Torpedo Room

[Shadowman]

f/2.8, IO 160, 1/100sec, 35mm

[bje07]

It's not a confidential room?

[DanK]

An interesting image. I'd suggest re-cropping it, however. I think it would be better to center it by cropping some of the distracting cabinet or mirror on the left. I think the crops at the top and bottom are both too high. The bottom one chops off detail and seems cramped. At the top, I would either get rid of the girder or leave a small amount of it to provide a border.

[pschlute]

Fascinating image. I agree about a crop though to centre the "cradle", and maybe even a square crop.

[Geoff F]

Any crop is going to remove something important. So I think I would leave things as they are now.

[Manfred M]

This is an interesting but complex image. The leading lines from the torpedo cradle lead the viewer's eyes down to the torpedo tube opening. Standard dodging and burning techniques would be useful in toning down and taming the distracting elements in this shot. A small crop on the top and left hand sides would help to by removing distracting elements that are unimportant to the overall image.

[Polar01]

Just one Question John aft torpedo?

Cheers: Allan

[xpatUSA]

Nice shot, John, I like old military stuff.

I'm curious as to how the image was processed because the histogram looks a bit odd in RawTherapee and there's a slight color cast:

[DanK]

Nice shot, John, I like old military stuff.

I'm curious as to how the image was processed because the histogram looks a bit odd in RawTherapee and there's a slight color cast:

I get the same LAB values in Photoshop. I get something similar with the histogram, although Photoshop displays it somewhat differently. I think the latter is fairly common if a histogram is stretched to increase contrast.

[Shadowman]

An interesting image. I'd suggest re-cropping it, however. I think it would be better to center it by cropping some of the distracting cabinet or mirror on the left. I think the crops at the top and bottom are both too high. The bottom one chops off detail and seems cramped. At the top, I would either get rid of the girder or leave a small amount of it to provide a border.

Hi Dan,

Thanks for comments and suggestions.

[Shadowman]

It's not a confidential room?

Hi Jean,

No its not.

[Shadowman]

Fascinating image. I agree about a crop though to centre the "cradle", and maybe even a square crop.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for comments and suggestion.

[Shadowman]

Any crop is going to remove something important. So I think I would leave things as they are now.

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for commenting.

[Shadowman]

This is an interesting but complex image. The leading lines from the torpedo cradle lead the viewer's eyes down to the torpedo tube opening. Standard dodging and burning techniques would be useful in toning down and taming the distracting elements in this shot. A small crop on the top and left hand sides would help to by removing distracting elements that are unimportant to the overall image.

Hi Manfred,

Thanks for comments and suggestions.

[Shadowman]

Just one Question John aft torpedo?

Cheers: Allan

Allan,

Aft.

[Shadowman]

Nice shot, John, I like old military stuff.

I'm curious as to how the image was processed because the histogram looks a bit odd in RawTherapee and there's a slight color cast:

Hi Ted,

There was a magenta colorcast in the foreground of the image which I adjusted during post-processing. Thanks for commenting.

[rpcrowe]

Good capture in a difficult situation. I have done some motion picture shooting on operational submarines during the 1960's (this one looks like a Word War-II boat - am I correct?)... The space, while still really tight on more modern nuclear subs was a lot larger and the living conditions for the sailors was a lot better in the 1960's than the WW-II sailors had.

Looking back. I think that shooting motion pictures aboard submarines (even though most of my coverage was done when the sub was tied up to a pier) was just about one of the most difficult projects I ever encountered. The sheer size of my 16mm camera (Arriflex with 400 foot magazine or sometime with 100 foot loads - due to space limitations) compounded by the lighting difficulties were the reasons for the problems. My film was 16mm Commercial Ektachrome, a reversal film that had an ASA (akin to ISO) of 25 under 3200K lights compounded with little or no latitude. My lights were incandescent which pumped out a lot of heat. I did a lot of hand holding because there was simply not enough room for tripod in many spaces and I did not have a monopod at the time. The audio recorder added more weight and bulk to my outfit...

I used a Lowell Light Kit which, using a large and very heavy transformer, gave me 3200K light from standard PAR38 photoflood bulbs. https://www.ebay.com/i/143407854412?...xoCMTQQAvD_BwE The handy thing about this setup (if anything about it could be considered "handy") is that I could tape the lights just about anywhere using gaffers tape. Which was the original use for this very handy tape. Of course, the heat from the photoflood would occasionally bubble up the paint. I always needed a man with a fire extinguisher handy when I was shooting. Needless to say, the crew was not very happy with me

How much easier it would have been to light the scene with LED lights or even available light and shoot with either a DSLR or a mirrorless camera . Of course, these innovations were not even a figment of my imagination at that time.

And, no... I did not shoot while the sub was submerged. I never submerged in a submarine partially due to lack of opportunity and partly by choice... I had a chance to be a passenger on a short trial dive but did not press the point

BTW: I have just finished a book, "Hellcats of the Sea" by Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, who was Commander Submarine Force Pacific in WW-II. It is an inspirational and thrilling recount of the U.S. Navy's first foray into the Sea of Japan during the Second World War. It's available in a Kindle edition for ninety-nine cents and I enjoyed it greatly...

[Shadowman]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for commenting, this is the U.S.S. Croaker a Gato-class submarine (I googled) first laid down in 1943. The interior was lit with multiple light sources, mostly for presentation purposes not for utility. I shot this using a monopod which gave only so much stability in a very tight space, I was using my 24-70mm lens and could've brought in more of the scene but didn't want to deal with the lens distortion if shot at the short end of the lens.

Regarding the space within the submarine, I'm only six feet tall but there were numerous areas of the ship that were uncomfortable to maneuver around even for me. I have a friend who is 6' 9" who served on a similarly sized ship but he said he was comfortable but did bump his head on numerous occasions. Also, regarding lighting and filming, I think of how motion pictures were filmed and most were done on a film set with perhaps wide open overhead areas which could be used to light as the director wanted, just like photography outdoor lighting for film made for easier capture during certain times of the day. Indoor filming and photography can create some challenges but with continuous lighting or flash some of the difficulties are either controlled or made more prevalent; such as controlling shadows.

Like you, I've been doing a lot of reading and documentary viewing about the travails of world war ii missions with submissions from both sides of the ocean, will have to look for the book you mentioned.

[DanK]

Adding a simple BW adjustment layer removes the bluish color cast in this image. In LAB mode, the readings go from this:

a: -2
b: -7

to this:

a: 0
b: 0

I'm not making a comment on which is nicer, just that this is a simple way to remove global color casts.

[Shadowman]

Adding a simple BW adjustment layer removes the bluish color cast in this image. In LAB mode, the readings go from this:

a: -2
b: -7

to this:

a: 0
b: 0

I'm not making a comment on which is nicer, just that this is a simple way to remove global color casts.

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the suggestion, I will try it on the original and see how it looks.