While out for a walk in the Westdale area of Hamilton, Ontario along Winston Churchill Park, I came across a pet subject of mine, a fire hydrant with chipped/damage multiple layers of different coloured paint. From the bright shiny bolt head, I suspect some of the damage is recent. Regardless, a nice splash of colour creating an unintended abstract. A quick capture with my cell phone and then I continued with a pleasant Spring walk. - JW
Date Taken: 2019-04-12
Tech Details:
Taken using a hand-held Samsung Galaxy S5 mobile phone, full auto, ISO40, f.2.2, 1/140 sec. PP in free Open Source GIMP from Samsung SOOC jpeg file: crop a bit of the right side of the frame to get a more symmetrical layout, scale image to 6000px wide, use the tone curve tool to darken the bottom 1/3 of the tonal range then pin the upper end of the curve to hold it at default while pulling up/brightening the middle portion between the two ranges just adjusted, duplicate the image to a new top layer and on that new layer add a black/transparent layer mask, paint in the bottom left corner using white paint and a large soft-edged brush to mask the brighter part of the lower left part of the frame, then use the brightness-contrast tool to both darken and boost contrast of the bottom left corner to get a more uniform tonality across the frame, create new working layer from visible result, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 2048 px wide for posting online, sharpen slightly, save.
Tags: Hamilton Westdale fire hydrant paint damaged colourful abstract unintended Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone mobile phone Open Source GIMP
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***For best results, click on image to view on black***
As you head North on McNab Street in downtown Hamilton, Ontario, you eventually need to cross the railway tracks serving the downtown train station as well as being a major East-West rail traffic route. On McNab, the solution was to go under, not over, the tracks. Over time, the underpass has been decorated by local artists, although perhaps not in an official manner. Sitting near the railway station, I assume that the artistic community felt a greeting to visitors was in order and hence the title of this image. The title is taken from the text in the yellow 'box' centred above the stairs which greets all with 'Welcome To Hamilton' and then in a very helpful manner, provides a number of arrows indicating directions from that point to some of the major destinations in the core. Over time the walls of the tunnel itself have been decorated and tagged and the whole tunnel has become a bit of a surreal entrance to the downtown core. Welcome to Hamilton. - JW
This image made use of an HDR-processed version of the original image although, since that involved only a single image is strictly speaking tone-mapped rather than a full HDR
The image was made from a single photo captured using a hand-held Nikon D5000 fitted with a Nikkor 18-105mm VR lense set to 18mm, ISO400, Aperture priority mode, f/7.1, ISO400, 1/8 sec. HDR processing to make use of the tone-mapping stage was done using Luminance/Qtpfsgui with settings as indicated below. PP in GIMP: the tone-mapped version was loaded as the lower layer and the original image as the upper layer, the opacity of the original was set to 50% to allow some of the shadow detail of the tone-mapped layer to supplement the highlight areas of the original giving a better overall look while retaining much of the lower noise of the original, created a new layer from the result, applied tone curve tool to get better tonality, increased contrast slightly, boosted saturation overall slightly, sharpened, added fine black and white frame, added bar and text on left, scaled to 1024 wide for posting.
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1DSC_2526_mcnabunderpassgraffitiTM50pcorigadjbarsigx1024_pregamma_1_mantiuk_contrast_mapping_0.5_saturation_factor_1.4_detail_factor_1
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Qtpfsgui 1.9.3 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Mantiuk
Parameters:
Contrast Mapping factor: 0.5
Saturation Factor: 1.4
Detail Factor: 1
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PreGamma: 1
Tags: graffiti tunnel underpass McNab Street Hamilton HDR tone-mapped Luminance Qtpfsgui GIMP Nikon D5000 Nikkor 18-105mm VR
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© All Rights Reserved
Back in the Fall I visited downtown Port Dalhousie, Ontario (now simply a district in the regional city of St Catharines) to see how the redevelopment of the buildings in the historic district was progressing. The plan for the past several years has been, in essence, to replace the historic buildings with yet another bright, shiny and expensive high-rise condo development. But things progress slowly. Very slowly. Meanwhile, one building has already been demolished and a few of the colourful shops facing the old Welland Canal lock across the street stand empty (dare I say derelict?) pending the opportunity to ‘modernize’ the area. This shows one of these shops, the former Mackie’s Fresh Fudge at 28 Lakeport Road. The colourful, stiped facade harkens back to happier days. I continue to try and find scenes reminiscent of images immortalized in vintage 1950s/60s colour photography. - JW
Date Taken: 2020-10-13
Tech Details:
Taken using a hand-held Nikon D800 fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm 1:4.0 lense set to 38m, ISO160 (Auto ISO), Auto WB, Matrix metering, Shutter Priority mode, f/4.0, 1/320 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 9000px wide, level the image and correct perspective distortion, use exposure compensation to brighten the image by EV+0.29, apply Tone Mapping at default levels, boost Contrast and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, boost black level a bit, use Tone Curve 2 in parametric mode to darken the lights somewhat, use the Shadows/Highlights tool to recover highlights mainly to handle the chair fabric, use the Graduated Neutral Density/GND tool rotated to cover the bright concrete along the base of the image and darken somewhat and make its brightness less of a distraction, sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the levels tool to get a good basic tonality and colour balance, use the dodge-burn tool to further tone done the bright concrete strip in the bottom left of the frame, sharpen slightly, save, scale to 6000px wide, sharpen slightly, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3000 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.
Tags: Port Dalhousie St Catharines shops derelict colourful stripes Lakeport Road 28 Mackie’s Fresh Fudge door shop windows vintage Open Source RAWTherapee GIMP Nikon D800 AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm 1:4.0
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Yet another image from the walk in downtown Toronto to introduce my brother-in-law to the city. I spotted these two gentlemen walking past the Bay Adelaide Centre and attempted to capture them as they walked past the banner-lined interior walls of the building. (The St Regis is across the street, behind the camera and hence the reverse lettering reflection in the glass.) And, of course, the seemingly ubiquitous construction reminders were unavoidable. I like the grey, blue, pink colours and that little yellow fire hydrant added a bit of pop, all while contrasted against the metallic surface of the support column. - JW
Date Taken: 2023-04-12
Date PP: 2023-04-19
(c) Copyright 2023 JW Vraets
Tech Details:
Taken using hand-held Nikon D800 fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm VR 1:4.0 lense set to 65mm, ISO1000 (Auto ISO), Auto WB, Matrix metering, Shutter Priority Mode, f/4.0, 1/320 with an EV-0.33 exposure bias. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 8000px wide, crop to a 5x7 format, use the Graduated Neutral Density/GND tool to slightly darken the sidewalk area, slightly increase Contrast and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, boost Vibrance a little, apply noise reduction, sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Curves tool to darken the dark end of the curve a little and then brighten the highlight portion of the curve as well, sharpen slightly, save, scale image to 6000px wide, sharpen slightly, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3000 px wide for posting online, sharpen, save.
Tags: Toronto downtown Bay Adelaide Centre men walking banners blue pink wall grey column fire hydrant yellow construction Open Source RAWTherapee GIMP Nikon D800 AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm VR 1:4.0
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