Today’s photograph is one that I took in March 2008. The photograph was technically good; I liked the design elements. But, the image lacked the emotional impact that I felt when I was taking the picture. I was not sure how I wanted to process it.
Sunday evening (after finishing processing my week’s assignments), I started playing with these images. The image is from Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Looking at the image, I knew I had a very big dynamic range, so I did a spot metering on the various elements of the image and found that I had a 11 EV spread within the image. I took five photographs of the scene at 1.5 EV intervals. For all the images presented here, I started with a blending of three photographs shot at different shutter speeds. Below are how my final three images evolved into the one that I think best capture the mood and feel of the scene that I saw (Image #3).
Camera settings: Nikon D3, 17-35 f/2.8 at 17mm, shot at ISO 200, f/16 and 1/180, 1/60 and 1/20 of a second, white balance at 7,800K (wanted a warm glow to the image).
Post Processing:
Lightroom—set white and black point, and added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and vibrance, and cloned some small hot spots out of image.
Image #1: Photoshop—blended the three images to provide the overall contrast of the sky, the tree and the foreground on separate layers, merged the layers into a single layer and then used nik Color Efex Pro Glamour Glow filter to give the image more of the early morning glow that I saw.
Image #2: Photoshop—started with the results obtained in Image #1 and then used nik Color Silver Efex Pro to convert the image to B&W (this filter places the converted B&W is on its own layer).
Image #3: Photoshop—started with the results obtained in Image #2 and then reduced the opacity of the B&W layer to 20% to mute the colors and provide a little more definition to the image.
I can see interesting aspects within each of the image. I plan to present the picture at our photo club’s next honor’s night. Not sure which one I will present.
Which one would you present?
not sure which one.i see what you mean about different things in each.like you telling how you processed the pix.really really nice job.
ReplyDeleteTed
This is a really cool shot Patrick, undoubtedly another Gold award!
ReplyDeleteNot having to be influenced by what you actually saw (reality); I think I would use the first version. It's vivid but not over the top. My second choice would be the third version. The B&W version looses some contrast between part of the driftwood and the background.
Great shot any way you go!
Cheers!
Barry
I thought it was a tattered up sail and sailboat until I clicked on the image to see it larger. I think the third one is my favorite, I don't know exactly why except the first is too vivid for me and the black and white is too stark. I love the diagonal lines of the rays of the sun and the slanting driftwood and the blur of the sand, I guess from the shallow dof? --- I thought it was blurred water around the wood in the smaller versions. This is a very interesting and mysterious image with a lot of impact.
ReplyDeleteAnd it sounds like you have been extremely busy, I hope you put down the camera long enough to enjoy some turkey with your family!
Cindi
Outstanding. I like them all. I also enjoyed how you described both your thought process during the taking of the photographs and the the processing of the final (?) image. Good work
ReplyDeleteAnne
Larry,
ReplyDeleteI think I like the third one best also, but the Silver Efex black and white is not far behind. Great shot!
Steve Schuenke
Sweet. Good write up telling how you did it. I like #2 the best. It reminds me of the old time b&Ws. I am also interested in the process you used on the portraits. Could you describe that sometime in the future. Keep the blog coming, I enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteJim
No way for me to choose a favorite out of these three. It’s a winner anyway you’ve processed it here. All have a dreamy surreal quality to them. I almost mistook it for one of mine! :)
ReplyDeleteLarry,
ReplyDeleteOnly you know what you were feeling when you took the picture, but I personally like the third one the best. The muted colors give it a dreamy quality whereas the first one is too "here and now." I like the black and white but I think you lost a lot of shadow detail in the conversion.
I would be proud to present any of these. The posted comments are all right and all wrong. It's art. You have captured a very wonderful place and a nice sunrise. Go present it how ever you feel like presenting it. Too often we try to look for the "one" and in reality there are "many."
ReplyDeleteThe Professor