Real or fake

[Mikael Hörner]

Not my absolute favorite picture, no. The camera should have been lower down for a better more realistic perspective and the snow is off scale, but give your opinions! One more picture, this without snow...

/Mike

[Phil Woollard]

Now this has potential , it has all the right ingredients. I will go into some depth for them both tomorrow cheers Phil

[Phil Woollard]

Before I start guys lets get one thing clear , I dont want to play judge and jury! More care in the community It's only my opinion of what looks ok to me and if my advice produces better models and better photographs then thats cool by me.
If you consider the photographer in the late 1930's they had limited equipment and it was cumbersome.... with thoughts of exposure, light levels and focus all contributing to the chance of a crappy photo or a brilliant one, I can remember rushing down to the chemist to pic up last weeks developed pictures...you never new what you were going to end up with! Now we have auto everthing and or course HD which does not suit our chosen hobby at all.( I generally opt to switch most of the auto gizmo's off) but we work with what we have.
Another thing to consider that i think important to mention, is the fact that most of the war time photos that we see are stills taken from film footage, this has the advantage of allowing the photographer to "cheery pick" the best or relevant frame in the sequence, we can do this so easily now.
If you think it's all a bit too theatrical that's because it is or was, the photographer in the german army (or any army for that matter) was generally an enlisted man on a mission to produce romantic,atmospheric and exciting films to promote the war machine.(quite the opposite of the media)

Now back to the snowy pic of the Tiger1,it's best if I kinda list the points as Im lazy and not good with the written word.

Snow is not good in 1/6th the crystals are just to massive (and it bungs up the running gear).
The pic is too dark, this is another problem with snow .. it messes with the exposure even with our high tech equipment.
As Mikael said the camera angle is to high, think about that guy taking the picture back in 1943.
The barrel is almost pointing at the cameraman...not good!
The trees in the background look good the foreground foliage not so.
The crew dont look to well posed (this is the most difficult aspect to get right , so I tend to leave them out where i can).

[Phil Woollard]

I like this pic of what looks like an early wheel/cupola mid Tiger1, i would say mid due to the smaller muzzel break , the smaller muzzel breaks are not as photogenic.

Nice angle of the front almost 3/4 view of the subject, i would have prefered more of the running gear to show.
Good background good foreground.
Now shadow..i could go on forever about shadows, big vehicles throw big shadows and little vehicle throw little to none. This pic must have been taken early morning or late afternoon as the shadows are good and strong ..making us think the subject must be bigger than it really is, do you see where i am going? if you are out doors then plan/pic your time of day carefully for your shoot.
Indoors you can add mood lighting to suit.
Close up the vehicle needs more details like weathering and kit and possibly extra weld beads as they always look cool and a few bangs and scrapes...tastefully applied.
Close up the figures wrist joints show up terribly so i will fuzz a bit to hide that.(i try to hide the joints where possible)I will also high light to pick out the detail which is there but not visible with the original, take a look at the tracks before and after.

Thats my initial take on this nice photo, I will sod about with some editing to see what we can achieve if thats ok with you Mikael?

[Mikael Hörner]

Thank you Phil, good points! Thank you!

Feel free to edit my pictures, now I'm curious to see the results!

(I really like the one with the color filter!)

/Mike

[Phil Woollard]

Cool, as I said it was good anyway ...so download all the ones you like Mikael regards Phil

[bryanrmassie]

Here's one of my best efforts, I think the scale is good but I wish I'd taken it in black and white.

Always liked this pic, maybe just not showing enough of the tank tho !!

[Adrian Harris]

Black and White

[Adrian Harris]

Black and White and Grainy

[Phil Woollard]

Well Bryan I think the colour photos are very good indeed , when I get a mo I will have a play around .Adrian has done a good job in black and white .....nice Tiger that ! Good crew pose too, they just need to be looking at the camera, the second photo is a lost cause I'm afraid ,although it's a nice clean clear crisp photo with excellent light a big sky and a very good looking Tiger ( although i would like to see that muzzel after all thats what the whole story is about ...hauling that 88mm around ) the subject capture point of the vehicle is not good as you have dissected the best bits in two important places.... but let's see what we can salvage. Phil

[Mike Kasputis]

These were taken a long time ago, tank was not completed at the time. First one not so good but I liked the second one.
Have at them.

[Phil Woollard]

Please feel free guys like Adrian have a go its kinda fun init.
Mike how about this edit, warm with a tad of smoke and age ? The other photo has a lot wrong..the tracks are not good for one (hanging saggy) back ground issues sorry mate.
Remember what I said about the barrel elevation it needs lowering just a smidge, if it were real it wouldn't matter.With a few ammo crates and other stores in the foreground and maybe a couple of bods having a tab, it would look way cool as if out on the Russian Steppes. See how the track tread is shiny just as if the vehicle has polished the metal in contact with the ground over many kilometres on the way to the front. Oh and for the guys to "bomb up" the turret needs turning through 90 deg also...
If you want i can go into detail of the "for and against" aspects of each photo Mike? cheers Phil

[simon_manning]

there' still a few of us on here who remember your tiger build mike, it was very informative and well built, nice old period photo, regards simon manning.

[Mike Kasputis]

Thanks Simon.
Phil I like your edit, and yes please give the "for and against" for the second picture, I know the first has alot wrong with it.
What does "bomb up" mean?

[Phil Woollard]

Hi Mike, to "bomb up" is just British forces slang to reload the magazine and generally refers to small arms, im off to the gym now so will look at your photos again later regards Phil