Stuart Ord
January 2025 - The record seller
Original
Original 2
About the Image(s)
This photo was taken last summer at the Black Country Living Museum, in Birmingham (UK). This is a visitor attraction, made on an open-air site from local and re-positioned Victorian era buildings and artefacts, with actors who can discuss their life and work as if they were a particular character. I’ve been working to improve my knowledge of NIK Silver Efex recently. Here I used it to do some of the dodging and burning, plus the overlay of a sepia tone and grain of Tri-X.
OM Systems OM-1, Olympus 14-150mm lens at 18mm, 1/60 sec, f5.6, ISO 400, edited in Affinity 2 with NIK Silver Efex pro 2 as a plug-in intermediate stage for conversion to mono.
7 comments posted
The sepia treatment works well to add some age; sufficient to match the content, and makes an interesting environmental portrait. You have worked well with the subject in portraying him so relaxed and confident. I am torn between the sepia and the B & W version which shows greater contrast especially in the tie & suspenders and brings out greater texture in the trousers. I prefer both to the colour version. A little work on his eyes to make they sparkle could be worth a try. Posted: 01/07/2025 23:48:29
Thanks, Chris. I definitely missed an opportunity with his eyes, so I've done as you suggested. I've taken the revisit as an opportunity to take out a few light spots and to vignette the top corners a bit more. Re-running NIK seems to lose the adjustments made with it the previous time, although all the edits made in Affinity were still there. Maybe the current version of NIK would retain them, but at GBP150 I can give that a miss! Posted: 01/08/2025 08:04:51
Nice. Amazing how much extra life the catchlights give. Posted: 01/10/2025 22:04:10
Great image. I feel like I am back in the 30-40's! Posted: 01/14/2025 16:07:45
A success!! Thanks :-) Posted: 01/14/2025 17:34:22
Your capture and processing have created a back-in-time moment. The period dress and environment would not have had the same effect without your processing. Thank you for the description of your processing.
Posted: 01/18/2025 15:06:38
Posted: 01/18/2025 15:06:38
Thanks, Jerry.
I don't suppose you've heard of him, but there was a photographer in Whitby (most of his life) called Frank Sutcliffe. He was born in 1853 I think, and build a photography business taking portraits in Whitby. But it was a hobby too and he took many photographs in that area. They were all sepia toned, I think. I came across him by chance when visiting Whitby a few years ago and went into the local museum. It turned out that they had bought all his plates and prints and the right to sell prints (quite cheaply). I bought a few prints, and a book of his life, and it gives a good insight of life with a humungous plate camera, and processing wet collodion, etc. Anyway, I have lots of examples of the results of his sepia toning, and try to replicate it.
I tried lots of different ways, but I now think that NIC Silver Efex does the best job I've seen. I'm glad you like it!
Posted: 01/18/2025 15:45:33
I don't suppose you've heard of him, but there was a photographer in Whitby (most of his life) called Frank Sutcliffe. He was born in 1853 I think, and build a photography business taking portraits in Whitby. But it was a hobby too and he took many photographs in that area. They were all sepia toned, I think. I came across him by chance when visiting Whitby a few years ago and went into the local museum. It turned out that they had bought all his plates and prints and the right to sell prints (quite cheaply). I bought a few prints, and a book of his life, and it gives a good insight of life with a humungous plate camera, and processing wet collodion, etc. Anyway, I have lots of examples of the results of his sepia toning, and try to replicate it.
I tried lots of different ways, but I now think that NIC Silver Efex does the best job I've seen. I'm glad you like it!
Posted: 01/18/2025 15:45:33