Street lighting, first attempt

v8moneypit

v8moneypit

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Steve
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Not sure what the picture is trying to 'say', but it seemed a nice scene as I left work last night! As a newbie, I would appreciate your comments/suggestions.

BunnsBank03.jpg
 
I'm not sure it needs to say anything. It's a nice atmospheric shot with the lights and the sheep silhouetted against the low lying mist. Give yourself a pat on the back - well spotted. (y)
 
Thanks for the encouraging comment.

There were 2 rather uncooperative sheep on the left, so I removed them. The one on the far left, I think I did an OK job, but there is some poor cloning in the area below the chimney. Otherwise, the image is straight off the camera.
 
When this appeared on my monitor I could only see down to the window lights on the rhs. I didn't think it was a bad picture but as I scrolled the sheep appeared. They really make the image particularly the two standing. As said above - well spotted
 
Steve,

On a purely technical note we don't see street lighting as orange as that - our brains filter it out in the same way that they ignore the orange casts in room shots under tungsten lights. When we're confronted with a flat two dimensional image though the orange cast is obvious which is why we have the different white balance settings in cameras.

This first edit is setting the wb to a daylight setting and using a cast correction filter - I suspect it's pretty close to how the scene actually looked?


wb correct. by tonky8203, on Flickr

This is something that I find works well for correcting street shots with the orange cast, while at other times it doesn't and I just embrace the orange cast as the better option although it does bug the hell out of me.

The other option is a B&W conversion. This one was done by splitting the image to the red green and blue channels - this being the green channel image which looked the best.and a bit better than a straight greyscale conversion, but not by much.


Green1 by tonky8203, on Flickr

I think I prefer the B&W out of the three options, but it's down to personal taste and it's nice to know you have these choices.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that. I am working my way through the 'Beginning GIMP' book! I'm running Linux, so GIMP is about as good as it gets! I'll see if I can replicate your edits as an exercise.
 
Hi Steve,
Another Linux/GIMP user here!
I used the AWB in GIMP and got this:
BunnsBank03AWB.jpg

Not as colour-accurate perhaps but still quite pleasing, to my eye :)
 
Hi Mike

That was the first thing I did when I opened it in GIMP last night! My reaction was a little different... I think more like WOAH.... and switched it back :D It somehow looks sharper, but I'm not keen on the colouring. The lack of sharpness is mainly down to a budget Nikon lens, I suspect.
 
Carter64 said:
I used the AWB in GIMP and got this:
...

Not as colour-accurate perhaps but still quite pleasing, to my eye :)
Click to expand...

I rather like that treatment. Feels a bit like Fuji Velvia film.

I think the blues behind give a greater lift to the yellows.
 
Had a little more playing with GIMP this evening........

First, just backed off the yellow and red a little:

BunnsBank05.jpg


Then wound on the blue and green quite a lot:

BunnsBank06.jpg


I'm finding it interesting to just play with these things and see what happens :)
 
Apologies for digging up the old thread, but the owner of the industrial site wants to use my picture on his Christmas cards :cool:

There's a printer on site too, who he's using, so just seen the first sample. Not my idea of a Christmas card scene, but still chuffed!
 
Really nice shot there and I'm completely blown away with what PP can do with colour casts. That pic above with the colour correction has amazed me by how much can be done.
 
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