Another portrait of an electric arc welder at work

[Quan Tran]

Hello folks,

I tried this shot again yesterday with my Canon 20D and the Canon lens 50mm f/1.8 mk II. Please give me your constructive comments and any room for improvements you can see. :-)

Thank you very much and regards,

Quan

[In search of Syd]

I'm sure many of the experts here can and will kindly guide you on the C & T front. I just wanted to say that I have been looking back at your work and wanted to say that I really admire your enthusiasm. Your pics are pretty cool too.

This must have been a difficult shot to take.

Regards,

ISoS

[JohnReid]

Quan, here are some constructive comments:

1. You have called this a portrait, but on my monitor I can't see the welder. If you were trying to show the welding effect only, then you did that well, but it doesn't work as a portrait. If you shot in Raw, make 2 conversions - one for the torch, the other for the welder and use photoshops HDR tool.

2. The dynamic range is tough here causing too much contrast, too bright in the highlights, to dark in the shadows. Using the technique above, you may be able to sort that out.

Hope that helps.

[Aumma45]

The effort is commended I leave it to the better informed experts to give counsel.

[thatsanicepicture2]

JohnReid wrote:

Quan, here are some constructive comments:

1. You have called this a portrait, but on my monitor I can't see the welder.

Huh... I can see him... But what John said is true and he needs to come out more.

dale

[thatsanicepicture2]

I'll explain how i did this.

[thatsanicepicture2]

First I made a new layer of the original picture. On the new layer I did a oval mask (the top picture)
Then did a minus color mask on all dark areas. I copied the remaining masked area(the bottom picture)
and pasted it back in as a new layer. I didn't do anything to this new layer so it's the "Dodge"
Then i adjusted the original copy layer and adjusted it in curves to bring out the person. The "Burn"

I did this in Corel so if someone wants to explain it in PS language it may help.


I am sure you can do a much better job on the original full image. I see a little
clean-up in the dodge area on the helmet is needed but i spent more time explaining it then doing it.

I hope this helps.

dale

[VAtechtigger]

Good effort Quan,

Im in the middle of taking a whole series of welding shots of my father. Have been shooting MIG, TIG, Acetylene welding as well as plasma torch and gas cutting.Ill post the series when Im done. Makes for some cool macros. Especially close up of the welding process itself. Its quite diffacult just due to the nature of the extreme lighting issues combined with macro and flying metal sparks and such.

I was quite hesitent at first, as Im not sure if you can damage the photoreceptors of the camera with the welding light (which to those of you who dont know can cause permanant vision damgage, much as the sun) although I havent seen any issues yet with the camera such as dead pixels.

So good work and keep on shooting

[frenchy]

I can't comment on the composition / exposure, nor can I offer advice. Suffice it to say that I like what I see. Very much.

[Hards80]

i actually like the strong contrast of the first shot.. i can see the argument for more definition in the welder, but i like the feel of it with much of him in shadow with just the mask part being illuminated from the torch.. the thing that bothers me is the slight flare around the arc.. makes it look a little odd.. should be able to fix that up though.. good shot!

-dustin