New bridge, dawn, ginger

ginger_55

I Have been working on my bridge shot, trying to get some pop and the flavor I originally shot for. This is one of the many early morning shots with the early morning sun shining in it. I worked it up using LAB, a black and white point, etc. There are three versions with less and more white. Does this look blown?? I let the white where the sun shone get pretty light? I am used to birds and I don't know what the rules are on scenics, or something like a bridge where the sun is actually shining a white line (only time of day that it does). Please let me know what you think. ginger
and watch for an after dark shot, if I can get it, I don't know which would be best.










I tried to minimize the the marsh aspect here. These are all the same shot, but there are subtle differences, not just in the frame, but in the filter and the amt of white in selective colors.

ginger

snapapple

ginger_55 wrote:

I Have been working on my bridge shot, trying to get some pop and the flavor I originally shot for. This is one of the many early
ginger

Ginger,
I'll have to admit I can't really see the difference in these other than the frame. I like the fact that the lines of the cables really show up well in these. I'm not sure I like the bright yellow. It seems sort of unreal. But, then that may be how it looks in the early morning light. Sometimes things do look unreal. I think I lose the idea of the old and the new with my mind focusing on the colors.
Don't go out there in the dark alone! That's why I don't have a bridge shot from the end of the Coronado Bridge. I won't go out there in the dark alone. Not safe - especially for a woman alone.

ginger_55

Thanks, Snappy. Bill was going, or would go with me, I need to check a couple of different areas, but in any case he would be with me at night.

So, I could conceivably go out to take a night shot, in the freezing cold, with an escort and his huge very heavy tripod..................but Bill has never been down in that marsh.

I have, maybe you have seen the photo where my sock was literally sucked into the mud. I saved my shoes, but theyare totally ruined.. I am still shook up from that and my fall downtown. Lots of anxiety there now.

The marsh mud is like quicksand, and Bill would be as, if not more, helpless that I would be, if he were caught in it. I really used my head pretty well to get out of it. In theory, and if I did not have anxiety, I could go out in the marsh just fine at low tide. I don't know what time that is, could look it up, but I am still not sure about that area since I am not familiar enough with it to know the boundaries.

You would not believe the sucking power that mud has. It is just like quicksand. Sure was a surprise to me, and I was totally alone.

ginger

Yes, I wanted to show that light as that is what it truly looks like. Beautiful stuff, too bad it comes off as fake, smile.

Oh, and when I asked before, Andy and others thought the old bridge detracted from the new, or something. I think you have to have old to have new, but then that is me. Unless it is very obvious like as you mentioned a newborn chick.

4labs

Ginger I admire the effort you are putting into this. I really like the original bridge shots better. I know that you know its a new bridge but just by looking at the pics they don't scream "new" to me. Now if you had the opening cermony or something along those lines it would. Thnxs for taking us on your adventure and I hope you don't lose anymore shoes along the way.

Flyinggina

I like the earlier versions better too. The yellow of the bridge looks way too saturated to my eye. I gather that it looks like that in real life in the light you had, but I find it a bit off-putting.

As for the old bridge being in the photo, for me, that adds to the impact of the picture. I really like it. It turns a pretty picture into something that moves me. But then I tend to like pictures that tell us something in addition to looking good. You are capturing a moment in history that will soon be gone forever when the old bridge is completely destroyed. Great series of photos IMHO.

Finally, the bridge photos say "new" to me, for what that is worth. Sure, you need to know something about the bridge to understand that, but it is new. Maybe a bridge photo is unlikely to be a winner in this challenge, but any one of yours would be a worthy entry.

Virginia

ginger_55

Thanks, Gina!

from ginger

ginger_55

Just checking for myself, if you have a preference say so, of these two, or which oth






I did a minimum of workup on these, that is not to say no workup, but I did not go to LAB..........

On the first photo I used levels at the end. I am checking the difference in the two photos as I see them.

