# If it ain't red, leave it in the shed



## jcdeboever (Jul 9, 2016)

I will enjoy it on my hard drive in black & white. I just love these tractors.

That 1st M is a worker, he is a fantastic customer of mine and was just tickled pink that I came out and spent an hour with him. The pleasure was all mine. We sat down and had some pulled pork, a corn dog, and the best lemonade I ever tasted. He showed me some interesting things at the show and invited me over for an engine rebuild, and some blue grass in August, he said bring my camera but probably pictures only for him and the family. I'm bringing lights!


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## Rick50 (Jul 9, 2016)

Old tractors are awesome. Good job. I've heard you can always tell a Farmall, but not much!


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## Gary A. (Jul 9, 2016)

Can't say I'm into tractors.  But I did grow up in an agricultural community.  At the high school on 'Chino Day', nearly everybody drove their tractors to school.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 9, 2016)

Rick50 said:


> Old tractors are awesome. Good job. I've heard you can always tell a Farmall, but not much!



Thanks Rick, kind of you to say. 

I am so looking forward to this visit with M. He is a fine man and genuinely loves me, he tells me every time I see him. He tells me I never sold him, he picked me, love that. His family is so grounded. Hard working Americans.  He is the only man that ever told me that my wife yelling at me (blue grass festival) is a reflection on how excellent a husband I am in the type of society we live in today. His wife and mine are two pees in a pod. Yap, Yap, Yap, Yap ,Yap.... Yell, Yell ,Yell, want, want, want, ..... but GIVE, GIVE, GIVE.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 9, 2016)

Gary A. said:


> Can't say I'm into tractors.  But I did grow up in an agricultural community.  At the high school on 'Chino Day', nearly everybody drove their tractors to school.



Shoot Gary, I grew up in the inner city of Detroit and was a hood rat. My experience was that my grandpa was the last commercial farmer in Detroit. Fond memories with him. I also had family north (when my dad drove up there), my uncle putt loved me big time because I would get right in there on the oily engines. I loved to gauge the piston clearances, fascinating for me.


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## bulldurham (Jul 9, 2016)

Tractors are fun and I too like to shoot them whenever given the opportunity. However, your blacks are blocked up and your whites blown and there isn't a histogram or anything else that will change that. Even working in just about every luminosity mask, I still can't do much about the blacks but was "somewhat" able to work the whites a tad. You are missing your metering mark on the side of too much contrast. Again, I would strongly suggest Ansel Adams section on metering.


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## Gary A. (Jul 9, 2016)

Rebuilding engines is much different than lovin' tractors. We'd rebuild engine all day long, as long we could modify them ... Make 'em run 'better'.  Bought my first BMW in college, a 2002. A friend of mine who also had a 2002, would hit a BWM junkyard and strip all the neat stuff and make them fit in our lowly 2002's.  I remember sitting around, drinking beer and filing the distributed weights from a six cylinder Beamer to make them work in my four banger.


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## crzyfotopeeple (Jul 9, 2016)

I like these. Makes me feel nostalgic, longing for a simpler time.


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## otherprof (Jul 9, 2016)

bulldurham said:


> Tractors are fun and I too like to shoot them whenever given the opportunity. However, your blacks are blocked up and your whites blown and there isn't a histogram or anything else that will change that. Even working in just about every luminosity mask, I still can't do much about the blacks but was "somewhat" able to work the whites a tad. You are missing your metering mark on the side of too much contrast. Again, I would strongly suggest Ansel Adams section on metering.
> 
> View attachment 124545


I'm having trouble understanding what you are showing here. I thought the originals had a good tonal range, from white to black, and didn't see the whites as blown out or the blacks blocked. Granted, I tend go for higher rather than lower contrast, but I've deleted many of my  own photos for blown highlights I couldn't correct. I just didn't see that in these photos. I'm not sure what the inset with the histogram is supposed to to signify. Is it supposed to show an improved tonal range? Unblocked blacks? It seems more muddy to me, but again my  taste generally runs toward contrast and clarity, so lots of classic platinum prints leave me unsatisfied also. I think this criticism is more a difference of taste than a difference in achievement or skill.


