A Sea Hag's Eyrie

WirenWiren Registered Users Posts: 741 Major grins

I am sure the structure would look better in color, but the sky and water were boring and I wanted to see how well I could create a black and white out of it. Thoughts are welcome. Another long exposure here...

Lee Wiren

Comments

  • kurzvorzwoelfkurzvorzwoelf Registered Users Posts: 339 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2018

    Awesome picture. A very good composition, with the shoreline in the background and the hills rising up. The subject is interesting and the conversion is very pleasing. I also love the long exposed flat water in black and white. It looks almost like ground fog.

    As for suggestions, I'm by far not in the position to give any great advices, but my two cents for thoughts:

    1. The three tall pillars in the right towards the background are a little distracting. Maybe get rid of them?
    2. I would give a little more emphasis on the subject, probably by applying a little more of structure or dynamic contrast. It has lots of fantastic details.
    3. Also don't know how a stronger vignette would work here, given all the nice flat foggy water. But I'd try out, with its light center on the subject.

    Anyway, this is already great as-is :) Thanks for posting.

    Wise words from the Dog of Wisdom: If your ball is too big for your mouth, it's not yours.

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  • WirenWiren Registered Users Posts: 741 Major grins

    Thank you Kurz, they are great suggestions. I did try a stronger vignette, but it made a haloing effect around the base of the hut that was distracting. I worked with the vignette as much as I thought the image would allow me to. As for the structure and dynamic contrast, there was a point where I had more added in, but it made it appear to me to have an un-natural, HDR look that I didn't want to have, but I did play around with those controls. I may have to go back and try to get rid of those 3 pillars on the right, there is a little ghosting emanating from the top that I am not fond of, so that is a suggestion I may heed.

    Thank you for your comments.

    Lee Wiren
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,694 moderator

    Interesting image - to my eye it is crying for an IR rendition, either with a modded IR camera or a faux IR.

    I would suggest driving that sky to just short of black or replace it with a dark clouded IR sky, maybe. I'm thinking something like the sky in this image -- https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/Mono-Lake-WS-June-2014/i-4zPt5fk/0/5c3a71e7/X2/Maiden Lane sign-1020575-X2.jpg

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  • JuanoJuano Registered Users Posts: 4,878 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2018

    Good comments from K. I think the pic is already unnatural and I agree that more structure would give it a boost. With regard s to the three pillars, I can see the ghosting, could you try to just get rid of that?

    It look s like a sea monster.

  • WirenWiren Registered Users Posts: 741 Major grins

    @pathfinder said:
    Interesting image - to my eye it is crying for an IR rendition, either with a modded IR camera or a faux IR.

    I would suggest driving that sky to just short of black or replace it with a dark clouded IR sky, maybe. I'm thinking something like the sky in this image -- https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/Mono-Lake-WS-June-2014/i-4zPt5fk/0/5c3a71e7/X2/Maiden Lane sign-1020575-X2.jpg

    Interesting thought about the IR... I don't have an IR modded camera (yet), but will use my OnOne Photo Raw software to play with that option... think if I do a mask for the sky and paint out the structure from that mask and decrease the EV of the sky it will have a similar effect.... i'll play with both and see how I like it and post any decent results as a follow up. Thank you for the great ideas and input folks, I appreciate it.

    Lee

    Lee Wiren
  • StumblebumStumblebum Registered Users Posts: 8,480 Major grins

    Its a great pic......except I don't like that color rendition.......needs to IR as Jim said or just straight b&w......

  • WirenWiren Registered Users Posts: 741 Major grins
    edited February 18, 2018

    @Stumblebum said:
    Its a great pic......except I don't like that color rendition.......needs to IR as Jim said or just straight b&w......

    I just had time to get this version done... tried the IR filter in OnOne Raw, didn't look that great (or I didn't do it right... learning curve). But I have this take on it. Tried to remove the three ghostly stumps on the right, but that tool didn't work well and it was obvious.. I like the crop where it is, so the stumps stay i'm afraid. I was able to darken the sky and get a better tone across the entire image. Opinions welcome.

    Lee Wiren
  • StumblebumStumblebum Registered Users Posts: 8,480 Major grins
    edited February 18, 2018

    The color is gone and I love that! But sky has too much detail now......horizontal lines running through.....making it busy.....the slightly blownout bg of original was working great.....I would have just pulled back the tint......additional sharpening etc. was not needed......JMO....cheers my freind!

  • StumblebumStumblebum Registered Users Posts: 8,480 Major grins

    The ghostly stumps are just fine and balancing the bg.....but not sure what that flame type thing is above them.......

    For me the easiest cloning out is done using lasso too and content aware fill......whatever mess it leaves behind I used various healing brushes to clean them up.

  • JuanoJuano Registered Users Posts: 4,878 Major grins

    Good work, I kind of liked the blueish tone of the first version, it adds to the surreal feeling. I suppose that the ghosting is part of the surrealism too.

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