If I put one in the challenge, and since it does not really "say" anything except to me, I am trying to put the one I like best in. I went to get this color, early morning light, I have gotten it from the early sun on the beach, and I got it here, so it is natural, except I need to decide if the cyan look form levels is more accurate.

I have chosen this composition because it focuses the most on the two arches of the new bridge, it does not have much of the marsh in, but it does keep some of the marsh. By keeping the marsh in I one) think I place it as being a low country type setting, and two) I think the old weathered wood (and I realize that what it is is not obvious), but I do think it is a ballast balance on the photo, that is just MHO and probably not how everyone would think.

So this one, puts the light in that I was looking for, two, emphasizes the new bridge and three, shows all three bridges before the final two are torn down, as will happen shortly.

I put an easy to do frame on as I could not think what to do on that. I have in smugmug just the photos and just the photos with the line around them that I sometimes use.

I realize that the rest of the world appears to already have this bridge within sight of everyone, but it is the newest thing here in our town. I, personally, don't have anything new, and my imagination just doesn't stretch any further. Basically I have no imagination, I am just an observer.
I did not photograph it at night because if it looks like just a generic bridge now, at night with the lights on the new bridge, the old bridges would not be seen, and it really would not be distinguished as "new". It is interesting that most of the photos being sold of this bridge are taken at night.

I also did not use the shots including more width, which include more the old bridge that is being torn down as that puts the emphasis on "change" rather than "new", or something, just a thought there.

ginger

Now, you all can comment, or not, on my thinking.

ginger_55

I am using the top shot here, it is just how the light comes down, from the sky, to the bridge/dune/whatever down finally to encompass the ground. Here it has not reached the marsh yet.

g

Thusie

Ginger you can kick me later..I like the first picture best except for the grass, I like the color of the grass better in the second one..BUT that color might not work in the first one

However I do like both these pictures better than the others.:):

ginger_55

Thanks, Thusie, I will try to do a couple of things on the grass. I can use highlight/darken thing, or I can take some of the red out of it, or both.

I agree that the other grass is more pleasing, maybe something in between. The grass does need to be maintained that the light has not reached it yet. I can see at the top right, of the grass, that the light is just starting to touch the grass.

g

ginger_55

http://www.cooperriverbridge.org/index.asp

Site for info on the NEW Cooper River bridge, along with the history, other photos, et al...........

ginger_55

DanielB

i'm partial to the 3rd picture posted. man ginger. i admire the lenghts you go through to get that perfect shot. obviously it pays off.

nice work

P.S.- whats that red vertical thing under the bridge a crane? and could it be cloned out? its just a tad distracting seeing as everything else is either blue or that wonderful gold tone.

ginger_55

I am now totally confused myself.

I think if I were to take anyone off and just live with it, I would either like it or hate it, after awhile.

But here, one minute I like one and the next minute I wonder what the heck I was thinking.

ginger

Oh, I don't know which is the third one posted, but I have a feeling that it is one of the "yellow light" ones, otherwise called golden light, that no one else liked much.

I know the more recent ones, I left more red in the light. And it does appear more natural, but I can't tell much anymore.

DanielB

ginger_55 wrote:

this is my favorite. and do yo usee that red thing i was talking about? in between the 2 supports of the new bridge below it.

ginger_55

Yes, Daniel, I saw it before. , I thought it was cool. (the red thing I mean. I will try to take it out, though.)

Well, I like that one, too. I think it may need a bit of red in it, though. Most other people hate those.

That is what is so frustrating, and why I guess I just please myself on this one. The whole concept is not "new", but it is "new" for me, smile, and I have come this far.

I came back in here to redo the photo anyway. I am tired, but my worry is that someone will see the one posted and think, whatever, that I am through. I like the writing, and there were aspects I like, but I think the photo, unfortunately, is over worked. If I try to do anything with the one you like, it will also get overworked, so I am going to start over.

Do you like that frame? Could that be what you like? I don't know whether to put a frame on it.

