Everybody play.... PWL Mario Spalla style..

The recent thread about Mario Spalla's PWL technique allowed us to see how others, not influenced by this forum, are painting with light. While I thought the photography was good and he chose interesting subjects and composition, the actual technique did not blow me away... but I could appreciate it.

Just for fun, I thought I would try to see what I could do along that line. I chose a picture I took of some old steam engine guages in a train that is parked in Grapevine, TX.

Here is the original (slightly reduced.. I'm running out of bandwidth for the month)



and here is my first and probably only attempt at something close to Mario's style of painting with light.



What I did..... I just lowered the saturation and played with the hue, duplicated the layer and dodged and burned, dodged and burned, added a little noise, increased contrast, used a warm photo filter and then sharpened with USM.. then..I should have selectivly dropped detail but used a little smart blur instead, added a 2 pixel stroke, expanded the canvas by 1 inch/relative, added a caption and that was it.

It's not exactly Mario's style, his seems to have a little more painterly look to it and his use of the dodge tool or burn tool is much more liberal than I would use... but it was fun to try a quick emulation.

And Mario, if you're around, why not take the origianl from above and apply your style to it.. I'm not asking you to explain your style or share your secrets.. just let us see what you can do with the original image.

For those of you who missed the thread, you can see Mario's work here...

http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=710518

Jim Radcliffe
http://www.image36.com
http://www.oceona.com
The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear.

Jim

Member said:

Here is the original (slightly reduced.. I'm running out of
bandwidth for the month)

Click to expand...

Member said:

Click to expand...

Really like this type of picture, and it's a good capture too. The blue is original, right?

Nice on the redo. Did he give any techniques?
--
Kent

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Kent C said:

Kent C said:

Here is the original (slightly reduced.. I'm running out of
bandwidth for the month)

Click to expand...

Kent C said:

Click to expand...

Really like this type of picture, and it's a good capture too. The
blue is original, right?

Nice on the redo. Did he give any techniques?
--
Kent

http://www.pbase.com/kentc
For prior discussions on most questions:
http://porg.4t.com/KentC.html
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Click to expand...

Way to invite someone to participate. If I were him I wouldn't spend my tiime on this setup.

I'm getting the feeling that you have a problem with this person (and apparently me). Quite suprised that everyone just sits there and watches this.

You do know that you have your own images posted as signatures. I can't imagine the fit of rage you would throw yourself into if someone said something about one of your images like..... anyone have the guts....

--
http://www.pbase.com/dpdata

Sorry, after reading the post again, that was not an appropriate comment
--
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Hi Jim

Thanks for the invite - will have a try tonight as it looks a great shot to work with.

It reminded me of one I did some time ago - hope you like.

Best wishes

Ray

--
Kent

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Not doing anyone's style, but I followed some of Jim's suggestions:



--
Kent

http://www.pbase.com/kentc
For prior discussions on most questions:
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Hi Kent

That's a nice one - where did you get the shot?

All the best

Ray

Hi Jim

Had a quick go at lunchtime

Here is

All the best

Ray

RayGuselli said:

Hi Kent

That's a nice one - where did you get the shot?

Click to expand...

Thanks Ray. Pearl Harbor - the Bowfin:

Heads up on the music....
http://www.bowfin.org/website/index.cfm

Click on 'virtual tour' and on the cross section below, click on the control room just under midships and rotate toward the stern and you'll see the bank of controls that I shot.
--
Kent

http://www.pbase.com/kentc
For prior discussions on most questions:
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But here is my feeble attempt, just using my eyes...Harry



--
I never mess with the 'History brush' because it may alter the future!

I absolutely love his pictures! He is the reason I went out and took these 'old junk' pictures. In the attempt to follow what he did, I managed to come up with my own 'style' and I'm really having fun with it. I'll never reach what he has done, but that would be copying anyway, and that's no fun. His pictures just gave me a new 'look' to play with. Thanks Mario!
Anyway.. here's another one of my 'junk' pictures.

DioSea said:

Sorry, after reading the post again, that was not an appropriate
comment
--
http://www.pbase.com/dpdata

Click to expand...

No problem. No offense taken.

The problem with emails and forums is that many times the tone of the message is not perceived as it was intended by the sender. Then there is the whole interpretation thing to deal with. I get the feeling that Mario's English or the understanding of it, syntax, etc.. may have gotten him into an uncomfortable entry into the forum.

I like seeing what others can do with my photographs, that's one of the ways I learn. Sometimes somene will take a totally unthought of direction on one of my images and I end up saying... "Why didn't I think of that?"

No need to be a stranger here, just join us and contribute. We've all had misunderstandings online before and today is a new day.
--
Jim Radcliffe
http://www.image36.com
http://www.oceona.com
The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear.

Now that is really well done.. you're much closer to what he was doing that what I did with the old train gauges. Wish Dragan's style was as easy to approximate.
--
Jim Radcliffe
http://www.image36.com
http://www.oceona.com
The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear.

Kent,

yes, the blue hued version is the original. I have a ton of these taken with various f stops, angles, etc.. They were taken some time ago. The train is still there, I've just not been back to shoot anymore. It's sitting on a siding in Grapevine, TX, waiting for someone to come up with the funds to do a bit of restoration.

Not sure what you meant by "did he give any details.."..
--
Jim Radcliffe
http://www.image36.com
http://www.oceona.com
The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear.

Ray,

Love the golden light... I'm a gold light freak..

Question, was the image originally sharper? It looks like a great deal of it was blurred. Just wondering if the blur was by design or if the image itself was a bit blurred.
--
Jim Radcliffe
http://www.image36.com
http://www.oceona.com
The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear.

Jim - thanks for letting us 'play' ... photography certainly is all about light, and I've been amazed at some of the renditions over the past few months for those of you 'painting' ('playing') with light. This is another one of my digital darkroom experiments ... not only seeing what I could do with light, but trying different hues/saturations. somehow I ended up with a shine on the colors..
Bill

I like yours better than mine.. how'd you do it... cough it up.
--
Jim Radcliffe
http://www.image36.com
http://www.oceona.com
The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear.

Ha! Thanks Jim .... I'll have to try to recreate it later, as I promised my son we'd go to the movie this morning (Red Eye)...(Notice I said 'try' to recreate it .... ) .. I appeciate the feedback - most of my experiments don't even qualify for garage sale junk....(by the way, when you said to 'cough' it up .... my last name has 'cough' in it!!
Regards,
Bill