Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Tim the toolman


Tim was one of the mechanics who worked on my husband's Bonanza, until it lost engine power and crashed in a field last October and burned to the ground. Thankfully Mike was not flying that day, and the pilot walked away uninjured before the plane burst into flames. I was shooting people for an Environmental Portrait assignment, and Tim was nice enough to agree to pose for me. This image was shot on September 10th, 2 days later Ike devastated the area and the loss of electricity at the airport made opening the hydraulic hangar doors impossible so the plane remained grounded until the power was restored. Its first flight after the hurricane was also its last.


Camera info: Nikon D200, 50 mm 1.8 lens, f2.8 at 1/2000th, ISO 100, sunny whitebalance
Post processing: cloned myself out of the reflection in the nosecone, levels adjustment for whitebalance, Luminizer for midtone brightening, Curves for contrast, touch of light on face, merged layers and changed mode to softlight at 50% opacity, highpass filter for sharpening.

3 comments:

  1. Very good environmental portrait. Good subject, good placement of the subject and good environment--you know what this guy does. I would like to see a slightly different version in which the reflection in the nose of the plane is a little more prominent. I think you could do this by cropping some in from the right and bottom.

    This one is very good. My suggestions is, as Craig would say, "only a different look." Nice job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't see that until Larry mentioned it, but that would definitely be a plus on this photo. It would put the emphasis right on the nose of the plane then the mechanic. Good eye Larry and good shot Cindi!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nice environmental portrait! You really get a sense of your subjects personality in this shot!

    Well done!
    Barry

    ReplyDelete