Discussion
Well it's gone a bit quiet so I thought I'd lob this one in for the heck of it... I was at a small garden centre today when I saw this old tractor aabout 50 yards away and toddled off to grab some 'textural b/w' stuff.
S'funny but I've never been able to do b/w until now. Now I love it and can't wait for that D70
Photo was taken with 'toy' Mju300.
S'funny but I've never been able to do b/w until now. Now I love it and can't wait for that D70
Photo was taken with 'toy' Mju300.
AllTorque said:
Simpo, is it possible for you take us through the processes you used to get the photo? I would be intrigued to hear what you did differently to usual, and why you feel it is a better effort than your previous forays into B&W. Great pic anyhow!
Thaks ole bean
I didn't go into details because actually there aren't many! 1) I used PS6 and Image/Adjust/Channel Mixer,monochrome to lose the colour (this seems to give a more contrasty image than simply desaturating)
2)Image/Adjust/Brightness,Contrast to reduce brightness a bit and increase contrast a touch.
I tried b/w once before about 20 years ago, developing prints with my late father who was heavily into photography. However I was never satisfied with the results - they simply came out in shades of grey. What I like about digital is the ability to tweak limitlessly in realtime and see what works best. So suddenly, a whole new avenue is opened up.
As a convert to digital (thanks to the modest Mju300), my strapline would be: 'Pressing the button is just the beginning'.
That is really good!
Please forgive my claptrap but i wish to expand.
First of all i thought yeah yeah, simpo has done a pic which is bound to be good so lets have a look and then POW!
The Blurr on the windscreen automatically gives the image a sense of time.
The deep dark shadows around the base of the image are very dramatic, they bring intrigue into this picture for me. A sense of something that cannot be seen or that has passed.......History!, the shadows bring a sense of history and drama.
Then there is the pitting of the metal. This beast has been attacked by an undefeatable foe......Time!, and yet there is still a sense of strength and structure to the machine.
A closer look.
Doesn't look like a tractor?, more like a truck. That big square snout with a sharp spine down the middle brings honesty to the picture.
The silver birch in the background with leaves dancing in the wind.......brilliant!
I would say that this object is beautifull, and green. Light green speckled with dirty redish brown and it will be a decade before this beast sucomes to the cancerouse rust.
IMO a very good picture......thankyou.
Please forgive my claptrap but i wish to expand.
First of all i thought yeah yeah, simpo has done a pic which is bound to be good so lets have a look and then POW!
The Blurr on the windscreen automatically gives the image a sense of time.
The deep dark shadows around the base of the image are very dramatic, they bring intrigue into this picture for me. A sense of something that cannot be seen or that has passed.......History!, the shadows bring a sense of history and drama.
Then there is the pitting of the metal. This beast has been attacked by an undefeatable foe......Time!, and yet there is still a sense of strength and structure to the machine.
A closer look.
Doesn't look like a tractor?, more like a truck. That big square snout with a sharp spine down the middle brings honesty to the picture.
The silver birch in the background with leaves dancing in the wind.......brilliant!
I would say that this object is beautifull, and green. Light green speckled with dirty redish brown and it will be a decade before this beast sucomes to the cancerouse rust.
IMO a very good picture......thankyou.
Blimey, thanks bilko, that's a very nice thing to say for early on a Bank Holiday Monday: I think you said everything that I thought subconciously at the time (and more), except in words. You'll be on Newsnight Review if you're not careful
But that's the thing about b/w - the mind adds its own thoughts and elaborates its own story. A bit like a radio play or book vs TV perhaps?
In reality, the blur on the windscreen is just a reflected cloud that happened to be there, and I didn't really notice the trees! I certainly agree with the rust texture and silent decay of a once-powerful machine - though if it was ever green, we shall never know!
Thanks again bilko, much appreciated.
FYI this is what it really looked like:
But that's the thing about b/w - the mind adds its own thoughts and elaborates its own story. A bit like a radio play or book vs TV perhaps?
In reality, the blur on the windscreen is just a reflected cloud that happened to be there, and I didn't really notice the trees! I certainly agree with the rust texture and silent decay of a once-powerful machine - though if it was ever green, we shall never know!
Thanks again bilko, much appreciated.
FYI this is what it really looked like:
Thanks for the details mate. The b&w pic and Bilko's thoughts remind me of the poem Ozymandias by Shelley. Keep up the good work!
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
simpo two said:
Blimey, thanks bilko, that's a very nice thing to say for early on a Bank Holiday Monday: I think you said everything that I thought subconciously at the time (and more), except in words. You'll be on Newsnight Review if you're not careful
But that's the thing about b/w - the mind adds its own thoughts and elaborates its own story. A bit like a radio play or book vs TV perhaps?
In reality, the blur on the windscreen is just a reflected cloud that happened to be there, and I didn't really notice the trees! I certainly agree with the rust texture and silent decay of a once-powerful machine - though if it was ever green, we shall never know!
Thanks again bilko, much appreciated.
FYI this is what it really looked like:
Thats a wee grey fergy with row crop wheels, probably built about 2 miles away from where I'm sitting. So you've given it the paint colour it really should be.
>> Edited by thepeoplespal on Friday 11th June 22:12
simpo two said:
Thats a wee grey fergy with row crop wheels, probably built about 2 miles away from where I'm sitting. So you've given it the paint colour it really should be.
I swear there's nothing PHers don't know... what year roughly do you reckon?
Well there were 500,000 of these built between 1946 and 1956, but most of the working ones are diesel, which Harry Ferguson wasn't too keen to put into his tractors.
So at a guess it probably a later 1953 model or there abouts, would really need a look at the exhaust manifold to find out if its a petrol/TVO model or a diesel. The TVO (Tractor vaporising model aka parafin) is a bit of a pain to work with and requires a cowling around the exhaust to help keep the temperature up.
The cab is a homemade job probably put on in the late 1970s or 1980s to deal with government legislation for rollover protection. There were lots of accidents when tractors rolling silage, rolled over and crushed the driver.
My Great Uncle was killed in the 1960s by one of these, he managed to get run over causing internal injuries , while getting off his tractor.
All rollover protection for tractors had to be officially approved. Every design had to be tested at Silsoe by crushing from above and by bashing from the side before it could be approved. There would have been an official approval plate if it had been a proper cab. (Before official safety cabs some agricultural engineers used to make up weather cabs).
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