It was a dark & stormy morning

[Stephen]

We arrived at this reservoir about 8am this morning, sunrise was 08.15 To be honest I wasn't expecting too much, and when we got out of the car it started to drizzle, not a good sign. The sky was grey and there was little light to highlight the trees, or anything else for that matter. I felt little better about it by the time we packed up, but I had a few shots to work on, play around with.

Anyway I have picked this shot out as one that at least had some promise in the composition. It is an unadjusted shot straight out of the camera. Taken in Raw but without any alteration by Photoshop.

Of course the eye doesn't see things quite like this when you are there, and at least you have this vision in your minds eye of the potential of the scene, why else would you want to take the picture

There are times when with a good deal of effort you can pull back some detail in the shadow with selective use of levels etc. Even the Shadow/Highlight tool can be used and often does a great job if you control it. However in this instance the bulk of the work was done using a Tonemapping plugin for PS from Photomatix

Some control is needed and you can't expect to get what you want using the auto default setting. You need to play with it to see what I mean, its not difficult though and there is good contextual help. The rest of the work was just a bit of selective increase in contrast and levels. There has been no further sharpening.

I'm rather pleased with the feel of the end result, don't know what you think

[Ian]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

We arrived at this reservoir about 8am this morning, sunrise was 08.15 To be honest I wasn't expecting too much, and when we got out of the car it started to drizzle, not a good sign. The sky was grey and there was little light to highlight the trees, or anything else for that matter. I felt little better about it by the time we packed up, but I had a few shots to work on, play around with.

Anyway I have picked this shot out as one that at least had some promise in the composition. It is an unadjusted shot straight out of the camera. Taken in Raw but without any alteration by Photoshop.

Of course the eye doesn't see things quite like this when you are there, and at least you have this vision in your minds eye of the potential of the scene, why else would you want to take the picture

There are times when with a good deal of effort you can pull back some detail in the shadow with selective use of levels etc. Even the Shadow/Highlight tool can be used and often does a great job if you control it. However in this instance the bulk of the work was done using a Tonemapping plugin for PS from Photomatix

Some control is needed and you can't expect to get what you want using the auto default setting. You need to play with it to see what I mean, its not difficult though and there is good contextual help. The rest of the work was just a bit of selective increase in contrast and levels. There has been no further sharpening.

I'm rather pleased with the feel of the end result, don't know what you think

Aha! I have seen Tim's version (keeping me mouth shut now )

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

Aha! I have seen Tim's version (keeping me mouth shut now )

Ian

you mean about the technical stuff.

[Ian]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

you mean about the technical stuff.

I recognised the trees and the wall, but your two shots are otherwise completely different. Could almost have been in different parts of the country.

Quite fascinating really. I wonder if Tim can be persuaded to show us his version though I do understand it's a picture for a very special job...

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

I recognised the trees and the wall, but your two shots are otherwise completely different. Could almost have been in different parts of the country.

Quite fascinating really. I wonder if Tim can be persuaded to show us his version though I do understand it's a picture for a very special job...

Ian

Ah ic Well I'm sure he might be

[Bearface]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

Here's my version, taken a while later than Stephen's when the light had improved from appalling to merely dreadful



The reason for photographing this place in such inappropriate conditions was that my step-mother used to walk her dog down this stretch of the reservoir, close to Glossop in Derbyshire. They've now moved south and the dog has sadly since died, so this is essentially going to serve as a framed piece of nostalgia to honour their dog (a Golden Retriever call Ben) and remind them of the area. The thing is, I'm going to see the folks on Saturday, so I had little time in which to get the shot

Thanks to Stephen for forcing me to get up early and for enduring dire (photographically speaking...) conditions in the back of beyond

[Pops]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

This is a wonderful shot that will look even better framed and hanging.
Your motives behind the shot make a mockery of your avatar.

[bigbob]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

Stephen as this is a software forum i won't go into the image , but do you think that you could have achieved the same results by using the shadows/highlight filter ?
Most of my landscapes suffer from underexposure when water is in the frame , it makes the proccessor think that the image is a lot lighter than it actually is.
But i've always managed to recover most shots with C.S , but shadow area always shows noise when zoomed into , s i'll take a look at this plugin myself .
Cheers .

B..

[Stephen]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

Stephen as this is a software forum i won't go into the image , but do you think that you could have achieved the same results by using the shadows/highlight filter ?
Most of my landscapes suffer from underexposure when water is in the frame , it makes the proccessor think that the image is a lot lighter than it actually is.
But i've always managed to recover most shots with C.S , but shadow area always shows noise when zoomed into , s i'll take a look at this plugin myself .
Cheers .

B..

Hi Bigbob, with this particular shot I got a pretty decent result with the shadow/highlight tool. To be honest its not a shot I would normally have taken, but because I was there with such poor conditions I was just playing with the camera and exposure with the camera on a tripod. Generally I find the S/H tool does not give the best effect, leaving areas of an image looking flat. Sometimes this tonemapping plugin doesn't work either, but it often given me a better result and really is excellent at times for giving detail in shadows and highlights. In this instance it was my first port of call and the result it gave me was a sort of sinister feel which appealed, esp down the left side of the road.

TBH for what it costs for the plugin, its worth having in the toolbox so to speak, but it does need to be controlled and subtle and gentle use can give great results.

[Pol]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

I only have a couple of minutes (not at my desk) so I'll have to make this a quickie response. I just wanted to say I'm using the Dell laptop with its ultrasharp screen atm and Tim's picture looks superb - breathtaking!! Truly.

