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Posted on 18/09/26 08:58:04 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7237 Reply  |
Challenge 1123: Listening in
I recently visited the newly-opened Trent Park House of Secrets, just north of London. It's a Victorian stately home that was requisitioned by the army during WW2, and was used to house high-ranking German officers. What the Germans didn't know was that the War Office had spent seven months wiring every room for sound, and installed a squad of German-speaking refugees in the basement listening to, and recording, everything that was said. Apparently a great many secrets were discovered in this way. Here's the drawing room, recently restored to its 1940s condition after the building spent decades as a teacher training college and part of the University of Middlesex – the Sassoon family, who owned the house, supplied the original furniture. Can you suggest imaginative ways in which the British might be listening in? High res is here. 
By the way, here's an interesting example of pareidolia from the basement of the building, as mentioned by David last week: 
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Posted on 18/09/26 10:21:12 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
He's either had far too much to drink or getting an electric shock. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 18/09/26 11:51:20 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
This one called for a little research. One interesting thing I discovered was "Blank acetate discs were used to cut a record of up to seven minutes of conversation – the sounds being ‘cut’ with the recording head as a spiral groove directly into the acetate.” I think that this would likely have been done with the machinery used to cut the wax masters from which moulds were struck for the production of 78rpm acetate gramophone records, although in this case they cut directly into acetate. I am guessing they probably seconded existing equipment from the then infant record business. I am not sure I want to repeat myself but, although they didn't start until 1950, and the role of Trent Park was probably still a secret back then, the combination of technology, secrets and wartime nationalism absolutely cries out for another Eagle cutaway. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 18/09/26 1:13:03 PM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1219 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
You're spot on David, but what a lot of work that would be. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 18/09/26 1:38:49 PM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7237 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
The museum does indeed have its version of the Eagle cutaway. It takes the form of a splendid scale model of the building; round the back some of the walls and ground are removed to show what’s going on inside. Even better than the Eagle! |
Posted on 18/09/26 2:16:32 PM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 877 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
While the English and their double agents listened to the Germans, the Russians were perfecting their X-Ray technology. |
Posted on 18/09/26 2:29:18 PM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 877 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
[quoted] DavidMac wrote: Hi David, I read your comment re cutaways as I was posting! |
Posted on 18/09/26 5:50:26 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3816 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
The Myna bird hears all and tells all... backed up by the 'big ears'. 
Just a "tongue-in-cheek" entry. 
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Posted on 18/09/26 9:19:40 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
You've done a really beautiful job Ben, it's lovely. But I think you've fallen victim to the problem which is currently preventing me from completing (or even close to completing) my attempt, which is how to avoid radically conflicting vanishing points above and below ground. You've been very clever .... it doesn't jump out, but your two perspectives are, in fact, fairly seriously conflicting. In my case, because of my rather puritanical belief that we should make an effort to use the challenge image itself, I have created a terrible rod for my own back. It is so far proving insuperable because Steve's picture imposes a very strong perspective which is difficult to reconcile with a split below ground view unless the lower half is viewed from above and pictures of cellars viewed from above is, in itself, a kind of contradiction. I'll sleep on it, but I think I'm headed for scrap half a day and start all over with a different idea. Anything else is starting to look like sheer obstinacy.  _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 18/09/26 9:21:44 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
So I am unhappily discovering!  _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 19/09/26 12:00:45 PM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 4233 Reply  |
Challenge 1123: Listening in
I have studied secret intelligence for many years now so, when Steve posted this week's Challenge it struck a memory chord for me from long ago which I thought I would pass on. Trent Park was an exceptionally important intelligence gathering station during WW2. Amongst other Intelligence coups, Trent Park provided the Western Allies with one of their first major pieces of Intelligence regarding Hitler’s V-weapons program. During World War II, British Intelligence housed high-ranking German prisoners of war in luxurious conditions at numerous stately homes such as Trent Park. The mansion was heavily bugged with hidden microphones. Teams of "Secret Listeners"—mostly German-Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany—worked in basement "M Rooms" (‘Miked’ Rooms) overheard a highly sensitive conversation between two captured German generals. During one overheard conversation one general consoled the other over Germany's massive loss at Stalingrad. He said that Germany did not need to worry because Hitler possessed a "secret weapon" that would win the war. This, of course, piqued the interest of the Intelligence Services. Shortly afterwards, lower-ranking prisoners at another