Steel Mill Portraits

entropic remnants

Hall of Famer
Name
John Griggs
I'm beginning this new set of pictures of the people of the steel mill. As each operating unit closes, I'll trickle out the pictures of the people. Not all want their faces shown, so some are a bit more anonymous but they are still portraits in a larger sense.

This first batch is old photos from the days of CCD imagers, poor high ISO performance, and lower resolution. Mainly if not entirely from my old Nikon D200.

Click through to read a bit of a description of what their job was. For the most part, I'm avoiding naming folks just now.

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Contractors by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Contractors by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Contractors by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr
 
Great stuff John. I like your shots of stuff, but I'll take shots of people any time. Really fine work...

-Ray

Thanks, Ray! I hope the best is yet to come. Some of the ones I took of folks during the last days say a lot -- you can see a lot of different things on peoples faces: anguish, resignation, and some folks just take it all in stride.
 
A few more from the archives

Looking back over older shots -- difficult because when I imported old work I didn't keyword it all and I have to go through the shots to find any worth posting but I found a few more. These are from my old Nikon D200 or D80 cams also.

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Steel Mill Portraits: Contractors by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Contractors by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Contractors by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr
 
I'm beginning this new set of pictures of the people of the steel mill. As each operating unit closes, I'll trickle out the pictures of the people. Not all want their faces shown, so some are a bit more anonymous but they are still portraits in a larger sense.

This first batch is old photos from the days of CCD imagers, poor high ISO performance, and lower resolution. Mainly if not entirely from my old Nikon D200.

Click through to read a bit of a description of what their job was. For the most part, I'm avoiding naming folks just now.

Yet another inspiring set of photos! At risk of sounding a little "over the top", your series of pictures have almost managed to make me feel as though I worked at your steel mill!

By chance, I recently had the opportunity to take some photographs in a heavy engineering workshop, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have your "style" of photography in mind as I made the shots. Sadly, my shots were not even close to the quality of your steel mill shots during your recent posts - even before the news of the closure. Ok, self-evidently there wasn't the sad back-story attached to my shots, but I have to say that you have an unusual talent for capturing the "flavour" of the setting... irrespective of the impending closure aspect.
Thanks for some great photos... I for one, would be happy to see as many shots as you care to post.:th_salute:
 
Yet another inspiring set of photos! At risk of sounding a little "over the top", your series of pictures have almost managed to make me feel as though I worked at your steel mill!

By chance, I recently had the opportunity to take some photographs in a heavy engineering workshop, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have your "style" of photography in mind as I made the shots. Sadly, my shots were not even close to the quality of your steel mill shots during your recent posts - even before the news of the closure. Ok, self-evidently there wasn't the sad back-story attached to my shots, but I have to say that you have an unusual talent for capturing the "flavour" of the setting... irrespective of the impending closure aspect.
Thanks for some great photos... I for one, would be happy to see as many shots as you care to post.:th_salute:

Thanks! That was really some high praise. I've spent years -- literally -- refining my technique in the mill across different lines of cameras -- which is interesting as it tends to show you what's needed independent of the platform. I did get some decent shots even with my old gear but newer gear helps.

What I do generally is shoot a little to a lot dark to preserve highlights as much as I can. Then deal with the shadow noise as I need to when I lighten the shot. I usually end up using a lot of highlight and shadow recovery and boosting the overall exposure and contrast to get the look. Don't know if that gives you a direction to go or not as far as technically. It's not magic, lol. The Fuji's are a cut above anything else I've shot with and make that process more do-able.

As far as what I do shoot: I've had the luxury of long exposure to the subject matter. This gives me an ability to shoot more unconsciously. I would think in the situation you were in, you were having to think a lot about the shots and though that is part of the game it can put you kind of on a creative "defensive" where too much of your attention is on the conscious process rather than the all important unconscious "eye" we all develop.

I sure am flattered that you were thinking about my "style" as you approached your subject! Nice thing to say and thanks!
 
My reply I tried to post earlier must have been eaten by the interwebs… Great work! I enjoy seeing these portraits where the subjects are placed within the context of their environment. On a technical level the tonality, clarity and sharpness are superb. Well done!
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Hope you're prepared as over the next weeks probably north of 80 shots may be posted over time.

As always, if you want a bit more information about exposure or about the folks there is some on most of them -- click through to flickr to see all that stuff.

Here's some more and now we're into the Fujifilm shots (X100S, X-M1 or X-E1) -- this batch is all X-E1 and the 35mm f/1.4 lens.

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Steel Mill Portraits: Melt Shop by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr
 
Thanks! That was really some high praise. I've spent years -- literally -- refining my technique in the mill across different lines of cameras -- which is interesting as it tends to show you what's needed independent of the platform. I did get some decent shots even with my old gear but newer gear helps.

What I do generally is shoot a little to a lot dark to preserve highlights as much as I can. Then deal with the shadow noise as I need to when I lighten the shot. I usually end up using a lot of highlight and shadow recovery and boosting the overall exposure and contrast to get the look. Don't know if that gives you a direction to go or not as far as technically. It's not magic, lol. The Fuji's are a cut above anything else I've shot with and make that process more do-able.

As far as what I do shoot: I've had the luxury of long exposure to the subject matter. This gives me an ability to shoot more unconsciously. I would think in the situation you were in, you were having to think a lot about the shots and though that is part of the game it can put you kind of on a creative "defensive" where too much of your attention is on the conscious process rather than the all important unconscious "eye" we all develop.

I sure am flattered that you were thinking about my "style" as you approached your subject! Nice thing to say and thanks!

I'd more-or-less guessed at the technical aspects that you've described (shooting dark etc.) and indeed, I have long favoured this approach myself. The essential quality of your images emanates, I believe, from your photographic "eye", and this is the element which wasn't showing in my shots of the workshop, to which I referred. It's a pity that this characteristic can't be explained as readily as the technicalities!;) I take your point about the "luxury of long exposure to the subject matter", and I agree that this must play some part in the process... but not - as I see it - a major part.
Anyway, all that is something of a distraction from the photos themselves... how about a few more? :popcorm2: :)

Edit: Oops... I've just noticed that you already have posted a few more...:rolleyes:
 
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