Well, let me see how things turn, I might do more tomorrow if tonight is a bust.

ginger

ginger_55

I just did another of those bridges, always from the same RAW photo. So only difference is the newness and what I may, or may not, have done to it.

What I did this time was very little and almost all lab. I did the L channel, the A channel (just upped the contrast there) and same with the B channel. Then switched to RGB, upped the saturation to 15, went to selective colors and upped the magenta a bit, but only the magenta (I did not touch the yellow or any other color)

I sharpened it the way Pathfinder said to do it with LAB, using layers to put G blur on the A channel and on the B channel, then using the USM at 150 on the L channel. That is as straightforward as I have done any of these where I can actually tell you. Then for the heck of it, I took a thing out of the water as I figured it could just be a distraction, even I don't know what it is.

So, here they are:









Does anyone have a frame preference, or does it look better with no frame. These are exactly the same photos, two frame treatments and one naked.

ginger

DanielB

ginger_55 wrote:

naked eye for sure.


no red thing

:giggle

Flyinggina

Just want to let you know that I like the rework you did of the bridge in the early morning light. Even though the difference is subtle, the yellow glow on the bridge looks much more natural. The versions you did in LAB (I think) made the bridge look as though it had been painted a bright yellow.

This is a really hard challenge. I haven't seen many entries that say "new" without some sort of explanation. It will be interesting to see what we get to vote on. Good luck with your picture. It is really special for a whole lot of reasons so you should treasure it (and the series) no matter what.

BTW, I did think that a picture of new sneakers might be a really good entry for you in this challenge! :lol4

Virginia

ginger_55

:lol4

And I did have to buy them! As it was, I was wearing mismatched tennis shoes from the depths of a closet. Those in the photo there were practically new, they cleaned up, but the smell just would not come out. In fact they would not dry.

I ordered new ones from the internet, got them last week, and have not worn them yet.

that is funny! And so perfect, the problem is, I am sooooo committed to the darn bridge shot: and I am not much good on making a still life, smile. Like with shoes. (I can throw them across a marsh and up a hill, but just barely)

Also, my final version was just about all done with LAB. First time ever for me that I have relied that heavily on LAB. I am an RGB person.

But I wanted to do "less" rather than more with the final version. Since I am not a person who is very familiar with LAB, I chose that route as I would not be tempted to do a lot of extras.

So don't be prejudiced against LAB, it is just the opposite. The first time I used LAB, I also did a whole lot of other stuff, too. This time, I did very little to the photo. Boosted the colors evenly, that type of thing. I took a few distracting things out with the clone tool, raised the saturation 15%, that is not much, and raised the magenta (that didn't do much, but it was in the sky and anything I could do to bring it out, I wanted to try). I did not do anything else but sharpen it, so the majority of what I got was done in LAB.

Oh, the first time I used Lab, I boosted the colors slightly unevenly, that made a difference, too. So it was me, smile, not LAB per se.

ginger (thanks for all your comments. I had to respond on the new tennis shoes, that is funny!)

Did you enter???? I am going to have to check that out. I am too self absorbed sometimes. Everyone, especially you and Daniel, have been a big help to me. If it hadn't been for what you said re entering w/o winning, well, I wasn't going to enter, but you gave me a boost there.

snapapple

ginger_55 wrote:

Does anyone have a frame preference, or does it look better with no frame. These are exactly the same photos, two frame treatments and one naked.

ginger

I like this one, no frame. The color of the bridge looks very natural.

ginger_55

Thanks, Snappy!

ginger

DanielB

ginger_55 wrote:

Everyone, especially you and Daniel, have been a big help to me. If it hadn't been for what you said re entering w/o winning, well, I wasn't going to enter, but you gave me a boost there.

glad i could put my otherwise absent minded brain =>:twitch to use Ginger



Its better than studying french all day:bread


*going there in 2 years. should be a fun photo op.:D *


Daniel

Flyinggina

Yay Ginger!! Congrats on making the finals. It was very satisfying to see your photo on the list!

Virginia