Gold mine by night - does this work?

[TonyW]

[Shadowman]

I like it, it looks like another world.

[Ziggy]

Makes for a very different image. Maybe if you zoom in just a little bit it might provide just a little more detail on what's going on.

[Dave Humphries]

Yes, it does Tony,

That said, I wondered whether revealing more shadow detail would help improve it, or perhaps it wouldn't help.

It is certainly much better than what I expected from reading the thread title - I wondered how it could be shown, but you have certainly achieved it.

[Geoff F]

Thinking along similar lines as Jim; but be careful to avoid cropping too tight, unless you create two different images of this scene.

The bottom left corner certainly has a rather large block of black which I would like to slightly reduce with a crop.

Otherwise, it looks good to me.

[bnnrcn]

I like the image as is, dark areas don't bother me as it is a night shot . I would also add some closer shots to make a series if possible

[Chri5]

For me it really works well and like John said it looks like another world. Like a scene from a scifi flick.

[arith]

I like it, it works for me.

[TonyW]

Thanks, everyone, for all the comments. I as really pushing the camera's boundaries here, and mine, with a hand held shot at 1/15s, f/4, ISO3200 and 105mm but I enjoy challenges like that. Sometimes they are complete failures. I wished in retrospect that I had been able to use a tripod to get more of the detail. This was taken some months ago and I thought it was a discard but I have learnt more about post processing since then. I did want the dark space around it to set the mood and in this case I preferred to preserve the 4:3 ratio. You can see a little more detail at a bigger size.

Binnur, I am afraid that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity as it was taken in Kalgoorlie, which is a good 3,000km from where I live. It would be nice to go back and do some more.

[Andrew1]

Tony, for me it would have worked better if I could have told what the photo was about without you titling it. If it's just the scale of the mine you wanted to show it's relatively good however I still get the feeling it's larger than this photo portrays. I've been to an extremely large open mine a few times and looking from a similar vantage point the size really doesn't register until you realize one of the "little trucks" you can see is a 150 ton ore hauler with two story tires and a speck of white beside it is a half ton truck.

As is I still find it hard to locate anything to lock on to and and still question what I'm looking at. My eyes are darting around as I find nothing to latch on to and look deeper.

A much closer shot on some of the heavy equipment would have provided a more finite subject and given me something to stop and take a look at. It would still show the vast size of the place and also included the idea that this is night work.

We're all different and that's just my perspective on things. I like detail, lines, colour and being able to take in other aspects of the subject and it's environment. Others on here have enjoyed your photo and if you like it I wouldn't change a thing.

[TonyW]

Andrew, I understand what you are saying but I don't quite know how to achieve what you want, even if I were to go back fully prepared which is not possible at this stage. If you look at the image at full screen size, you can see a bit more detail but admittedly it is not sharp enough to see what you want. What I needed was a tripod and a longer lens than I had at the time, or the opportunity to get down into the mine. A series of picture is probably the only solution.

I did get a few pictures showing the size of the equipment but that does not really answer your questions, e.g.

[jcuknz]

I think it works as you have shown it though it could be sharpened up a bit. Unfortunately I do not think the second shot really sets off the size of the machines .. I will start another thread to show what I got in a daylight visit to Oceanian here in NZ just fifty miles or so away ... "Some Tonka" was my reaction to what I saw

[IzzieK]

How did you get into that big hole? Did anyone gave you a hardhat? Just asking...I have not read any comments here yet but I will in the yawning...early.

OK...got to read some comments...I agree about the sheer size of this place and it is a beautiful shot, Tony...did you get some more shots in there? Is this place a tourist spot now despite the men working in there...???

[TonyW]

Thanks, Izzie. We were on a sort of tour around the place but I only had a few minutes there. We were on the edge of the big hole on a sort of viewing platform and unfortunately did not get down into the mine itself. It is still a genuine working mine, not just a tourist attraction. They could not afford to run the big machines otherwise.

[Wandjina]

Nice shot. I like the dark areas, although I can understand why some think otherwise