Delfin

Old steam train

Canon EOS 70D

settings

Aperture f/7.1 ISO 100 Shutter 13/10 Focal Length 16/1

upload_date

Jul, 2015

Views

383

Likes

+41

Awards

People's Choice in HDR at its best Photo Challenge

Superb Composition

Top Choice

Outstanding Creativity

Superior Skill

Magnificent Capture

Peer Award

Top Ranks

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Awesomeness

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

First attempt at using a model (roped my friend in), very happy with the results.

Just trying a different post processing look

Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo at a local steam train museum in the North-East of England, the museum was holding a Lego event, which was the actual reason for going..not the trains.

Time

The photo was taken at the end of the visit, but there was still a lot of the public about as it was only early afternoon.

Lighting

This was quite challenging to shoot, as the train shed was quite dark, requiring a slightly longer exposure (the difficulty was getting the bracketed set without members of the public walking into shot).

Equipment

I used my canon 70d, with s canon 16-35mm f4/L lens, mounted on a manfrotto travel tripod. this allowed me to capture the entire engine from up close, and the tripod is essential for pin sharp bracketed shots. I used only natural light.

Inspiration

This is actually a "throwaway / filler" shot. I'd gone to the museum with a friend, who at that time was talking to one of the people restoring another engine. I'd wondered into the engine shed and noticed that actually I was the only one in there. I set up tripod and lens.. and still no one else had turned up. Knowing that metal objects lend themselves to HDR, I decided to chance getting in 3 shots, without someone coming in and walking into shot.

Editing

I used photomatix pro 5 to merge, and do the bulk of the processing, with initial tweaking of the bracketed shots final processing using lightroom. Final processing included adding complexity to the lighting on the engine, and pulling more of a charcoal sketch feel out of the image

In my camera bag

Usually I pack my 70D, a spare battery (this is important..after traveling to somewhere and getting into the day the last thing you need is to run out of power), tripod, and mini tripod. My filter pack, which consists of a polarizer, variable ND filter and now my ND10k.. I'm lucky in that the two lenses I carry both fit the same filters, these are the 16-35mm f/4L, and 24-105 F/4L both by Canon - the combination of these can cover most eventualities unless I specifically am doing distance work I rarely carry my big zoom lenses.

Feedback

When capturing HDR look for textures, metal and wood grain are my favorites - and really do lend themselves to the medium. Bracket a minimum of 3 shots, add more as the lighting gets more complex - you can really play in photoshop and lightroom with composite images. Be mindful of moving objects as these will ghost (blur) in the finished image, unless you can account for this in post processing. But the best advice I can give is have patience, be prepared to wait for people to clear the shot, or the wind to drop. Oh and yeah have fun!!

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Delfin

Delfin

Old steam train

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Delfin

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