Somewhere to Sit and Wait (JS)

[john_r_smith]

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A Great Western Railway wooden platform shelter, circa 1900 - Lumix LC1, 28mm, B/W jpeg

[MrEd]

Hi John,

I like your photograph. Did you adjust the brightness/ligth/ dark levels?

Thanks for sharing.

 

Ed.

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[john_r_smith]

Ed

 

I'm glad you liked the picture. It was a tricky shot, as the shelter was in shade but there was not a great deal of bounce from the bright sunlight outside the canopy. I wanted the final print to contain all the detail of the diagonal matchboarding, the stop-chamfered wooden frame, and in particular the delicate tonal detail in the frosted glass panels. It was also important to be faithful to the tonal range of the original - the seat is dark blue, and the rest is a light grey, not white. So I did work on the image quite a lot in Corel - I increased local contrast on the back panelling, lifted the highlight areas on the seat, dodged the backgound areas on either side to make them recede, and dodged the canopy roof on the left-hand side of the picture to balance it with the the right-hand side. This was pretty much what I would have tried to do in a wet darkroom, but with a lot more local control. I suppose in all there was two or three hours work in it, including a couple of small test prints a long the way. The idea of this sort of work is to make a "portrait" of the building, which is not only a good record shot for future historians, but also a pleasing illustration in itself.

 

John

[jmr]

John,

 

I think your hard work has paid-off. To my eyes the shot doesn't look too processed, it's rather subtle. The result, as you say, is a good documentary shot, with a little bit more.

[john_r_smith]

Thanks, John, for your comments. This sort of photo is really an example of what I get paid to do at work - historic sites and buildings recording, on a mix of film and digital these days. Most of these shots have little pictorial merit, although you always try to do a good technical job of course. Just now and then I find something I especially like and it gets the "portrait" treatment. My landscapes are just for me, in my own time

 

John