# A quickly grabbed shot...



## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

Out and about this morning, and I was near where a mate had told me there was an old truck parked up in a lane... so thought I'd go and have a nosey and see what I could find.... and sure enough, there it was... result :thumb: Two problems though, of all the places to park up and eat some lunch and read the paper, the BT chap decided to park on the verge just ahead of this old truck... so limiting my scope a bit... secondly, I didn't have my tripod on me, and I wanted to have a go with HDR, but I went ahead and shot it hand held, which wasn't perfect at all, so will go back A with the tripod, B when the sky is more interesting (Whenever I get the camera out, the sky is plain and dull :wall and C when BT blinking Bertie isn't there :lol: Definitely want to go back and bag it properly though, stare at that photo long enough and your eyes go funny :lol: Did some HDR trickery but preferred it after converting it to B&W, although I've overdone it a bit  Believe it or not, that truck has a tax disc that expires at the end of this month :doublesho


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## snoop69 (Jun 16, 2007)

Looks a little dark on my monitor but still a great shot all the same :thumb:


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## Gruffs (Dec 10, 2007)

Love it Mick. Nostalgic brilliance.


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## mteam (Dec 8, 2007)

Nice pic 

I look forward to seeing the pics from when you return with your tripod :thumb:


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

mteam said:


> Nice pic
> 
> I look forward to seeing the pics from when you return with your tripod :thumb:


me too, Micks tripod is over 50ft tall, nice shot mate.:thumb:


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## Lloyd71 (Aug 21, 2008)

That's a stunning shot, even in B&W. The lack of colour really suits it and it also suits the HDR you've tweaked it with since it doesn't appear overdone.


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

Thanks chaps... S500 - I had _that_ tripod with me, but even unextended it's about ten feet up in the air and not ideal for this, but it did cross my mind  I'll go back with a more conventional tripod for this one...

Snoop - Yup, I overdid the B&W a bit, but also it's probably the curse of the laptop screen angle, it looks ok at the angle I normally have it at for reading etc, and the angle I was looking at for that photo, leaning it back it goes very dark... I wouldn't mind a desktop PC anyway, and with the monitor calibrated it should sort that problem, hopefully.

This is the same shot after playing a bit with HDR... you can see how shooting hand held didn't do it any favours more in colour too...










Now I can do HDR myself I can see why so many people overcook it, it's fun but so easy to get carried away


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## byrnes (Jul 15, 2008)

I like both the mono pic and colour one, what lens was it shot on? a wide at about 18mm?


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## Maxtor (Feb 23, 2007)

Nice shots Mick! :thumb:

I must say, I do prefer the BW over the HDR, not because of the quality or anything but because of the subject....it just suits it. :thumb:

Did your mate not know how it got there or why? It seems strange for it to be still taxed, would have thought it would be exempt looking at the age of it. 




Maxtor.


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## spitfire (Feb 10, 2007)

I'm sure that when you get the right gear with you your gonna get a great pic :thumb:


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

byrnes said:


> I like both the mono pic and colour one, what lens was it shot on? a wide at about 18mm?


Sigma 10-20 at the wide end, so on the Canon it's equivalent to 16mm in 35mm terms :thumb:



Maxtor said:


> Nice shots Mick! :thumb:
> 
> I must say, I do prefer the BW over the HDR, not because of the quality or anything but because of the subject....it just suits it. :thumb:
> 
> ...


