in andy's house

Andy

look what i found in a box of junk, in my house

i played with this lionel train set when i was a kid, some thirty years ago. it was in a box full of junk that i had picked up from my folks' house after mom died a few years ago. forgot all about it! guess i have another winter project, fixing these things up :-) this is a lionel engine #2065, with matching coal tender. ca 1950. the build quality is amazing, the engine alone must weigh six pounds!

tech details: 20d, 100mm macro aboard. 580ex onboard with lumiquest softbox attached. two 420ex's flashed into white umbrellas, one towards the rear and one to the side. in post: converted to bw via simple channel mixer layer (50%, 50%, 0% and check monochrome box), then added smoke via the following quick technique: filter>render>clouds and then filter>distort>wave. use layer mask to mask away the smoke you don't want. that's it. i know, there are better ways to make smoke, and i want to learn them this was a quick and dirty job, my kid helped and he now has a big print of this on his wall. need more wall space for him soon!



enjoy (found treasures) photography,

ginger_55

I have one of those, stole it from my son. I should put it in the bookcase, smile.

Cool job, Andy.

ginger (how did you make steam? No ps?)

Andy

ginger_55 wrote:

I have one of those, stole it from my son. I should put it in the bookcase, smile.

Cool job, Andy.

ginger (how did you make steam? No ps?)

dear, read my post i explained how i made the steam. and since i'm ineligible, i took liberties

thanks!

GREAPER

awesome andy.

ginger_55

Andy, so sorry, I mess up every time I answer you, it seems. I was in a hurry to get out of here. It is my birthday. We went to the IMAX to see another type of train, The Polar Express. I have never been to the IMAX before, it was 3D and absolutely awesome. That movie was just meant to be seen that way.

Sorry I did not read thoroughly. It is very well done. I was asking Bill how I could duplicate the background. He said I would need a white backdrop which is permanently at the studio.....

I do notice this is the second time you have used a white backdrop, background, piece of paper, whatever, to do something that you say is fast.

YOu probably mentioned this somewhere. The movie was awesome and so is your train shot, IMHO.

ginger

Andy

stop it girlie
don't worry yer pretty li'l head about it. thanks for the kind words!

i used seamleass white paper here, no big thang, really. can get it anywhere for a few bucks.



QUOTE=ginger_55]Andy, so sorry, I mess up every time I answer you, it seems. I was in a hurry to get out of here. It is my birthday. We went to the IMAX to see another type of train, The Polar Express. I have never been to the IMAX before, it was 3D and absolutely awesome. That movie was just meant to be seen that way.

Sorry I did not read thoroughly. It is very well done. I was asking Bill how I could duplicate the background. He said I would need a white backdrop which is permanently at the studio.....

I do notice this is the second time you have used a white backdrop, background, piece of paper, whatever, to do something that you say is fast.

YOu probably mentioned this somewhere. The movie was awesome and so is your train shot, IMHO.

ginger[/QUOTE]

Andy

GREAPER wrote:

awesome andy.

thanks greaper! it was a fun shot to make

Nir

Cool shot Andy!

ginger_55

Mine says on the bottom "LIONEL 027", made in America. I bought it in the 60s for my son. It was old then, but I don't know how old. Then I got it out of the attic and used it as a Christmas decoration for years. The other parts got lost, they were not as old. I found this in a box last night. Is Rusty, and I don't have tracks, just didn't want to get rid of the engine (might be worth money, the other stuff may have been, too.) I no longer do Christmas in a way to use this. (My son doesn't want it, just laughed about my taking it.)




Actually toned with sepia.

used a pair of white blue jeans.
couldn't get a shot from the side. Then I guess
I did my usual centering, should watch that.
Mine is not in as good shape as Andy's looks
like it was kind of the same, though.

ginger

rutt

This is very very nice. The composition is perfect and the photoshopping works perfectly. But it does illustrate something that is always my big macro issue -- very shallow DOF. You've used this creatively, but I think this would be a better shot it it were all sharp. Do you think you could have done that given all the lighting you have? Or were you just making the best of the limitations of fundemental limitations?

