Algoma Region

[RustBeltRaw]

Manfred, I think Group f/64 should send you a letter. You're clearly working in aperture ranges none of my lenses have ever been set to.

Post 1, picture 3: Excellent sense of direction. Makes me want a pack and some good boots to head straight down the river.

Post 2, picture 2: The cris-crossing direction lines form the bridge and canal are interesting. Two leading lines creating a sort of virtual subject at their intersection. Clever.

Post 2, picture 5: Congrats for taking a non-cliche railroad shot! I would have framed it a little lower - I think there's a tad too much sky. But the detail's great, and the colors are uniformly dead-on in each of these shots.

[Wavelength]

Nice images with catching colors; you positioned you wisely while capturing those images

[Brownbear]

Hi Manfred,

I forgot to say that I wish you a full and speedy recovery. I didn't know that you had surgery... Anyway you have to get up and about at 100% as quickly as possible so you can share your beautiful work more often...

[Manfred M]

Post 2, picture 5: Congrats for taking a non-cliche railroad shot! I would have framed it a little lower - I think there's a tad too much sky. But the detail's great, and the colors are uniformly dead-on in each of these shots.

Absolutely agree. I posted the wrong version. I left too much "headroom" in the shot; done on purpose so that I can get a good crop for a 17 x 22 print.

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred,

I forgot to say that I wish you a full and speedy recovery. I didn't know that you had surgery... Anyway you have to get up and about at 100% as quickly as possible so you can share your beautiful work more often...

Thanks Christina - recovery is well underway as the surgery was just over a year ago. Major surgery on the foot (my heel and ankle bone were fused and I spent 5 months off work in a cast). Crutches and cameras don't do well together. The typical recovery takes at least a year and sometimes up to two years. The Algoma trip was a test to see if I could take all the pounding. I tried a trip to the Maritimes back in June and had to come home after 3 days because of severe swelling.

The good news is that other than a bit of soreness, the foot handled all the pounding and weight bearing without a lot of problems, so I can get out and travel again.

[Manfred M]

It would be fascinating to see how they look after PP at home when you get back. Whether you are content with the current versions or not

I found that the colours were not too bad, but looked a bit more saturated on the laptop's screen than on the my regular screen. I also found that the laptop was set to be a lot brighter than what I usually work / print to so the images tended to be a bit too dark.

I've reworked the images and will be reposting them plus a couple more shots.

[Manfred M]

I've reworked the images as the ones done on the laptop while I was on the road needed a bit of tweaking:

The three of the Chippewa River and falls:









Alona Bay




Shots taken in Sault Ste Marie Ontario:

Essar Steel Algoma Works




The International Bridge and two swing bridges. The orange coloured one is no longer used, as the tracks had been taken out. The other, older one is still in service as the tracks leading up to it are are shiney and look like they have used fairly often recently.




Railway bridge




Another view of the same bridge. If you look carefully, you can see that there is a "train coming" towards me



The train (actually a crane)




International Bridge span over the St Mary's Canal




Abandoned house of St Joseph Island

[pasusan]

Hi Manfred - your reworking made the images even better - very nice! I especially love the lighting of the steel works - great!

[Brownbear]

Wonderful to hear. Thank you for sharing.

#3 of the last set is my favourite... Also #2... Gorgeous! And the railway shot.

Thanks Christina - recovery is well underway as the surgery was just over a year ago. Major surgery on the foot (my heel and ankle bone were fused and I spent 5 months off work in a cast). Crutches and cameras don't do well together. The typical recovery takes at least a year and sometimes up to two years. The Algoma trip was a test to see if I could take all the pounding. I tried a trip to the Maritimes back in June and had to come home after 3 days because of severe swelling.

The good news is that other than a bit of soreness, the foot handled all the pounding and weight bearing without a lot of problems, so I can get out and travel again.

[Manfred M]

Manfred,

What I like about your images is the saturated richness of colour. I guess I am a sucker for “low key” images.

In the first series #1 and #2 are nice but #3 is much more pleasant on my eye.