Yup, I like black and white anyway, and it does sort of suit it with this. The HDR I did is still overblown (you should've seen some of the results after twiddling a few sliders about ) but this was my first real go with it so it's all good fun.
The truck is near a farm, so I imagine it belongs there, no idea other than that. Although you don't pay for the tax on an old knocker, you still have a disc to display don't you? I'm not sure to be honest, but regardless, it's hard to believe that could actually move under it's own steam :doublesho


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## Maxtor (Feb 23, 2007)

Multipla Mick said:


> Sigma 10-20 at the wide end, so on the Canon it's equivalent to 16mm in 35mm terms :thumb:
> 
> Yup, I like black and white anyway, and it does sort of suit it with this. The HDR I did is still overblown (you should've seen some of the results after twiddling a few sliders about ) but this was my first real go with it so it's all good fun.
> The truck is near a farm, so I imagine it belongs there, no idea other than that. Although you don't pay for the tax on an old knocker, you still have a disc to display don't you? I'm not sure to be honest, but regardless, it's hard to believe that could actually move under it's own steam :doublesho


I think you are right Mick on the tax disc, I did not think of that:wall:.

Holy moly! I have just typed in the reg looking for more info! NSFW!

There must be more info out there for it. I find it interesting. Good post and photos M :thumb:

Maxtor.


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## bretti_kivi (Apr 22, 2008)

like the shot.

Idea: frame it to the left a little more, with the road running directly to the horizon? "off the beaten track"? that with the same lens... to stop the horizon jumping in too much.


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

bretti_kivi said:


> like the shot.
> 
> Idea: frame it to the left a little more, with the road running directly to the horizon? "off the beaten track"? that with the same lens... to stop the horizon jumping in too much.


Yup, that was where the BT van was coming into the frame though :wall: :lol: Flipping typical, nothing around for miles and I have to find a van parked there while the driver has his lunch :lol: I wanted to do a Panoramic of it just too see what it would look like with a wide field of view, but the van was in the way of that too... will be going back though as it's not far from me at all :thumb:


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## snoop69 (Jun 16, 2007)

How did you process the Hdr?

Did you do a single batch conversion or did you create multiple copies
as Tiffs & then merge?


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

snoop69 said:


> How did you process the Hdr?
> 
> Did you do a single batch conversion or did you create multiple copies
> as Tiffs & then merge?


Just a single batch of 3 Jpegs and had a play around with a few sliders, as you do  I want to try with RAW too, I think you can generate an HDR photo from a single RAW file. Next time I'll take more photos as well. Not really gone into it much yet, just wacked the photos in and messed about a bit


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## snoop69 (Jun 16, 2007)

Hope you dont mind but i had a little play 

Took your copy,copied it 3 times & saved them as Tiffs.

Didnt do much with the sliders other & altered the EV by 2 stops either side.

Would probably be better with a high res copy.


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## IGADIZ (May 21, 2006)

Is a nice truck... unfortunately I am not a great fan of HDR. I would love to see the original untouched file though.


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

No I don't mind, it's all good :thumb: Yup, that looks good too, a bit punchier than the one I posted... will try doing it that way as well... I've got to say, I have had some fun just with this shoot, and the effects can be subtle or dramatic it appears, but HDR makes normal shots look a bit dull almost now, I'm converted


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## IGADIZ (May 21, 2006)

What you need to get hooked on is exposure. HDR is great fun ... but nothing beats getting your exposure right.


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

IGADIZ said:


> Is a nice truck... unfortunately I am not a great fan of HDR. I would love to see the original untouched file though.


This is one of the three as it came out of the camera... I confess I just set the aperture to what I thought would be okay and got on with it, I was feeling a bit self conscious as I was stood pretty much along side mateys van while he was stuffing his face :lol:


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## IGADIZ (May 21, 2006)

Hi Mick.
Thank you for posting the untouched file.
I must apologize for the delay in my response. My ISP went down as I was to post my reply last Friday and has been down until just now.
I had a little play with the file .. hope you don't mind.


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

IGADIZ said:


> Hi Mick.
> Thank you for posting the untouched file.
> I must apologize for the delay in my response. My ISP went down as I was to post my reply last Friday and has been down until just now.
> I had a little play with the file .. hope you don't mind.


Only just seen this post :wall: sorry 

Now that looks good, certainly brought the shot to life and given it some zip. The closer crop works well too, the trees in the background of my shot look like they are growing out the cab... The sky is less of an issue too, I hate blown out skies and really struggle when they are just plain bright and dull.
I haven't really played with the photos myself yet to see what can be done with the original photos, just tinkered with the HDR.

