Well, I decided to scan in those pictures after all. They were taken at our County Fair's Bush Pullers Tractor Pull in '03, both with my Canon Rebel 2000. I'm pretty sure they were all shot with my Tamron 75-300/4.5-5.6 lens. Film used was
Kodak TMAX 100 and
Kodak TMAX 3200. I'm sure you can figure out for yourself which is which
I'm including two versions of each image. The first in each pair is untouched other than dust removal, and in a few cases, cropped slightly. The second I let loose on. Curves, Shadows/Highlights, the works. No special effects were ever used, only things to enhance the image. Oh, and sorry for all you 56Kers... I feel your pain, I had to upload all of these with 56K. Took me about 10 minutes. They're each about 100K, I think, and I tried to make them as close to 1024x768 as I could. Anyway, enjoy.
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...llOriginal.jpg
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...lTouchedUp.jpg
I took this before he made his run. It's an Allison V-12 engine; yes, the same one used in WWII aircraft. (correct me if I'm wrong; I think it was WWII) They conservatively estimate these at around 1000HP. Insanity.
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...meOriginal.jpg
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...eTouchedUp.jpg
This is a shot of the Kenworth logo on the side of a Show Semi-Truck. The flame and lettering was chrome, and the bottom part sort of silverish-gray. It didn't show up quite sa well as I wanted, but the re-touched one gets a bit closer.
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...elOriginal.jpg
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...lTouchedUp.jpg
This is one of the front wheels of the afore-mentioned Semi. Very lovely chrome. Likely would have looked better in colour, but hey, this isn't too bad either. I like the darker look of the re-touched one, myself.
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...reOriginal.jpg
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...eTouchedUp.jpg
This is a highly modified John Deere. By the looks of it's location, I'd say it was just shutting down from a run. I snapped it just before he shut off the water injectors, hence, the rich black smoke. Again, I like the darker look of the re-touched one.
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...reOriginal.jpg
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...eTouchedUp.jpg
This is another highly modified Deere, except this one's just taking off, hence the wheelie. They usually hold them for about 20 feet or so. Or rather, they don't get them down for 20 feet or so. Wheelies are bad, as they reduce traction and cause you to cut the power to get them back down. In any case, I love the massive amount of smoke this put out. Looks like a tornado touching down into the exhaust.
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...V8Original.jpg
http://www.stephonovich-online.com/e...8TouchedUp.jpg
This is a V8 powered puller. Pretty much a generic frame with an alcohol burning V8 crammed on the front. This is nothing; the big ones run 5 V8s linked together. These are the loudest of them all, I'd say at least 120dB. It reaches into the 'Painful' category. I ought to bring ear plugs, I suppose. Usually I just cover my ears. In any case, not much difference between the original and re-touched ones here, just a tad more contrast.
Well, hope you all enjoyed that. BTW, sorry they aren't in-line; Head-Fi complained there were too many IMG tags. Odd, considering I'm hosting them myself, so it wouldn't be a strain on the server. Ah well.
Oh, and stuartr, actually, it's not that complicated once you learn the basics. Photoshop is actually very intuitive once you figure out what menus contain what and layers and whatnot.
EDIT: Oh yes, scanner used was a crappy Visoneer 6200, at 600dpi. Software used was Photoshop CS.
(-:Stephonovich