Critique Welcomed Gold King Mine - Jerome Az

[Chris Dodkin]

This place is just a gold mine, photo heaven - lost count of the number I've times we've visited, but each time I find new stuff I've never seen before.

From today with the Fuji 23mm Lens and a 3 Stop ND Filter

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Wow, stunning set, Chris. The bottle through the window is hilarious. Great tones throughout. That 3-stop ND filter was the perfect choice, and that lens is one of the best.

Just looking at them again - really fantastic photography.

 

[Darren Turner]

wowsers, now that quite a unique find, love them all, cant go wrong with rust, bright colours & rust of them old rusty vehicles.........

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Whoa.... Speechless....
I don't know how you do it Chris, with PP, if any.
But all your shots look real, no fancy business or vintage look to them. Just pure unadulterated realism like I'm there looking at the subject with my own eyes. And that I find is hard to achieve. Well done.... You bar stuard

 

[Darren Turner]

i 10000% agree with DD, i cant & know no one who produces image quality as good as you Chris, regardless of your camera choice they always looks so clean, sharp & professional as like DD mentions as if we are there looking the the subject for real..........

 

[Beth Carter]

the beer bottle in the window is priceless. excellent series.

 

[Pete Askew]

Fabulous set Chris. Love Rex and the bottle.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Wow, stunning set, Chris. The bottle through the window is hilarious. Great tones throughout. That 3-stop ND filter was the perfect choice, and that lens is one of the best.

Just looking at them again - really fantastic photography.

Thanks Rob - I've been laying with VSCO film sims, so all of these use VSCO pack #1 - I'm liking the look/feel so far

Whoa.... Speechless....
I don't know how you do it Chris, with PP, if any.
But all your shots look real, no fancy business or vintage look to them. Just pure unadulterated realism like I'm there looking at the subject with my own eyes. And that I find is hard to achieve. Well done.... You bar stuard

Thanks Dan - I do PP every shot, and as I mentioned above, have been trying the VSCO film filters that @Steve Boykin has ben working with for months now (I'm just catching up)

i 10000% agree with DD, i cant & know no one who produces image quality as good as you Chris, regardless of your camera choice they always looks so clean, sharp & professional as like DD mentions as if we are there looking the the subject for real..........

Thanks Darren - you guys have me thinking about the process from shot to JPEG - I'll post some details below

the beer bottle in the window is priceless. excellent series.

Thanks Beth - not something you see every day!

Fabulous set Chris. Love Rex and the bottle.

Thanks Pete

 

[Chris Dodkin]

A few words on workflow:

• I shoot RAW then import using ACR into Adobe CS6 - I tend to set WB to Daylight during raw conversion, as this adds back in the warmth that Auto WB takes out
• In this case I then selected a VSCO profile in ACR - to get the 'film' look I was after - and imported the file into CS6
• I then used NIK pre sharpener to do my base sharpening of the file
• From here, the PP could be complete - or I might go into NIK ColorFX to add some lens vignette (to increase the focus on the subject) - I use a circular vignette at a typical value of -9
• I would then do any spot adjustments of brightness, structure etc using NIK Viveza
• I save a full size PSD file - then reduce to web size using a Bicubic (best for smooth gradients) option - I save the JPEG max quality (12)

I do think the light in this neck of the woods is rather special, and helps the image quality greatly - it's definitely warmer color temp than the UK, and I think this makes it appealing in photos.

The 3 stop ND doesn't effect color or contrast - it really just keeps the shutter speeds in range when shooting wide open at f/1.4 - the max shutter speed on the Fuji is 1/4000

The ability of the lens to produce sharp subject at f/1.4 and a nice smooth bokeh, adds to the photographic appeal (at least for me)

I have really embraced getting in closer with my 35mm equivalent lens, rather than trying to 'get everything in frame' every time - I now love shooting close-up details as much as whole vehicles.

I like using the rear LCD, holding the camera down low (almost like a WLV MF camera). I like the perspective this gets me on vehicles, instead of my usual eye level view of the world.

I spend time looking at the background in the frame, as much as the foreground subject sometimes. I'm more aware now of how that can impact the final look/feel of the image.

 

[Brian Moore]

Lovely Chris,...and thanks for the technical explanation.

I spend time looking at the background in the frame, as much as the foreground subject sometimes.

Very great idea. I read that tip a while back--one of the photographic heavyweights (Eisenstadt or Cartier-Bresson or somebody) stated its importance and I have been thinking that I need to try to remember that. But I never seem to.

Anyway,...wonderful set, Chris.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Lovely Chris,...and thanks for the technical explanation.

Very great idea. I read that tip a while back--one of the photographic heavyweights (Eisenstadt or Cartier-Bresson or somebody) stated its importance and I have been thinking that I need to try to remember that. But I never seem to.

Anyway,...wonderful set, Chris.

Thank you Brian

I know you were interested in the Instax mini 90 - so I took some shots with that camera as well - added to the Instax set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dodkin/sets/72157636434633124/

 

[Aaron Quinn]

Love these photos! Wish I had the type of eye to see photos like these.

Thanks for the work flow info and the ND filter explanation too.