Blacksmith

Kieron Nevison

Kieron Nevison

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Today I had a quick shoot with a blacksmith who needed a picture for his website. Due to the dusty, small environment. Plus the red hot metal flying around I chose to only use a couple of speedlites, one through and ezybox and the other with a diffuser on. Due to the size and layout of the room I was very restricted as to where I could place my lights and shoot from. There was a lot of equipment and a burner in the middle of the room so could not put anything there. So basically the whole shoot was one big compromise added to this a subject that did not really understand it was a shoot and just carried on working with his head down moving all the time.

There was a funny bit when I pointed out he was on fire. A big flame was growing to a foot high on his back.

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Great contrast between the exposure of the blacksmiths face and upper torso against the background.
Really good image.
Could you do anything with the bright parts on the back of the raised hand? Burn or clone?

Alan
 
Great shot, reminds me of a similar shoot david hobby did. Client must be well chuffed!
 
I like it.

You done anything with the exposure on the raised hand in post? Looks a bit iffy. A little bit of separation light (eg a heavily orange gelled speedlight on super low behind him) could have been nice, and would've still been motivated by the fire behind him.

Maybe take out a tiny bit of the dark on the left hand side? but only a smidgen
 
Very atmospheric, well captured :)
 
itsdavedotnet said:
I like it.

You done anything with the exposure on the raised hand in post? Looks a bit iffy. A little bit of separation light (eg a heavily orange gelled speedlight on super low behind him) could have been nice, and would've still been motivated by the fire behind him.

Maybe take out a tiny bit of the dark on the left hand side? but only a smidgen
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you could be right about the hand I had the same feeling myself. My intention was to draw the viewers attention to the hands as it all about what he does with his hands.
 
Kieron Nevison said:
you could be right about the hand I had the same feeling myself. My intention was to draw the viewers attention to the hands as it all about what he does with his hands.
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Yep definitely good to be able to see it, but I think you've pulled it a wee bit too far and got some digital noise that's a bit too apparent :( maybe give it a stop less brightening? Should still be able to see it.
 
I love this shot. It has a great deal of atmosphere about it. A moodiness which suits the subject to perfection. Given the constraints under which you were working it is a great success. However, (there's always one isn't there?) I'm not too keen on the right side of the shot as it is in too much shadow to be significant. Could I suggest a crop from the right to just to the right of the round tracery on the wall? This focuses the attention on the star of the show without losing too much context.
 
That's got a lovely feel to it. Reeks of tradition.. in a good way, not a cheesy way. Very British. Some of the dodging and burning in post is a bit heavy handed, but overall that's really accomplished. Well done :)
 
Pookeyhead said:
That's got a lovely feel to it. Reeks of tradition.. in a good way, not a cheesy way. Very British. Some of the dodging and burning in post is a bit heavy handed, but overall that's really accomplished. Well done :)
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Thank you. Funny you being a lecturer and saying its an accomplished pic. When it tried to study photography at degree level I was told I had nothing to offer an thought unsuitable to be a photography student. So I did Law instead.
 
Kieron Nevison said:
Thank you. Funny you being a lecturer and saying its an accomplished pic. When it tried to study photography at degree level I was told I had nothing to offer an thought unsuitable to be a photography student. So I did Law instead.
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Well.. it seems you've improved since :)
 
Pretty short sighted of them then.
 
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