Whilst I don't have a particularly well developed technique for dealing with striped liveries, I though I'd offer this insight into how I've tackled them so far. Some of the steps are common to the erlier 'Arriva' case study, which you may wish to check out if contemplating similar work. In both cases, I make no apology for the use of Photoshop terminology.
The source image was a standard NBC-liveried Bristol RELL (1). The first steps were to modify the body to the required New Zealand Hawke design and remove the old livery. The body modifications included new light clusters, front dome and front bumper; and higher mounted side rubbing strips. Livery details removed included the white band, fleetname and fleet number.
The plain (red) body was carefully selected (with windows, lights and bright work cut out) and copied to a new layer, which was then duplicated. The top copy was desaturated and lightened via a series of adjustments to create the plain white base image (2).
The underlying red layer was given an orange colour fill and lightened slightly to match the orange stripe on the actual vehicle. The white layer was then cropped to expose a broad orange band representing all three final stripes (3). This involved some 'trial and error' using the history palette as an 'undo' tool. The benefit of this approach is that the 'striped area' retained the highlights and shadows from the original image.
Once happy with this, I created a new empty layer on top of the white body and drew the white lines (which would divide the eventual three stipes) on this. This approach enabled me to reposition or redraw the white lines without affecting the layers below. The final lines were then blurred slightly to blend more convincingly. I then selected, in turn, the middle and lower stripes on the 'orange' layer and applied the appropriate colour fill and tonal adjustment. With the hard work done, it was then simply a case of adding details such as the fleetname, fleet numbers and registration (13-Oct-10).
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Tags: Bristol RELL Hawke Stagecoach Photoshop techniques
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This wasn't planned as a composite image but the opportunity arose unexpectedly. The intended subject was Deltic D9909 Alycidon, whilst working n the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 2007. The Yorkshire Coastliner bus appeared unexpectedly a couple of minutes ahead of the train. I quickly reframed the scene to include the bus and the space that the locomotive would occupy; and then repeated the shot once the train arrived. Because the two shots were taken from the same spot within a few minutes of each other (ie within the same lighting conditions), it was a simple task to combine the two views in Photoshop by overlaying the second image and then using the eraser tool to reveal the bus (23-Sep-14).
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Tags: information Yorkshire Coastliner Class 55 Deltic North Yorkshire Moors Railway NYMR
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If you read my earlier posting, you'll know that I'm a recent convert to photobooks when the price is right. I've completed four further books, including the two transport titles illustrated. In addition to my own material, both contain some third party images for which I have restricted reproduction rights that prevent me from offering copies for sale.
The greatest challenge in both cases was selecting and organising the material; more so for the Malta book, which has a final photo count of about 500 from a stock of about 5,000. If you're aiming for a balanced selection, you can't simply make it up as go. The first step is to roughly apportion space between chosen topics or themes. For the Malta book, these are mainly time periods (pre-green era, green era, yellow era, post-yellow era). It's much easier to work with bite-size chunks. An element of trial-and-error can be applied at individual page level, although it is important to start with some default page templates. I've generally used a 'five pictures to the page' format with one large and four small pictures, interspersed with an occasional full or double page spread where the image resolution permits.
Take time to prepare all the images you may need before you start and ensure that they of adequate resolution for the purpose. I found myself re-scanning some older material mid-way through the page make-up stage, having decided that they could be better. Also, if you are adding captions, make sure that you have the necessary information to hand. I made a rod for my own back with the Malta Bus book; the captions took an enormous amount of time to prepare from various sources and, inevitably, suffer from transcription errors.
As you may deduce, it is not a quick process. I lost track of the amount of time spent on the Malta book, which was tackled on an 'as and when' basis. With a more concerted effort, I was able to complete the Cyprus book in a week with a couple of hours work each evening. In both cases, the results are well worth the effort. Not only are they 'proper' books but they use a lot less space than the motley collection of traditional albums and boxes of photographs that they have replaced (12-Jun-16).
Tags: techniques photobooks
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This image has an interesting story, although it didn't make it into real life. Bedford FBY 040 began life as a lorry and received a 36-seat Aquilina body in the mid-1950s, becoming Gozo bus 3126. By 2005, it had become tired and was taken off the road for a major rebuild. When it re-appeared two years later, its appearance (inset picture) proved very controversial.
This digital 'mock-up' was a speculative exercise, aimed at addressing the bland front-end and potential air-flow problems, without recourse to structural modifications. There had been a long association with American chassis on the Maltese Islands (at the time, 040 shared garage space with pre-war Reo 'Dolly'), so I created a new grille with a passing resemblance to 1960s Mack truck. The twin headlamps are standard Plaxton units. Unfortunately, it didn't address the new, very upright windscreen so disliked by the owner and, reputedly, prone to working loose).
Fate has fortunately been kinder to 040. Following loss of all route bus work to Arriva, several Gozo owners have sold surplus vehicles to operators on mainland Malta for private hire work (ironically, in some cases, replacing vehicles of similar vintage that were handed in to the government in a deal that was not extended to the Gozo operators). 040 passed to Supreme Travel of Zeijtun, where it has been extensively and sensitively rebuilt, using the original windscreen and grille, which had fortunately been retained by its former Gozo owner (updated 10-Feb-13).
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Tags: Gozo bus Aquilina Bedford SB
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Photographs of these Strachan-bodied Bedford SBs are as rare as hen's teeth so I was delighted to find this example (top left) amongst some Maltese material kindly provided by David Little. Unfortunately, it was rather closely cropped with very little detail in the front wheel. For the ambulance version (bottom right), I needed more wheel detail and decided to provide a new background in which the subject can breath. Fortunately, I had a suitable background (top left) from a recent holiday on the island of Gozo. The complete vehicle including the offside windows had to be 'cut out' to reveal the new background detail and a semi-transparent 'glazing' layer was created to sit behind the window cut-outs to provide a more realistic effect. This can sometimes be quite tricky with unwanted white 'halos' around the cut-outs, for which I've developed a couple of effective techniques. One critical thing to say about cut-outs and indeed selections of any kind is that the edges need to be very subtly 'feathered'. The replacement front-wheel came from a Bedford TJ truck (bottom left), which only left the shadow beneath the bus to be touched-up (08-Sep-15).
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Tags: Photoshop Techniques Bedford SB Strachan
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