Have to get myself some of that paper. Whenever I've done this, I've ended up trying to make do with 8.5x11 or maybe super B.

lynnma

andy wrote:

look what i found in a box of junk, in my house

i played with this lionel train set when i was a kid, some thirty years ago. it was in a box full of junk that i had picked up from my folks' house after mom died a few years ago. forgot all about it! guess i have another winter project, fixing these things up :-) this is a lionel engine #2065, with matching coal tender. ca 1950. the build quality is amazing, the engine alone must weigh six pounds!

tech details: 20d, 100mm macro aboard. 580ex onboard with lumiquest softbox attached. two 420ex's flashed into white umbrellas, one towards the rear and one to the side. in post: converted to bw via simple channel mixer layer (50%, 50%, 0% and check monochrome box), then added smoke via the following quick technique: filter>render>clouds and then filter>distort>wave. use layer mask to mask away the smoke you don't want. that's it. i know, there are better ways to make smoke, and i want to learn them this was a quick and dirty job, my kid helped and he now has a big print of this on his wall. need more wall space for him soon!



enjoy (found treasures) photography,

Very cool shot.. I love the steam.. I can almost hear it coming accross the room

rutt

How does the flashed umbrella thing worki? Do you have a picture of the flash and the umbrella? Is there a single stand that holds both?
I've used extra flashes but always with lumaquests.

Andy

rutt wrote:

How does the flashed umbrella thing worki? Do you have a picture of the flash and the umbrella? Is there a single stand that holds both?
I've used extra flashes but always with lumaquests.

looks just like this except i have white reflecting umbrellas, and white shoot-thru umbrellas. the manfrotto stands are sweet.

cheers!

wxwax

Outstanding. Great tutorial too. Thanks Andy.

photocat

Nice train shot Andy. Love how the train makes a curve.
Smoke work is precious.
Ginger, put it in your cupboard. Don't sell it. It is precious

Andy

hiya rutt, and thanks ....

rutt wrote:

This is very very nice. The composition is perfect and the photoshopping works perfectly. But it does illustrate something that is always my big macro issue -- very shallow DOF. You've used this creatively, but I think this would be a better shot it it were all sharp. Do you think you could have done that given all the lighting you have? Or were you just making the best of the limitations of fundemental limitations?

Have to get myself some of that paper. Whenever I've done this, I've ended up trying to make do with 8.5x11 or maybe super B.

i could always make this fully sharp throughout the scene - but i chose not to. i rather like the shallow dof .... and funny thing is - i put this on my for sale gallery - and a bunch sold already

thanks for the kind words and the suggestion, rutt..

Andy

thanks lynnie!

lynnma wrote:

Very cool shot.. I love the steam.. I can almost hear it coming accross the room

rutt

andy wrote:

i could always make this fully sharp throughout the scene - but i chose not to. i rather like the shallow dof .... and funny thing is - i put this on my for sale gallery - and a bunch sold already

thanks for the kind words and the suggestion, rutt..

Well, it certainly is striking the way it is. Sometimes I love your shallow DOF shots; the street musicians looking at one another was very memoriable.

But, I suppose I'm really asking a technical question and not trying to give you advice. Suppose you did want to make the train sharp? How small would you have had to set the aperature? How close were you to the train?

I have trouble just getting all the petals of the flower to be sharp with my macro shots. Very long exposures aren't so great for sharpness, even with a tripod, I find. So, if you wanted to have the whole train sharp, what would you have done? And how sharp could you have gotten it?

Andy

rutt wrote:

Well, it certainly is striking the way it is. Sometimes I love your shallow DOF shots; the street musicians looking at one another was very memoriable.

But, I suppose I'm really asking a technical question and not trying to give you advice. Suppose you did want to make the train sharp? How small would you have had to set the aperature? How close were you to the train?

I have trouble just getting all the petals of the flower to be sharp with my macro shots. Very long exposures aren't so great for sharpness, even with a tripod, I find. So, if you wanted to have the whole train sharp, what would you have done? And how sharp could you have gotten it?

i tossed away a few shots that were in full focus, front to back. i was a bit further away, and i was at f/16. the reason i tossed them is that they looked too sterile, y'know what i mean?

hey, i take advice from anyone, gladly - that's how i improve