Looks good though :thumb:


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

thats a great subject Mick

Its one of those things that you need to go back to over and over until you find just the right light, perhaps a moody cloud scene just before a rain storm, or maybe a warm evening light just before dusk? One things for sure though, bright overcast white skies are THE worst conditions for shooting that beast in, unless you get up high, shoot down and eliminate the sky altogether.

I would LOVE to see that shot from your tall setup though - I think the unconventional angle might look very good???? There has to be 100+ close in shots of details that would look awesome as well - I reckon it would make a great tryptic image, and I could imagine a great big framed shot of the entire truck on the wall as well


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## Troon (Dec 17, 2008)

It's a 1951 4x4 AEC Matador with a 7.7 litre diesel engine. There are plenty still around.


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

Bigpikle said:


> thats a great subject Mick
> 
> Its one of those things that you need to go back to over and over until you find just the right light, perhaps a moody cloud scene just before a rain storm, or maybe a warm evening light just before dusk? One things for sure though, bright overcast white skies are THE worst conditions for shooting that beast in, unless you get up high, shoot down and eliminate the sky altogether.
> 
> I would LOVE to see that shot from your tall setup though - I think the unconventional angle might look very good???? There has to be 100+ close in shots of details that would look awesome as well - I reckon it would make a great tryptic image, and I could imagine a great big framed shot of the entire truck on the wall as well


Yup, I love abandoned vehicles, used to have loads of photos taken of old wrecks, burned out thefts and such like on 35mm prints... think I might get back into hunting a few more down after seeing this beastie. I'm definitely going back again for some more shots. To be honest I wasn't sure the big tripod would lend itself to this type of application, but it could be worth a go  I'm with you on the skies, I went out photographing an old mine last year, and while I was taking normal photos the sky was fairly blue with nice fluffy clouds and so on, but by the time I'd set up the big tripod for some elevated shots it had turned very humid and the sky just went flat grey :wall: I did manage to wangle the results a bit in Elements afterwards using layers and stuff, but plain, dull, skies do my nut in :lol:



Troon said:


> It's a 1951 AEC Matador with a 7.7 litre diesel engine. There are plenty still around.


Wow :doublesho There are some beauties there for sure... I'll take the armoured one please  I was actually thinking the cab might've been a bit home made, from the side it certainly looks it, but judging by those pics perhaps not! Thanks for that, I was wondering what it was :thumb:


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## bretti_kivi (Apr 22, 2008)

Mick, what "big tripod"? Info please, I need to do some thinking about high stuff for the summer....

edit, search gives me an idea, but no details...

Bret


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## eddymx3 (Jul 23, 2008)

Nice shots mate


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

bretti_kivi said:


> Mick, what "big tripod"? Info please, I need to do some thinking about high stuff for the summer....
> 
> edit, search gives me an idea, but no details...
> 
> Bret


The big tripod I mentioned goes up to around 50 feet (15M) You can get some great shots with it, but it's not the easiest bit of kit to carry around :lol:








I have also got a 25 foot hand held pole too, but I haven't used that much. Even though you stand on a footplate and have a belt around your waist holding the pole, it's still unnerving when it wags around a bit at full height... keep thinking I'm going to drop it 

If these are the type of things you are thinking of I'll give you a lot more info on various systems and stuff that are available :thumb:


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## bretti_kivi (Apr 22, 2008)

I'm interested! It looks like we might be dropping to one car, so I'll be having to get a trailer for mine. I'll probably put a plate on top of that so I can stand on it, that will get me to nearly three metres, but some more would be great. 

The A2 meet in summer will be in Dresden and we'll meet the "Sachsen Classic" coming the other way on the river Elbe. The "old meets new" needs to be photographed....  Height is good.
A PM would be great. And now, back to our feature presentation 

Bret


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