DSS #87 - Three's Company

billseye

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

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

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

billseye

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

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

cbbr

I like the new version better. Cool shot.

Froch

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

Froch wrote: »

I wonder what an in-between would look like.

Something like this?

Froch

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

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

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.