Category: People

Construction Diver Prepares to Enter Water.

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Construction diver prepares to enter the water to check on broken drill head for extraction.
Construction diver prepares to enter the water to prepare on broken drill head for extraction.

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A few weeks ago the shaft of drilling head on the BG 40 snapped off while drilling a 12 foot diameter hole inside the pier casing. There were numerous attempts made to secure the broken drill head to remove it from the casing each of which required a diver to go down and assess the situation. In this image the diver and his assistant are checking the diver’s helmet and air supply lines prior to his dive. Once he was properly geared up he entered a wire cage and was lowered into the casing so that he could perform his tasks to secure lifting rigging to extract the drill head from the casing. The lines on the ground are the diver’s air supply as well as his communication link to his assistant and the rest of the dive team. The air tank on the diver’s back is a safety backup in case something were to fail with the air supply lines while he is underwater and provide a supply of air to allow him to safely return to the surface.

This is a three exposure bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures that I then merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 with 60% anti-ghosting applied to minimize the ghosting caused by the movement of the two men as they geared up for the dive. I applied a preset that I built for this particular day’s shooting that intensified the colors and compensated for some of the overexposure that the bright morning sun caused. After completing the merger and applying the needed tone adjustments I returned the image to Aperture 3 where I applied adjustments to the separate color channels, contrast and sharpening. One of the primary reasons I like using multiple exposures and HDR techniques is the way I can open up shadow details yet retain the highlights in a scene. HDR allows me to render the image in a way that closely resembles the way the human eye sees but the camera sensor cannot record in a single exposure.

HDR of Robyn Keith at Work

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Robyn Keith #2
Robyn Keith #2

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The woman in this image is Robyn Keith. Robyn is a carpenter and I wanted to capture her at work with the rising sun behind her. The light was really rich the morning I shot this and the sparks flying from her cutting wheel also caught me eye. I also liked the way the morning sunlight was reflecting off the surface of the concrete form that she was working on and tying the sparks, the sunlit sky and the reflections together.

This HDR image was created in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 from my standard bracket set of +2, o and -2 EV. Because she was moving slightly while cutting off the rebar, I had to apply 80% anti-ghosting to eliminate some ghosting around her head. When applying anti-ghosting I always strive to use the smallest percentage possible to avoid creating other artifacts in the image. In this case 80% was the lowest amount I could use; anything less than that amount left ghosts of her head and hands. I could have dealt with that issue inside Photoshop but the anti-ghosting settings in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 usually are a much simpler approach and work very well in most cases.After merging the three frames I applied the Balanced preset to do my basic tone-mapping. I like to use that preset because it adds a small amount of contrast to the initial merger and sets the stage for me to adjust the shadows and highlights without adding too much of an over-processed HDR feel to the merged files. As usual I returned the merged files to Aperture 3 where I completed adjusting it and sharpened it.

Ironworkers Assembling an Iron Caisson

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Ironworkers Assembling an Iron Caisson for a Bridge Pier on the Ohio River Bridges Project in Louisville Kentucky
Ironworkers Assembling an Iron Caisson for a Bridge Pier on the Ohio River Bridges Project in Louisville Kentucky.

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Ironworkers known as “Rod Busters” are seen here assembling a steel rebar caisson for the Ohio River Bridges Project in Louisville Kentucky. There is also a completed caisson in the background on the work barge. These caissons will be inserted into the steel cylinders that are in the right hand side of the image when those cylinders are placed in the river to build the piers for the new bridge. It was early in the morning and a fog bank was coming in from the east which diffused the light and lent an ethereal quality to the morning sunlight.

 

Cedric’s Shadow #3

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Cedric #3
Cedric’s Shadow #3

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The position of the hook and the man’s shadow on the rust colored sheet pilings really drew my attention. I processed this image with Topaz Clarity and Aperture 3 to enhance the texture and colors while maintaining the warmth of the early morning sunlight on the scene.

Silhouette

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Cedric's Shadow
Cedric’s Shadow

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I shot this image yesterday morning just after sunrise. I especially liked the way the hook and the crane operator, Cedric, were silhouetted on the rusty steel retaining wall. The morning light was simply gorgeous and I have several other images that really reveal the wonderful colors. While processing them I decided to see what one would look like in Black and White. I wanted to create an image that felt like it might have been taken at the turn of the twentieth century.

I used the normal exposure value of 0 EV which rendered the scene very well. I first processed this image in Topaz Adjust as a faux HDR image which allowed me to emphasize the colors and texture. I then took the resulting version into OnOne Perfect B&W where I applied the Ambrotype preset. I also added a border within OnOne Perfect B&W using the Emulsion 003 setting with a wide border size. I didn’t need to do anything else, except to add a little sharpening, when I returned the image to Aperture 3.