Digital art Motion Project #5 – hardhats & pipes

Digital art Motion Project #5 – hardhats & pipes

I’ve been busy working on more photos – spent a couple days taking hundreds of photos around the city. A couple have potential and I’ve set them aside for later.  Also working on a second series devoted to the demolition & build across the road. I have a perfect roost to watch & record the process. Some of the demolition has been impressive. Right now, there isn’t much left of the old CHUM building, mostly rubble. Soon they’ll start digging a deep hole for the parking space. I’m sorting the photos, trying to make a bit of chronolgical sense of it. I’ll ruthlessly pare threw them and toss 90%. Most of the earliest shots, done with my phone aren’t worth keeping, except to mark the start of the project.  In the meantime, I’ll throw the occassional photo up, but have set the bulk of the project aside for winter work.

I’ve also been working on fine tuning my dodging & burning techniques. Using a slightly different method that gives me great control over how much contrast I get.  I finally have a system that allows me to get an exagerated, hyper real contrast that doesn’t end up looking cartoonish or overblown. Very pleased with the results. It takes a lot longer, but satisfying. Here’s one I worked on yesterday. Took hours to get the contrast between shadows and light the way I wanted. Digital Art: Yonge St Construction

 Construction Workers on Yonge – Oct 13 2016

There’s a tremendous amount of construction going on in my area – you pretty much trip over the sites. This was shot on Yonge St north of Bloor at the huge new condo build. Not sure if the old store fronts will be kept or torn down. Be a shame if they disappear. Construction workers were strugging with some pipes out front and were having a hell of a time. Took a couple of snaps and thought yea, they’ll do.

Anyway, this is a couple of different effects, including HDR Toning (Photorealistic High Contrast), NIK HDR Efex and a lot of dodging & burning the pipes and workers to over emphasis the details. Took hours to do … partially because I sneezed at one point and destroyed some work. Had been so absorbed in some details, I forgot to save for awhile, something I rarely do. I’m a ‘save save save” kind of computer person. A little pissed when I realised how much damage I’d done.

I need a better name than Motion Project. It seems a bit … silly at times. The point of the project is to look at everyday scenes in a large city and turn them into digital portraits of the city.  For the time I’ll keep the name, but it will likely shift. Any suggestions are appreciated.

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