DSS #87 - Three's Company

billseye · October 12, 2011

Had a great trip to the Eastern Sierras for photos this weekend. Spent time at Mono Lake, Bishop Creek and (for this shot), the ghost town of Bodie, CA.

Comments welcome..

travelways · October 12, 2011

Very nice image. For the contest I would crop a lot of the sides, to show more of the group of three in the middle, and less of the other bottles.

fjcvisual · October 14, 2011

I like this shot. How did you light the three bottles and not the others?

billseye · October 14, 2011

fjcvisual wrote: »

I like this shot. How did you light the three bottles and not the others?

Thanks!

I created it by taking a single exposure and creating a duplicate layer of it in Photoshop CS5. Used multiply blend mode and a mask on the top layer. This created a darkened version of the original. Then with a large soft brush I painted black on the mask over the bottles I wanted to be well lit. This revealed the original (well exposed) background layer and provided the effect of highlighting the bottles where I painted on the mask.

billseye · October 15, 2011

Here's a slightly different crop of the image above... also brightened it up a bit. Any reaction to the changes?

cbbr · October 15, 2011

I like the new version better. Cool shot.

Froch · October 15, 2011

Great glass Bill. I agree with cbbr above. This second version pops more for me too allowing me to see the uniqueness of the labeling. Although, when I view it, I get a feeling that the brightness seems a bit un-natural and may have shifted the color a bit(?). I wonder what an in-between would look like.

billseye · October 15, 2011

Froch wrote: »

I wonder what an in-between would look like.

Something like this?

Froch · October 16, 2011

billseye wrote: »

Something like this?

Hmm, I toggled back and forth between them, and for my taste, it seems to be less about brightness, but maybe a saturation.
Looks like the last revision addressed what to my eye looks to be a bit oversaturated by bumping warmth a bit? but there's a little loss of loss of detail in the curtains and in the bottles.
It seems like a delicate balance... good luck.

AndMan · October 16, 2011

I agree.
It needed a touch of brightness but there is now a definite shift in the colour of the curtain & a slight loss of detail.

fjcvisual · October 16, 2011

Personally, I think the contrast of the bottles and curtains in the second copy makes the bottles pop a bit more. I like that version the best.