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Door to Doom
Door to Doom
levyj413


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Industrial II (Basic Editing)
Collection: South Carolina
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM for Nikon
Location: Fort Moultrie, SC
Date: Jul 22, 2010
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 800
Shutter: 1/20s
Date Uploaded: Jul 25, 2010

 This "door" is about 4 feet high by 2 feet wide. It's in the back of Fort Moultrie at the entrance to the harbor in Charleston, SC. It was used from the 1700s right through World War II, and its guns could fire 500-pound shells 8 miles out to sea. It was part of a set of forts that included Fort Sumter, site of the opening shots of the U.S. Civil War. It was very interesting exploring with my wife and stepdad while on vacation at the beach. But it was HOT. More info about the fort.

We guessed it was an air vent serving the gun batteries upstairs. I'm not at all sure it opens.

I originally took this shot thinking I'd enhance the green on the plant growing on the right side. I was amazed to find anything growing in there, since there's no direct light. This little walkway is about 6 feet deep, so probably no water gets in there, either.

Shot at 10mm. I love this lens! I crouched down in the opening and pressed my shoulders against both walls to brace myself for the slow exposure.

Once I started experimenting, I decided a more stark B&W would work better, so you don't even know that's a plant.

Edited in iPhoto: increased contrast and exposure, used the shadow slider a bit so it's not quite so black, and desaturated. When you use the desaturation slider, you can then use the temperature slider to change the B&W conversion, experimenting to see what you like best. In this case, I put the temp as low as it would go, so if you look at it in color, it's quite blue.

The one thing that bothered me was how dark the top of the grating was. I actually pulled it into Photoshop and through multiple adjustment layers, managed to bring out a bit more detail without brightening up the rest of it. But I lost some contrast in the walls, so decided to just use the iPhoto version.

Here's the original:


Here's how it looks, showing the sliders and settings.


To show how the temperature affects the B&W conversion, here's how it would've looked with the temp slider at the other end:


And here's how it would've looked if I hadn't desaturated it. I desaturated, then played with the temperature to get the B&W how I wanted it, so I never actually saw this version until I wrote up these notes:

Statistics
Place: 69 out of 120
Avg (all users): 5.3145
Avg (commenters): 5.7500
Avg (participants): 5.2115
Avg (non-participants): 5.3645
Views since voting: 795
Views during voting: 251
Votes: 159
Comments: 8
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-60D
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
 07/30/2010 10:38:06 PM
I love the detail in the walls
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS R5
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
 07/30/2010 10:20:22 PM
This is scary - I'm imagining an electric chair or something behind that door... very good use of emotive.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro
 07/30/2010 11:50:25 AM
More spooky than industrial for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
 07/29/2010 01:27:54 PM
Well.. I get the feeling of 'Descent' but not really Industrial.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-20D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
 07/29/2010 08:25:43 AM
This looks like the entrance to some of the 'industrial' clubs here in town :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D7200
Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
 07/28/2010 08:31:33 PM
Love the high contrast.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Sony DSLR-A900
Sony E 16mm f/2.8
 07/28/2010 01:36:57 PM
not fair... I could have taken a picture of the front door to my job and titled it the same.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5DS R
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro
 07/28/2010 12:50:32 AM
good, give a real emotive effect
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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