Jim Hagan, MPSA
About the Image(s)
Tonopah is a historic Nevada mining town which was the site of one of the richest gold booms in the west. This historic town began with the discovery of gold and silver in 1900. By 1907 Tonopah had six saloons, many restaurants, lodging hoses and doctors. But, by 1910 gold production was already failing and by 1920 the population was less than 50% of its 1905 level. Today only remnants of this historic town remain.
I visited Tonopah a few years ago and photographed a truck on the road leading to the town. I photographed this abandoned truck at 35mm,1/4000, f1.8 and ISO at 160. I am often enamored by the beauty of a location and forget my camera and its settings. Obviously, I should have set my F stop at 8 or higher as there was no need of a 4000-shutter speed (please forgive me). But, in spite of a 1.8 aperture I am impressed by the clarity of the truck and the historic building in the background are not distracting.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
14 comments posted
I'd be interested to now how you post-processed this image?
Can you give us a few more details?
  Posted: 10/02/2020 02:52:18
I like the texture of the old truck and mountains, though I personally find the image too uniform in brightness. Similar to last month, I think a little selective contrast (or dodge /burning) could amplify the subject while still keeping the context of the blue sky, run down town, and mountains.
As Sunil suggested, if you are OK to share the original, it would be interesting to try out an alternate edit.   Posted: 10/06/2020 09:37:35
- Set exposure -0.5 (which made the sky bluer)
- burn layer (using 50% gray overlay + brush) on the ground and in the mountain and building areas
- empty layer with low opacity black brush on left to darken the ground a little
- cut out the truck over top and upped saturation a little
- created a vignette (black layer with feathered elliptical cutout set to 36% opacity)
Not sure if that would be my final edit / direction, but gives some ideas of ways to create contrast in a uniform image like this.   Posted: 10/23/2020 10:32:42
  Posted: 10/13/2020 05:56:00
I also like Sunil's idea to get the truck looking similar to your first edit   Posted: 10/23/2020 10:39:00
I'm surprised at how much background detail you caught at F1.8 as I'd expect it to be thrown considerably more out of focus. Having said that the buildings are important to set the scene, and the crop is well chosen.
I would like a bit more separation between the roof of the truck and the horizon, and this might be achieved with Jason's suggestion about overall brightness levels.
I'd also like a small cloud in the left of the sky to break up the solid colour, and balance against the truck.
  Posted: 10/15/2020 11:17:37