Moody de-sat of reservoir - C&C please!

philthejuggler

philthejuggler

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Phil
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Hi all,



This was the result of my lunch hour today! Wanted something dark & moody - interested to know what you think!



Thanks,



Phil



50D, Canon 35mm f2
p779936568-4.jpg
 
horrocks said:
Yes, I really like that, but then I have a sneaking that if I had taken the photo it would have looked very similar. My kind of sky - grey!

The top of the tower - did you use a grad filter, or is that an intentional effect? I like it, whichever way.
Click to expand...

Glad you like it!

The shot is actually a (hopefully subtle) HDR - AEB -2, 0, +2 @ f8. I then blended them in Photomatix, desaturating and pushing the detail enhance settings high to give it a little grain. I then played with the tone curve in Lightroom which had the effect of darkening the tower. The straight exposure looks absolutely tedious, but a bit of playing got something more satisfying!

Thanks for your post,

Phil
 
Yep, certainly dark & moody! Looks like an interesting kind of place - what is it?
 
minimeeze said:
Yep, certainly dark & moody! Looks like an interesting kind of place - what is it?
Click to expand...

It is Sywell reservoir in Northampton and the tower is some water-pump thingy!
 
Very nice, but I might have masked out/limited the darkening effect on the tower itself to make it stand out from a threatening sky which might have added a little more realism. Just my 2p, still nice though.
 
Deckard said:
Very nice, but I might have masked out/limited the darkening effect on the tower itself to make it stand out from a threatening sky which might have added a little more realism. Just my 2p, still nice though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice - how about this then?

p1063355496-4.jpg
 
Something like that Phil, here's my edit focused on lifting just the tower:

p779936568.jpg
 
Many thanks all for your help -threads like this really help to refine technique and are a credit to this great forum!

To try to refine this further I went back to the originally submitted image. In Lightroom I increased the saturation slightly & then lightened the tower with a single large +1 exposure brush dead centre & then lightened the top section by the same amount with a smaller brush. I like the darkness at the top of the frame - seems to give an imposing feel - so I added a graduated filter. Finally I adjusted the black clipping.

Ta-da! Attempt 3........

p141562903-4.jpg


Thanks

Phil
 
Nice shot and editing well done.
 
Nice one Phil, I often find that putting a gradient down from the top of the sky works wonders. I don't have Lightroom, only Elements, so my technique involves selecting the sky then drawing a gradient over it with the blend mode set to overlay. Here's a quick before and after example, just ignore the dust spots!

screenshot20090919at214.jpg
 
Last edited:
Deckard said:
Nice one Phil, I often find that putting a gradient down from the top of the sky works wonders. I don't have Lightroom, only Elements, so my technique involves selecting the sky then drawing a gradient over it with the blend mode set to overlay. Here's a quick before and after example, just ignore the dust spots!
Click to expand...

That's certainly an effective edit. I must get my head around blending modes someday soon!

Phil
 
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