Comerica Park

[Dennis Bishop]

A week ago, today, I went for the first time in quite a while to a Detroit Tigers game. One of the challenges -- especially for a game starting in the evening -- was that tripods and monopods aren't permitted. I knew about that so came equipped with an alternate solution I'd MacGyver'd together a couple years ago but never used. It was made from a fabric woodworking band clamp with a ratchet to adjust the size of the loop, a swivel connector, and a piece of hardware with a rubber spacer to thread into a tapped hole in the bottom of the camera's RRS L-bracket. I could put my feet through the loop even while sitting and pull up on the camera to hold it fairly steady. People's heads and hats were a challenge I couldn't overcome. However, the fan in the baseball uniform made up for it. Another good thing -- the Tigers scored in the bottom of the ninth to win 4-3 over the White Sox.

Nikon D3s, ISO 640, f/11, five-exposure HDR at 1 EV increments, 28-300 zoom lens at 28mm

processing highlights

The sky was featureless, so I replaced it with two Photomorphis Cloud & Sky textures. The upper one in the stack was set at Screen blend mode.
Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset, 80% opacity, masked
Belle Fleur texture -- Hard Light, 52%, masked to sky, clipped deep blue Photo Filter adjustment layer
Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Color, 57%
Flypaper Textures texture -- Multiply, 31%
series of masked adjustment layers of various kinds and opacities
Fractalius -- three black & white preset layers, Multiply, masked, various opacities
Snap Art -- saved Stylize black & white preset, Multiply at 16%; Divide at 19%; both masked
Simplify -- saved edges black & white preset, Multiply at 90%; Divide at 16%; both masked

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Well kudos for coming up with a rig like that Dennis. I like the light on the field and defining who at least one of the teams is with the man in the jersey and hat. (Bit of luck there!) I am not sure I am convinced by the clouds, I think it is the colour. But really well done to capture this scene.

[Randall Farhy]

Dennis, I can't stop thinking about this piece, you've really struck a chord. It reminds me so much of the illustrative work I've seen on many a magazine cover over the years yet bears your signature style. I love the colors, tones, saturations, textures and contrasts. There's no mistaking the industrial nature of the stadiums setting and your processing makes it stand out in an artistic manner. I also enjoyed hearing how you overcame the technical issues, very creative. The inclusion of the hat and spectator add an element of foreground interest and balance, I also enjoyed the self portrait? aspect. I feel these elements work to tell a story because the action on the field is secondary in this instant. I might be tempted to clone out the little white spot and hook on the perimeter of the hat, and straighten the left edge a touch but that's all. Outstanding work.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I also enjoyed the self portrait? aspect. . . . I might be tempted to clone out the little white spot and hook on the perimeter of the hat, and straighten the left edge a touch but that's all. . . .

Thank you Jackie and Randall. Randall, I'm curious about the self portrait reference. It's good to have someone else look at images. I knew it was people (coaches and/or players) mostly hidden by the hat, so I didn't think a thing about them. Getting rid of them seems like a good suggestion. This sequence of shots and another were taken shortly before the start of the game. In the other, the umpires and some other folks were clustered around home plate. I probably should've composited them into this image.

[Randall Farhy]

Dennis, I wasn't sure whether you had dropped in a headshot of yourself on the fan in uniform or if it was just someone with similar features. :/

[Dennis Bishop]

Dennis, I wasn't sure whether you had dropped in a headshot of yourself on the fan in uniform or if it was just someone with similar features. :/

Now that's a great idea. I think I'll work on that. Thanks.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dennis, this is a masterpiece! Knowing your love of baseball makes it even more special. The face resembles your snapshot but actually substituting your face would probably put this over the top. I absolutely love the processing on this one. Thanks for sharing:S3:

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Dennis,

Greetings. Again your path to the image is quite amazing... and what a great result! There is much to see and enjoy. Making this a self portrait would be way over the top ;-)

I don't understand the Multiply at 90%; Divide at 16% notation. Two successive blends one at 90% opacity and one at 16% ?

Thanks for posting a very enjoyable image.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I don't understand the Multiply at 90%; Divide at 16% notation. Two successive blends one at 90% opacity and one at 16% ? . . .

