On The Lambda

I was pretty freaking stoked to see the Lambda symbol tagged on this gigantic concrete slab. Partly because it's a key symbol from my favorite video game franchise of all time - Half Life - but mostly because this concrete slab stood within an even more gigantic nuclear cooling chamber. This is the scene that +Brian Bonham shot in and around all day yesterday. It was one of the more fun shoots that I've been on in recent memory.

I ended up using my Canon 15mm Fisheye lens for about 60% of the day (the 17mm T/S lens took the remaining 40%). Because this cooling chamber was so freaking massive, I needed glass that would give me flexibility in fitting all of this goodness into the frame. The radial distortion was simply icing on the cake, as all of the images here began taking on warped, sci-fi looks.

I have plenty more images to share from this great location - stay tuned!

Google Maps Location Info
46.95930, -123.47504

In terms of processing
This is a seven exposure tone-mapped #HDR  image using Photomatix Pro. Tone-mapping was critical here as there was very dim light inside the cooling chamber compared to the brighter light outside.

Next, I masked out the flat grey sky visible through the top of the chamber and dropped in a stock sky layer found in the Backgrounds Library of Perfect Photo Suite 6.1 by +onOne Software. Then, I applied a radial blur to that sky layer in Photoshop CS6 to convey a sense of movement.

Stylization was achieved by masking Fashion Passion onto the concrete slab, Cyberpunk onto the cooling chamber, and Thermopylae onto the visible portion of dirt on the ground.

Final touches were applied in Lightroom 4.1.