Walk
May, 2015Views
208
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Awards
Action Award
Top Shot Award 22
2020 Choice Award
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Behind The Lens
Location
Eglinton Street, Glasgow.Time
After 7pm for sure.Lighting
Who'd have thunk it, pay council tax and the city will, every evening around dusk, light up the streets as a studio. They are incredibly reliable as well, not often is that said. That evening also summoned the god of rain who resides in Glasgow and just loves to hang about the streets most of the time. Set to 'drizzle' for ever, that god was definitely useful in the making of this image, dependent for a chiaroscuro, noir aesthetic, which i adore.Equipment
Nikon D90. I've no idea which lens. I do recall it was not a very good lens particularly but all i could afford. I also recall following this unwitting muse up the road whilst attempting to keep the same distance, shooting him as he walked under and passed each street lamp due to how terrible the camera and lens were in low light.Inspiration
Living in the Southside of the city, over the Clyde river and beyond, i had no choice but to walk home from the centre as i drank my bus fare and the trains had gone to bed. Pretty much everyone had gone to bed actually, except this chap and a few stray cars. The night was moody, i was tipsy, the rain's reflectivity was my inspiration. There's a tendency to keep the head down on long unintended walks in the rain at night, that's when i noticed the umbrella's silhouette, but like a fleeting repeating apparition, only appeared under the illumination of the well spaced street lights, only to vanish into the ether. Trying to capture the image was a welcome distraction from the gauntlet of a night walk down Eglinton Street.Editing
Yes. NEF file, Camera Raw, Photoshop, Silver Efex Pro. What a wondrous plug-in for Photoshop; Intuitive utility, creatively powerful, multiple presets with full manipulation capabilities. For me Silver Efex Pro kept the creative fun in post-processing. After years of using Photoshop i began to relate post-processing to an activity not unlike self-flagellation. Any assistance which freed me from sitting hunched on my twenty quid Ikea chair for hours on end whilst being blinded by my uncalibrated computer screen, i regarded as golden. Due to the camera/lens low light inabilities i had to push the exposure, a bit of specific dodge and burn action to increase contrast (i actually think i may have gone overboard on the burning a trifle). I utilised a vignette to accentuate the focus on the umbrella guy. Also, i used a bit of 'luminance' to counter the invasion of digital noise which i can't stand but is inevitable in night shooting most of the time.In my camera bag
Olympus RC35 (fun), Nikon FM2 (bit more serious fun), Sony a7s2 (night vision, kind of), haggis neeps tatties and a whisky sauce (survival).Feedback
When walking in the rain at night don't expect the hole in the sole of your shoe to be your friend, drink your bus fare, don't follow strangers intentionally but if one happens to be interesting enough on the same path, ensure you are downwind to avoid disturbing man in his natural habitat, wait until they walk under the street light when your camera/lens combo is crap. Pay your council studio tax :) Thanks.
