Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Truckinatn and Experimatn

I don't seem to come across many opportunities to photograph trucks, but when I do, I try to take a photo. A photo friend has a group on Flickr called HTT, which is short for Happy Truck Thursday, but I haven't had anything to contribute for some time. The following truck, seen at Wheelers, gave me the opportunity. It's not a great photo by any means, but it is a truck, and most of the photos in the group are just that – trucks, and not often spectacular photos.

What timing that after photographing that truck, I had another opportunity the very next day. I looked out the bedroom window and saw a huge truck and cargo assemblage stopped on the road. What it was doing there is puzzling. I can't figure where it was going, and I think it may have actually taken a wrong turn and gone through town rather than around it. I hurried the get my camera, but the truck was soon on the move, so I missed the front end. Drat! 

I cropped mightily from the top and bottom of the original shot, down to, more or less, just the truck. I also soon saw it as a photo suited to b&w, so I converted it.

I then decided to try to remove some distractions: the cars, bush, and fence. I have neither super vision nor wonderful dexterity for such fine, detailed work, but I made the effort. It was going well, so after some time, I gave up and scrapped the effort. However, it played on my mind, and I tried again several days later. 

Here ↓ is my effort. If one doesn't examine the photo in close detail, I think it's a pass. Let me say, however, that when folk say, "Just Photoshop something away," it is not as easy as all that. It took me a many layers and fiddling about to get even this result. I could have gone a step further and removed the wire, and I may still do that before I post it on Flickr, later this week.

Since I was at it, I decided to go back to the Wheelers truck and also process it into monochrome. Hmm . . . very ordinary.

Then, I did one more thing. I decided to experiment with blending the two versions of the Wheelers truck into one image, using a graduated filter. Just messin about, for fun really.

My friend, Bob, often effectively mixes bw with colour in certain photos, especially if they might contain a vintage object such as this. I have also used this technique in the past but usually when blending past and present images as in the following images and not on a single image.



 


14 comments:

Out To Pasture said...

Those certainly are some skilled photo editing examples! I do like the cars being in your original shot, though, for perspective on the length of that tank.

Patio Postcards said...

I like your truck photo of the blended colour & B/W. I wonder if that very long cargo truck is carrying a piece for a wind turbine.

William Kendall said...

Creative edits!

Barbara Rogers said...

I immediately wanted to say how I liked the yellow flowers as contrast to the old truck, and then you turned them to grey. Nope, not for me. I did get a kick out of all your work removing cars from the other truck photo. I'll take it either way. The older shots when combined with color ones are very haunting, especially considering the bridges to the past!

Vicki Lane said...

I really like the photos combining B&W and color.

Marcia said...

What was that long tanker truck? Or is it looking longer than really was?
Check your post title again. It's a bit garbled.

Margaret said...

I like that old truck. The tanker is SO long! How do they even turn something like that? I do like the juxtaposition of b&w and color more than I thought I would.

Mage said...

You do so well with Photoshop. I feel very behind the 8 ball when I see yoour work.

DJan said...

I like the vintage truck with all else B&W. And I too like the cars in the big truck picture for size comparison. :-)

The Furry Gnome said...

Interesting stuff! I've never even dreamt about 'photoshopping' something!

Joanne Noragon said...

Your skill is way above my pay grade. Lovely pictures.

Red said...

I like the old truck the best. It's surprising what they've done to haul gigantic pieces of equipment on highways. It started in Alberta with the oil sands.

MARY G said...

You did a dern good job by my thinking. And I like the blend of the truck. Not so fussed on the scenery blends - I always end up puzzling about what happened to the light.
When I am editing, I often clone a patch that is what I want and paste it. If you scrub in the edges, it works quite well.

Kay said...

You are so talented with Photoshop. I still can't get layers. My brain just can't handle it even though my brother has tried to teach me. I know how hard it is to clone away images. That is a LONG LONG LONG fuel (?) truck. I thought at first that you might have used Photoshop to elongate it. Must be fun watching it make a turn.