The same applies to Tim's mono version of Venice on this screen - superb and very much more 'real and alive' than it looked on my CRT yesterday. I'd felt maybe the contrast was a tad too much on the CRT - but it blows me away on this laptop - it's wonderful!! Mind you - the boat is still a tad 'ghostly' and blends into the water slightly too much ..... but the overall conversion has to be seen to be believed an appreciated on this lappy screen.

Same with the 'doggie walk' shot in this thread ..... it's just so REAL, so 3D, bright and beautiful. Therefore I imagine the print should be superb.

BTW - all my screens are calibrated very regularly. I just don't use this lappy very often online. After seeing Tim's images - maybe I should use it more.

... and to bigbob I'd say - try out the tonemapping plugin, you won't regret it. It's a whole lot better, more subtle and less noisy than the S/H tool.

Pol

[Ian]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

I only have a couple of minutes (not at my desk) so I'll have to make this a quickie response. I just wanted to say I'm using the Dell laptop with its ultrasharp screen atm and Tim's picture looks superb - breathtaking!! Truly.

The same applies to Tim's mono version of Venice on this screen - superb and very much more 'real and alive' than it looked on my CRT yesterday. I'd felt maybe the contrast was a tad too much on the CRT - but it blows me away on this laptop - it's wonderful!! Mind you - the boat is still a tad 'ghostly' and blends into the water slightly too much ..... but the overall conversion has to be seen to be believed an appreciated on this lappy screen.

Same with the 'doggie walk' shot in this thread ..... it's just so REAL, so 3D, bright and beautiful. Therefore I imagine the print should be superb.

BTW - all my screens are calibrated very regularly. I just don't use this lappy very often online. After seeing Tim's images - maybe I should use it more.

... and to bigbob I'd say - try out the tonemapping plugin, you won't regret it. It's a whole lot better, more subtle and less noisy than the S/H tool.

Pol

I'll let you into a little secret, but don't tell Tim (shhhh!)

I think he made a mistake when posting the picture as the version he sent me last night has much better colour. As that had Adobe 1998 colour space, I think he uploaded the image with a wrongly converted sRGB colour space.

So actually, his image is much better than you realise

Ian

[Pol]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

I'll let you into a little secret, but don't tell Tim (shhhh!)

I think he made a mistake when posting the picture as the version he sent me last night has much better colour. As that had Adobe 1998 colour space, I think he uploaded the image with a wrongly converted sRGB colour space.

So actually, his image is much better than you realise

Ian

...... richer colour was it - more red in the fallen leaves, better algae on the tree trunks and generally with a more vibrant 'pop', eh?

I'm back at my desk in front of the PC now and can't get over the difference compared to the lappy, even if it was the wrong upload from Tim. But wouldn't the upload cause the picci to revert to sRGB for onscren display anyway?

I must say I'm staggered by the difference in the B/W version of Venice though. The laptop really brings it to life, much more visible grain and tone in the bright areas. It just so happens I'd been spending some time the other day looking at it closely on the CRT so the difference jumped out at me when I looked at it on the laptop. It's made me hanker after a small desk, specifically for the lappy (don't have enough room on this PC desk and don't wanna dump the PC yet).

Seriously nice work, Tim.


Pol

[Bearface]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

...... richer colour was it - more red in the fallen leaves, better algae on the tree trunks and generally with a more vibrant 'pop', eh?

I'm back at my desk in front of the PC now and can't get over the difference compared to the lappy, even if it was the wrong upload from Tim. But wouldn't the upload cause the picci to revert to sRGB for onscren display anyway?

I must say I'm staggered by the difference in the B/W version of Venice though. The laptop really brings it to life, much more visible grain and tone tone in the bright areas. it just so happens i'd been pending some time the other day looking at it closely on the CRT so the difference jumped out at me when I looked at it on the laptop. it's amde me hanker after a small, desk specifically for the lappy (don't have enough room on this PC desk and don't wanna dump the PC yet).

Seriously nice work, Tim.


Pol

You're too kind Pol

Apologies to Stephen for hijacking the thread -

[Ian]

Re: It was a dark & stormy morning

...... richer colour was it - more red in the fallen leaves, better algae on the tree trunks and generally with a more vibrant 'pop', eh?

I'm back at my desk in front of the PC now and can't get over the difference compared to the lappy, even if it was the wrong upload from Tim. But wouldn't the upload cause the picci to revert to sRGB for onscren display anyway?

I must say I'm staggered by the difference in the B/W version of Venice though. The laptop really brings it to life, much more visible grain and tone tone in the bright areas. it just so happens i'd been pending some time the other day looking at it closely on the CRT so the difference jumped out at me when I looked at it on the laptop. it's amde me hanker after a small, desk specifically for the lappy (don't have enough room on this PC desk and don't wanna dump the PC yet).

Seriously nice work, Tim.


Pol

The version you can see in this thread is slightly desaturated compared to the version Tim sent to me last night.

I think Tim must have applied an sRGB profile to his Adobe RGB image rather than convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB. There is a big difference.

By converting, you remap the colour space so the available colour is used optimally and you get a good match. By applying a smaller colour space (sRGB) to an image with a larger (Adobe RGB) space, you clip the visible colour range, so there is a noticeable difference. It's the same when displaying an Adoeb RGB image in an sRGB environment (the Web).

Ian