Thanks for your comments, Michael. I always use my Fractalius preset layers in Multiply to give some black lines and some localized darkening (which I may counterbalance with lightening via a Curves layer). Most of the time, the black & white layers from my Topaz Simplify edges preset and my Alien Skin Snap Art Line Art preset are also in Multiply to give black lines (Snap Art allows one to choose a different line color, instead). Occasionally black lines everywhere just doesn't work, and this image was one of those. I masked the Simplify edges and Line Art layers so there weren't black lines around the clouds. Then, I duplicated each of those layers, inverted the masks, and used Divide to get the white lines you see in the sky. Generally, the Multiply layer ends up with a higher opacity than does the Divide one.

Stay tuned for the self-portrait version. That's taking more work than I'd anticipated, and I'm changing a few other things in the image.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Dennis,

Ah, interesting. I've never really gotten divide, but I played with it a bit with some black lines and at least see that effect. Thanks for the explanation.

One other comment. When I first looked at the image I thought it needed a little clockwise rotation but realized it's mainly the wide angle distortion that I was seeing. Not sure what I would do to fix it not wanting to lose much at the edges...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

Dennis, I am always blown away by all the details and steps in your technique and your unique final image! I want to stand behind you and watch you do all those things. I like the composition of the bright green field with the diagonals and surrounded by the duller grays and browns of a city. That fan standing up is a perfect piece of luck and I like that the back of a player is featured in the distant billboard. A bit of serendipity! Looking forward to the self-portrait version!

[Dennis Bishop]

This probably isn't what you expected, and it's not what I first had in mind. It is a self-portrait, though. Somewhere along the way, I decided it would be the start of an interesting story if the fan in the uniform was a younger version of me. Although the real fan was looking to his right (although not by the time the HDR sequence was finished), he was entering the row and his body was pointing toward me. It wasn't difficult to find a photo in my high school year book with me looking straight ahead as though I was trying to make contact with the version of me taking the photos. Luckily, I'd volunteered to make the name cards for a reunion we had a few years ago, and I'd managed to get an actual print from a shot that included me on an activity page. It was quite small, and it was black & white, but I scanned it and managed to make a color version with reasonable resolution. It required some shadow work, but that wasn't too tricky.

I made some other changes, too, but the most important had to do with the fan and the uniform. The only thing right about the uniform was the shirt. The Tigers had white caps early in the 1900s, but the bills were always navy blue. For a long time, the home caps have looked like what you see here. That's the cap I wore to this ballgame, and it's the cap I wore while playing softball in my forties and fifties. The long sleeves shouldn't have been white, either. You can't see much of the glove, but it's the one I used from my first year in college until I started serious league play twenty years, or so, later.

Nancy, the scoreboard shows a live video of David Price, the Tigers starting pitcher, walking out to the mound. The figure standing along the baseline between third and home has the video camera on his shoulder.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dennis, this makes for such an interesting story and I love that you used a retrospective view of yourself. Thanks for the storyline - it really adds to the feel of the image and it shows your love of the game even more. My dad was a huge baseball fan and so I grew up listening to the Cincinnati Reds with him. He also played fast-pitch softball in his 40's so this really is nostalgic for me as well :S3: I think I'd try to add a little more processing (probably fractalius layers) to get your face to look a little more like the face in the OP.

[Nancy Bell]

Cool! Your face is a bit soft and Cheryl has a good suggestion to use fractalius to add some sharp lines. I know, that young face has NO lines!

[Dennis Bishop]

Thanks Cheryl and Nancy. I'll work on that.

[Anita Bower]

Wow! A wonderful image. I love those clouds. Excellent depth, from the person sitting in front of you to the field, lights, city, clouds. This image seems to take in the whole scene.
As always, outstanding processing. Love the look you achieved.
Going from darks to lights works beautifully here.
Many great comments above. I prefer the OP. Perhaps after you work more on making your self-portrait blend into the image I will like it just as much.
I, too, notices the tilt to the left mentioned by Michael above. I used Skew to lift the upper left side.
I would like to see a photo of the gizmo you used to take the photo as I'm having trouble picturing it.

[Dennis Bishop]

Thanks, Anita -- for your comments and the re-post. I realized when looking at it that I can't see the bubble level when my eye is to the viewfinder. Even though it was in the hot shoe and I tried to check it, I really couldn't while taking the shots, so it needed to be fixed. I tried working on the Version 2 face before I posted it and, again, after. The Fractalius layers weren't masked from the face, so that didn't do it. I'll keep at it.

I'll take some shots of the gizmo in use and showing some detail and post them in this thread.