In the second series that railway bridge with so much depth is stunning. (where is Ted now?)

Thanks Andre. On reading your comment, I also remember a previous thread where there was a discussion of SOCC versus PP. I do post SOOC, especially on non-photo websites, which is why I shoot jpeg + RAW. I know you are not a fan of PP, but all of these postings are RAW images that I reworked. I thought it might be interesting to compare my SOOC jpegs to the images that I posted. The only work done to the jpegs is to convert them from AdobeRGB to sRGB for browser compatibility. All of the RAW files were processed in Photoshop CC and I make extensive use of layer masks and clipping masks in my work. I might have been able to come close to these using Lightroom, but only after pulling out a lot of hair (and I don't have a lot to pull out anymore). I changed the crop in one of the images, but the rest are identical, uncropped images.

Anyhow, for your comparison and thoughts....

SOOC:



Post Processed RAW file:






SOOC:




Post Processed RAW file:





SOOC:




Post Processed RAW file:





SOOC:




Post Processed RAW file:





I personally find, I need to do some PP to get that extra "pop" and use some techniques that help focus the viewer's eyes. I simply cannot do that without some considerable effort in post. I need to use the light, shadows and colour that is there in the but needs to be revealed in post. I think I could come close if I edited jpegs, other than perhaps the details in the sky and clouds.

Thoughts?

[Manfred M]

Thanks for the comments Susan and Christina!

[NorthernFocus]

Excellent stuff in this thread, Manfred. I agree with Christina in that we don't get to see enough of your work. Really nicely done, both artistically and techs.

[Mike Buckley]

All are enjoyable but my favorite one is the first photo in the second batch.

[tbob]

Your comparison of the camera's decision (SOOC jpeg) and yours (processed RAW) about the images reinforces that processing is much better done by a human than by a program, no matter how good, within the software of the camera. Yours are better by a mile.

[GeorgeM]

I like these very much. I do have a question though. Do you pp a file to give it pop, or do you try to recreate the scene as it was when you took the picture? Was the crane really that nice, bright yellow or was it closer to what I personally feel is the aged, flatter yellow in the SOOC example?

[Manfred M]

I like these very much. I do have a question though. Do you pp a file to give it pop, or do you try to recreate the scene as it was when you took the picture? Was the crane really that nice, bright yellow or was it closer to what I personally feel is the aged, flatter yellow in the SOOC example?

A little bit of both George. I look at both what I saw (versus what the SOOC looks like) and also try to work to an eye-catching image that is still realistic. The main bit of enhancement in these images is the sky.

Skies tend to be a bit problematic with many images; I love the details of highlights and shadows in the clouds, but the SOOC camera image tends to wash them out, so I work to restore the details. I think you will notice that is the main difference between the SOOC and the PP images. Is that part of the pop? Yes, but frankly the detail is in the clouds already, so nothing has been added that wasn't there already.

The fall colours is another place where the print or computer screen have problems keeping up with what the eyes see. When hit by sunlight, the fall colours are bright and magical in the foreground and look more faded in the distance. The camera tends to not show the differentiation between the various colour shadings, so I do try to bring things out to look the way that they were when I saw them.

The train bridges and the service crane were all taken during the morning "magic hour", so the light was coming in low and just above the horizon. Again, the screen does not do justice to the light; it does not show the low, soft shadows or the warmth of the light (the downside of Auto White Balance), so again, the train tracks had a silver, rather than grey tone and the crane and I-beam had a warm tone to them, so I brought those back and showed the shadows more distictly.

The only artificial "pop" enhancing mechanism I use in virtually all of my work is putting in a slight vignette to pull the viewer's eyes into the picture, rather than having them distracted by the "bright" corners. I "hand craft" the vignettes to ensure that they help the viewer focus on the subject.

The crane, by the way, looked new and in pristine condition and the yellow was not the old chalky looking yellow that we see on older construction equipment. The small rail car was old and rusty and did have that flat and chalky yellow colour.

I hope that this answers your question.