMT) on 16 April, 2010

Kevin: Thanks. And yes, the training sessions were great, not least because it's rare that I get that much time to spend exclusively on photography and post-production.

comment by Carlos Garcia at 08:13 PM (GMT) on 16 April, 2010

Rock and Roll! Must have been some gig!

Yup... you can make a beat up drum look beautiful. Love the mood and amazed at the transformation from the original. Bravo!

C.

comment by Jason at 08:41 PM (GMT) on 16 April, 2010

This came out fantastically...! Love your composition more than any I took. If I hadn't been there I would never have guessed where this was actually shot :)

comment by David Kelly at 09:33 PM (GMT) on 16 April, 2010

David, I love the way your transformed image gives the drum so much more life & pizazz - you can almost feel the decay & decrepitness of it, despite being a web image.
On a side note although we're dealing with web images here, I find it interesting how the choice of paper type for printing an image (fibre, gloss, luster, fine art and the like) can make ideal partners for different types of images. Choosing the right paper can further enhance the image printed and give it more depth / mood or just that 'je ne sais quoi' factor. I'd be interested to understand what considerations you might make in choice of paper if you were printing this image (or indeed any other of your images) based on the subject / look/ feel of the image.

comment by djn1 at 06:29 AM (GMT) on 17 April, 2010

David: I don't print a great deal of my images, but tend to favour lustre or metallic papers as they do a better job of preserving contrast. For softer images, on the other hand, I would be tempted to use a fine art or matt paper.

comment by Joe D at 01:42 PM (GMT) on 17 April, 2010

lovely textures and tones here -- a great find!

comment by Jonas (americanvirus) at 08:32 AM (GMT) on 18 April, 2010

Woah... I love this one!

comment by fabrizio26265 at 08:44 PM (GMT) on 18 April, 2010

for me this is an absolute masterwork. The original image is a beautiful one, the processed ones let my jawbone fall down in a sudden. Thank you for sharing this!

comment by djn1 at 04:14 AM (GMT) on 19 April, 2010

Thanks everyone :)

comment by djib at 08:20 AM (GMT) on 19 April, 2010

Great shot! Lovely colours and details on the skin!