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## BananaRepublic (Jul 9, 2016)

Zetors are red too and they say you farm better without a Zetor


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## smoke665 (Jul 9, 2016)

Guess you could say we were of the "Right church wrong pew" club. Our equipment was predominantly "red", but the name was Massey Ferguson.  We did have a some John Deere Green mixed in for a "festive" look LOL Retired from active farming several years ago and leased the farms. Seeing your pictures makes me regret not documenting some of the equipment before it was all gone.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 9, 2016)

bulldurham said:


> Tractors are fun and I too like to shoot them whenever given the opportunity. However, your blacks are blocked up and your whites blown and there isn't a histogram or anything else that will change that. Even working in just about every luminosity mask, I still can't do much about the blacks but was "somewhat" able to work the whites a tad. You are missing your metering mark on the side of too much contrast. Again, I would strongly suggest Ansel Adams section on metering.
> 
> View attachment 124545


Dude, you need to check your hardware/ software. Thanks for the insight but something is way wrong on your end.


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## smoke665 (Jul 9, 2016)

something is way wrong

JC, I'm not saying this is the reason for the other poster making the comments, but I've noticed this on some pictures I've posted. The thumbnails I'm seeing on my tablet are very much different from the full size image, when you open it. Not sure if this is a site issue or something in the way my tablet is displaying page vs the image.


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## bulldurham (Jul 9, 2016)

There's nothing wrong on my end..perfectly calibrated. An 18% gray is about a 150 value on this tonal map of your image. Your tractor body reflects a decent range of tonal values, especially in the mid tones but once you get off the tractor, your whites are almost all in the 9-10 range and your blacks are stone cold black or pretty dang close to it (0-1). I don't begin to see detail in your shadows until you get somewhere in the 20-25 range. I just used the color dropper as my guide. About the only time I like a pure black is in the iris of an eye and about the only time I like a pure white is in the catch light on that iris; after that I want a full tonal range. I just don't see it in your B&W's. I'm not trying to be a butthead, I'm trying to help you. Your 18% gray is on the mid value of the right side tire tread. Search as I did, I really never found it on the tractor body but red is a funny color in B&W conversions. Greens, yellows and blues do much better.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 9, 2016)

bulldurham said:


> There's nothing wrong on my end..perfectly calibrated. An 18% gray is about a 150 value on this tonal map of your image. Your tractor body reflects a decent range of tonal values, especially in the mid tones but once you get off the tractor, your whites are almost all in the 9-10 range and your blacks are stone cold black or pretty dang close to it (0-1). I don't begin to see detail in your shadows until you get somewhere in the 20-25 range. I just used the color dropper as my guide. About the only time I like a pure black is in the iris of an eye and about the only time I like a pure white is in the catch light on that iris; after that I want a full tonal range. I just don't see it in your B&W's. I'm not trying to be a butthead, I'm trying to help you. Your 18% gray is on the mid value of the right side tire tread. Search as I did, I really never found it on the tractor body but red is a funny color in B&W conversions. Greens, yellows and blues do much better.
> 
> View attachment 124550



Thanks bullduram, I appreciate your feedback.


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## otherprof (Jul 10, 2016)

smoke665 said:


> something is way wrong
> 
> JC, I'm not saying this is the reason for the other poster making the comments, but I've noticed this on some pictures I've posted. The thumbnails I'm seeing on my tablet are very much different from the full size image, when you open it. Not sure if this is a site issue or something in the way my tablet is displaying page vs the image.


I notice the same thing when I review my photos in their folders and then click to see a large view. Also, I wonder what the original scenes, not the image, we're like in terms of blown highlights, etc. Is a photo better because it improves on what we actually see? Maybe a reason I don't see a problem in the photos is because it seems like what I would see if I were there at that time.


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