bugged facility, Latimer House in Buckinghamshire, echoed these claims and explicitly mentioned Peenemünde, a facility on Germany’s Baltic coast. To extract more precise data without giving away that the rooms were bugged, British Intelligence deliberately left a partially faked newspaper in the generals' lounge containing a fictional story about German rocket testing in the Baltic. The trick worked perfectly. General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim was recorded discussing the article and boasting about "huge rockets". Every word was recorded. Professor R.V. Jones of British Scientific Intelligence had been closely following the development of German secret weapons and was already aware of the existence of Peenemünde and its weapons programmes through other intelligence sources; indeed they knew launch times and tracks of V1 testing through decrypts from German radio signals. They effectively had a live ringside seat at the trials. From this much valuable intelligence was gained, yet, at this stage, nobody even knew what either a V-1 or V-2 actually looked like. Knowing their performance meant that we could start to take some preventative measures before the onslaught in June 1944 started. The V-1 was somewhat easier to counter but still a massive problem; the V-2, being a ballistic missile, was much more difficult. A bombing raid (Operation Hydra) on Peenemünde was ordered and took place on the night of 17 September 1943 resulting in the destruction of much of the facility. _________________ Why is it that all the contestants in the ‘Miss Universe’ contest are all from Earth? |
Posted on 19/09/26 12:34:57 PM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 877 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
Hi David, You are right - here is one with challenge image. Not much point installing listening gear in Photoshop - if we can see it, so could the Germans. |
Posted on 19/09/26 12:44:47 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3816 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
Most interesting Gordon, thanks for posting. |
Posted on 19/09/26 10:29:35 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
Yes very interesting. Trent park is completely new to me. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 19/09/26 10:32:15 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
Ben that's really beautifully done! I have set out to do something far too ambitious and I'm struggling ........... 
_________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 20/09/26 08:12:34 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3453 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
Thanks Gordon. Fascinating. |
Posted on 21/09/26 5:12:37 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
I think this is one of the hardest challenges I have ever done .......... ........ and it's all my own fault!! Trials and tribulations (rather wordy) after the image. 
Having decided it would be fun to do an Eagle Cutaway I found my self in deep pooh. My rather puritanical belief that one should, wherever possible, use the challenge image as a starting point made a serious rod for my back. To split an image above and below ground the camera needs to be close to ground level, so you can see deep enough into the two halves. Steve’s image was taken from eye level. To see into the cellar I would need to remove the entire floor of the room which leaves nowhere to put my officers! The camera needed to be lowered much closer to ground level. If you compare at Steve’s original and mine you will see I have had to completely reconstruct the room and hallway beyond it with a radically different perspective. Effectively I have reduced Steve to the height of a larg(ish) dog! I don’t have the 3D skills to model the room in proper detail so I had to take it apart in 2D and use selective distortion on different parts. Having done that I had to create a matching perspective floor section and cellar. There I did use some very very basic 3D wireframe simply to plot the perspective and then created the cellar image entirely in Photoshop using the perspective outline as a template. Now I had my stately home and cellar I needed to populate it. Next problem. Trying to find WWII german officers in relatively relaxed mode is nigh on impossible. They are either standing rigidly in formal poses or firing guns ’n stuff. It took a lot of searching and a bit of human rebuilding. The same problem applied to my listeners. There a quite few pictures to be found of British soldiers seated at radios or other electronic equipment but very few with perspectives that could be fitted into my cellar. Once again extensive dissection and rebuilding was needed to re-shape them. Once I had got all together, then all I had to do was create a good atmosphere and blend them all into it. This goes far beyond anything you can do with Match Colour and has to be done by hand and eye. Fortunately it is, of course, my ‘thing’ and I love it best of all the processes. So there we are. I could have approached this in any one of dozens of different easier ways but I didn’t. I chose to try and take Steve’s image and literally transform it. Far more time and work than a weekly challenge justifies but, for an ageing retiree with time on his hands, actually a lot of fun and personal challenge. I found this very tough at times but I really enjoyed it!! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 21/09/26 5:17:37 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
I've just spotted that Eagle needs a new proof reader.  .
........ but I'm not doing anything about it now. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 21/09/26 5:57:11 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3816 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
Well it was worth the effort David... very well done! It's easy to see the tremendous amount of work you have put into it.  |
Posted on 21/09/26 10:17:04 PM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 877 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1123: Listening in
[quoted] DavidMac wrote: I think this is one of the hardest challenges I have ever done .......... ........ and it's all my own fault!! David, that is quite remarkable, and a lot of work. |
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