Picture taken near the London Eye. I used my super-wide (17mm) lens to get the lady and the Eye in shot. I like her as foreground interest, and the lines of tiles leading to the Eye.
Comments welcome.
Ivan
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8 comments:
Wow, Ivan.
Really using the w-a well here. It works because of the woman in the foreground giving scale, the sharply-converging lines of the pavement, and then the dominance of the eye.
What prompted the mono?
You've lost some shadow detail in the trees which is a shame.
*cough* RAW *cough*
I know, I know!!! This was before our discussion, and exemplifies the point you were making...I've bought a new 2GB CF to encourage me to do RAW, which I have started doing.
Anyway, to the image at hand. The colours were less than inspiring, and I wanted to bring out the lines to the Eye, and set the Eye well off against a nice dark sky. I did a channel mixer in monochrome on the lower part of the image, to bring out the lady and the lines (using a mask), then did the same on the top, with an opposite mask. After flattening, I then did further work to bring out the lady and finished off with some dodging and buring - on a separate layer, of course - to get some better tonal separation for interest and balance. Merged, resized to be 300dpi (why do digital camera files default to 72dpi and a "canvas" size of 100cm+ ?) and then did a final sharpen. I tried to bring out as much of the shadowy trees as possible, but, you are correct Gareth, RAW would have given me a better chance.
This was an image I had almost forgotten about, and the mono treatment really brought it out. Worth revisiting ones files on a regular basis...
Ivan
Hi Ivan,
I like this photo a lot and I think the monochrome treatment works well.
The lady is a very nice touch and brings scale to the photo; you have caught her when she was in 'thought'. This lady captures the eye and her gaze toward the London Eye guides the viewer into the photo. The two dominant poles leading up to the 'eye' create a sense of strength and power in the photo which is a nice contrast with the gentle calm sense one gets from the lady. You also have a contrast of nature and architecture.
I also like the drama in the sky; you have some 'lines' of clouds here that match up well with the lines on the pavement.
Cool lighting...
I don't like the queue barriers because they intersect the lady which adds a distraction. Would have been nice if this area was just open creating a stronger sense of space along with the large 'eye' and vast sky.
I did a channel mixer in monochrome on the lower part of the image, to bring out the lady and the lines (using a mask), then did the same on the top, with an opposite mask. After flattening, I then did further work to bring out the lady and finished off with some dodging and buring - on a separate layer, of course - to get some better tonal separation for interest and balance.
Nice work...
Damian
Hi,
I meant to comment on the photoshop techniques used below but forgot.
"I did a channel mixer in monochrome on the lower part of the image, to bring out the lady and the lines (using a mask), then did the same on the top, with an opposite mask"
What do you mean by an opposite mask and why did you do this.
"After flattening, I then did further work ..."
Why did you flatten it at this stage?
"...to bring out the lady and finished off with some dodging and buring - on a separate layer, of course - to get some better tonal separation for interest and balance."
What do you mean by tonal separation? A wider gamut of greys?
Damian
OK. Badly explained. I did a channel mixer to monochrome and lighten the bottom half of the image. This made the sky white out. So I masked that off with a gradient. This masked off area was then showing through as colour (from the original below). Therefore, I did a channel mixer adjustment layer on top of that, adjusted the sky to monochrome and toned down the "blue" slider to get a nice darker sky. This made the bottom half go darker, so I used a gradient mask, opposite to the first one, to independently control both channel mixer adjustments. Then I flattened, as I was happy with the image overall. I then dodged the lady a bit, to bring her out - no issue here, as it was only a few "dabs" and she was done. I dodged a burned to get a wider spread (difference) between my highlights and mid/shadows, so yes, in a way, a wider spread of greys. Then resized and sharpened as the last step...
Ivan
Interesting. I only ever flatten when I absolutely have to. If I'm dodging and burning, I dupe the background layer, beneath my adjustment layers, and then work on that.
That's a good point. I flattened then thought "shit, need to do more work on the foreground lady", so I just did it.
Once an image is complete, to my liking, I flatten to a TIFF or a high quality JPEG and don't keep the PSD file. No point. It's done. Onto the next thing. Maybe I should?
Ivan
Ivan,
That is interesitng. I always keep the PSD file and often I do not flatten the image. That does mean you have a larger file but this is less of a matter now since I do about 80% or more of my 'edits' in CameraRAW. Really, after CameraRAW there is not much else required apart from sharpening and perhaps a little detailed work.
For printing I convert to sRGB (which flattens the image), adjust the print size and then save as the highest quality JPEG. I choose sRGB and jpeg because of the requirements of my printing shop.
However, I likely have different requirements. I often go back to the PSD file to create another size or format for selling. I also keep the original RAW file along with the changes that were made in CameraRAW. The RAW file is archived while the PSD is backed up since I often return to it.
Damian
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