Back in time

D3SshooterD3Sshooter Registered Users Posts: 1,187 Major grins
edited May 21, 2015 in People
During one off my last industrial urban explorations , I found an old negative on gelatin glass plate picture in an old drawer of a desk. Needless to say that I was thrilled , as the people on the negative were standing in the same place as I was standing, but then 100 years later. Based on the type of negative, the clothing of those workers, the die-cast hand water pumps in their molds and the history of the factory (foundry) , it had to be from the early 1900's. So I took the glassplate home and worked on the reproduction of a digital positive version. When that came to light , WoW. I was stunned.

So here it is folks,
CF007401-Edit-XL.jpg

Taken in this factory (pic below ) or read this

eight-2-XL.jpg


Thanks for viewing…..
A photographer without a style, is like a pub without beer

Comments

  • SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited April 27, 2015
    A fantastic find!!

    Sam
  • ChrisJChrisJ Registered Users Posts: 2,164 Major grins
    edited April 27, 2015
    I agree, brilliant! Would be interesting to find the exact spot (if it exists) in the ruins and try to match the frame. Great job on the restoration.
    Chris
  • jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
    edited April 27, 2015
    Nice, I like seeing stuff like this. It's a good connection to the past.
  • javierplumeyjavierplumey Registered Users Posts: 131 Major grins
    edited April 29, 2015
    This is awesome. I'd love to learn the process of how you got the final digital image.
  • ThelensspotThelensspot Registered Users Posts: 2,041 Major grins
    edited April 30, 2015
    Wow! Amazing. Thanks for the chance to glance back in time.
    "Photography is partly art and partly science. Really good photography adds discipline, sacrifice and a never ending pursuit of photographic excellence"...ziggy53

  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,167 moderator
    edited May 1, 2015
    Great find. What are they casting? Looks like cannon barrels.
    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
  • D3SshooterD3Sshooter Registered Users Posts: 1,187 Major grins
    edited May 1, 2015
    David_S85 wrote: »
    Great find. What are they casting? Looks like cannon barrels.

    Hi David,

    They are casting water pumps, maybe you might know the types with a single arm/lever that needs moving up and down on a pivot point. Inside the cast there is a pistion very much zo like in a car engine but then with a whole and valve in the middle of the piston that closed when the piston goes up. Hence causing a vacuum under the piston (suction ) and the water is sucked up through the waterpipe from the well .When going down , the valve opens and the water flows through the valve and assembles above the pistion. It can's be pushed back in the watertubes as there is a end valve in the well blocking the return.
    When the pistion moves back up, the water above the valve is push out of a sprout , and new water is sucked in.
    A photographer without a style, is like a pub without beer
  • D3SshooterD3Sshooter Registered Users Posts: 1,187 Major grins
    edited May 1, 2015
    This is awesome. I'd love to learn the process of how you got the final digital image.

    TXS Javier,

    That is very easy, here is how i did it:

    1. Use a softbox and mask the entire surface with a light blocking material ( I used carton)
    (Softbox is a flashlight with a lightshaper on it. the surface is typical a white cloth to create even light)

    2. Cut a rectangle whole in the middle of the cardboard so that the glass plate just fits in it.

    3. Place the card board on the softbox, so that no other light can come through except the whole.

    4. Turn on the pilot light of the softbox (steady light, sometime called model light).

    5. Place your camera on a tripot.

    6. zoom to the size of the openenin

    7. focus on spot, and light metering on spot

    8. set aperture to F9 , iso as low as possible, and adjust the shutterspeed so that your lightmeter (in camera) is about 1/3 step above 0 (that will assure the whites are white and not gray)

    9. set wb to auto , as the glass plate is negative anyhow and take a shot of the opening in the cardboard

    10. Place the glass plate in the opening

    11. Set your camera to manual focus , and use lifeview or thetered shooting methods to adjust manual the sharpness, the reason is that the glass has a certain thickness and the actual gelatin is on the back holding the image.

    12.Once in focus take the shot (in RAW)

    13. In LR adjust the sharpness, contrast and WB based on the shot of the white opening.

    14, In Photoshop, open the picture from LR and create a layer

    15. Invert the layer

    16. Voila here is your picture, you might want to work on a few little things like taken some scratches away etc ….

    17. And I forgot to mention, use an absolute dark room , and if you can cover the camera with a black cloth as the glass will reflect the even the smallest light point.

    I hope that helped
    A photographer without a style, is like a pub without beer
  • jmphotocraftjmphotocraft Registered Users Posts: 2,987 Major grins
    edited May 5, 2015
    which myth are they busting?
    -Jack

    An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
  • AddiebeeAddiebee Registered Users Posts: 27 Big grins
    edited May 21, 2015
    Whoa! Soooo coool!
    Addie
    http://addiebee.smugmug.com/
    "Hang on to your dreams with everything you got. Because the best life is when your dreams come true. The second-best is when they don't but you never stop chasing them." ~ Tim Dorsey
  • kdotaylorkdotaylor Registered Users Posts: 1,274 Major grins
    edited May 21, 2015
    wow...really nice!
    Kate
    www.katetaylor.smugmug.com
    "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." Mark Twain
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