Generator Hall - Abandoned Pulp Mill at Val Jalbert

[Manfred M]

This is a shot of the old generator room where water powered turbines turned the generators that powered both the pulp mill and the village itself. The smoke, lights and colours are part of the interpretive display at the site.

[rpcrowe]

Really neat shot Manfred...

I could easily imagine Batman or Spiderman in that venue

[Shadowman]

Nice capture.

[DanK]

A nice shot, but I think what the color they used really detracts. It's so out of place and intense that it distracts from the interesting lines and textures. I did a simple B&W conversion, and even without any work, it seemed much more interesting to me.

[Manfred M]

A nice shot, but I think what the color they used really detracts. It's so out of place and intense that it distracts from the interesting lines and textures. I did a simple B&W conversion, and even without any work, it seemed much more interesting to me.

As it was part of a multi-media show, it worked well for those attending.

I did do a B&W conversion for inclusion in the other shots taken in the Ghost Town itself, but it doesn't integrate quite as well as I had hoped. Ghost Town - Val Jalbert. I need to work on some of the other machinery shots from the mill itself to see how they work out. Apparently the mill workers worked bare foot.

I'm looking at entering these in a B&W print competition next year so I have a fair bit of time to work on these...

[FootLoose]

I definitely prefer the mono version, the original looks like cinematic colour grading gone troppo. The mono version doesn't seem to be as sharp. I wonder if that has something to do with the purple lighting?

[MrB]

Although the garish colours might work in reality, they seem quite unattractive in the photo of the scene, and a mono also gives me a better impression of the 3D depth in the image. (A conversion based around the Nik Silver Efex 'High Structure' preset appeals to me.)

Philip

[Manfred M]

I definitely prefer the mono version, the original looks like cinematic colour grading gone troppo. The mono version doesn't seem to be as sharp. I wonder if that has something to do with the purple lighting?

I generally do my B&W conversions with a B&W adjustment layer in Photoshop. That lets me tweak individual colour ranges (reds, yellows, greens, blues, cyans and magentas). With the predominantly purple lights falling on the output of the smoke generators I enhanced that aspect of the image by globally lightening those areas. This gives it the less sharp effect as those areas of the image have been enhanced. I usually prefer going this route rather than jumping over to Silver Efex.

I still prefer the original because it looks unnatural.

[John 2]

………………………………..

I still prefer the original because it looks unnatural.

I do as well but for the reason that the mono delineates the hardware more and looks more cluttered. Whereas the strength in the colour version is the overall, psychedelic effect.

[Manfred M]

If I turn down the magenta slider, I get a setting with the smoke far less visible and the piping and machinery showing much more clearly.