Bethleham Steel at Sunset

zweiblumen

Took a trip up north for some scenery. Beth Steel is an amazing complex several miles long in the Lehigh Valley. Soon it will be a casino. Probably a little bit brighter this time of night in the future.

gregneil

nice shot! There's a song by Grant Lee Buffalo called Bethlehem Steel, one of my favorites of theirs...

My main thought is I wish there was more visual separation between the factory and the background - the structures seem to get lost a little in the trees. I'm not sure the best way to do that, though. I like how much detail there is in this shot, and the colors are great. Thanks for sharing!

leaforte

The cloud formations compliment the building lines nicely, as does the new buildings to the old buildings. As far as the foilage, you were fortunate enough to get some yellows and reds of fall, highlighting the rust, and relic, of the old building. Nice photograph.

dmmattix

Travis,

What time of day was this taken? The title is "Bethleham Steel at Sunset" but you state that it was an attempt at night shooting. Is this one your series based on Nik's Assignment to shoot at night?

thanks

Mike

zweiblumen

dmmattix wrote:

Travis,

What time of day was this taken? The title is "Bethleham Steel at Sunset" but you state that it was an attempt at night shooting. Is this one your series based on Nik's Assignment to shoot at night?

thanks

Mike

I'm using the term "night" fairly loosely. This was shot at sunset ~6pm. So, not so much. I'm trying to make HDRs that look somewhat realistic. This one failed to do that, but I liked the image itself. I think my biggest problem with the shot is the lack of shadows anywhere. I mean, there are darker spots, but not actual shadows.

Thanks for looking.

zweiblumen

gregneil - I'm not familiar with Grant Lee Buffalo. But I'm sure this is what there were talking about if they wrote a song about Beth Steel.

Thanks for looking

leaforte - Thanks for the compliments. The view from the hilltop there is beautiful.

arroyoshark

Nice image. Kind of reminds me of photos taken by Bernd and Hilla Becher, german photographers who documented industrial architecture in Europe and America.

cwphotos

Nice pic T-Dog. Im just flat out jealous.

zweiblumen

arroyoshark - Thank you Industrial architecture is one of my favorite things to shoot. Thanks for the info about Bernd and Hilla Becher.

Dean - This is only like 10 hours (maybe 15? my memory is hazy) away from you, what are you so jealous of? j/k Especially for exteriors, there are buildings like this all over the place.

salazar

zweiblumen wrote:

I'm using the term "night" fairly loosely. This was shot at sunset ~6pm. So, not so much. I'm trying to make HDRs that look somewhat realistic. This one failed to do that, but I liked the image itself. I think my biggest problem with the shot is the lack of shadows anywhere. I mean, there are darker spots, but not actual shadows.

Thanks for looking.

So, if I'm following along correctly, this is an HDR? It has an interesting quality here. On my monitor it looks as much like an illustration as it does a photograph. It looks like something from a science fiction illustrated magazine form 20 years ago, something like an edition of "Heavy Metal" if you know what I mean. I really like it.

pathfinder

I couldn't put my finger on it exactly either, but it did not look "real" to my eye either.

I like the details, but the light looked flat without shadows, but seems to have good contrast and color nonetheless.

Kind of like some SF drawings, I agree.

dmmattix

pathfinder wrote:

I couldn't put my finger on it exactly either, but it did not look "real" to my eye either.

I like the details, but the light looked flat without shadows, but seems to have good contrast and color nonetheless.

Kind of like some SF drawings, I agree.

That was the reason I asked when (time of day) it was taken. It had the look of some of Nik's Midnight Sun photos. They take on an illustration like look probably due to the long exposures and hence the slight reduction in sharpness. I missed the HDR mention until later.

Mike

DaddyO

This HDR thing really seems to be going wild. After seeing
many nice results like this I can certainly see why.

jdryan3

gregneil wrote:

My main thought is I wish there was more visual separation between the factory and the background - the structures seem to get lost a little in the trees. I'm not sure the best way to do that, though. I like how much detail there is in this shot, and the colors are great. Thanks for sharing!

Great shot! I agree there needs to be separation between the stacks and trees. HDR /multi-exposures can be a lot of fun. On how to do it, you need to create masks that separate the various elements. Tweak them so the trees are a little lighter and maybe less saturated. Also make sure you can see the detail in the stacks.

Instead of masks, you also may be able to do this with the various exposures before merging. Trial and error, fun and great results.