In my previous entry I mentioned that I'd taken part in the annual Fleetwood Wreck Trek, a six mile walk over the sands of Morecambe Bay with guided visits to the Wyre Light (an abandoned lighthouse) and the site of Stella Marie wreckage on the North Wharf Sands. I also said that I didn't think that I'd got any decent shots of the Wyre Light.
Well, after a lot of false starts I have managed to come up with this one. It started out as part of a sequence I shot for what I thought would be a good HDR. However, having tried various methods of using the HDR sequence (the Local Adaptation and Gamma and Exposure methods in Photoshop, Photomatix Pro, and FDRTools) I had to admit defeat, as none of them would produce anything that looked at all reasonable.
So, instead, I decided to start with the +1 EV shot from the original exposure sequence, and by being careful when I processed the RAW file I was able to bring out the detail in the sky while retaining the shadow detail from the original scene. It's not the most striking of shots I've ever produced, but given that the Wyre Light is only accessible a couple of times a year - it's about two miles from shore, and only on dry land when there's an especially low tide - I'm pretty pleased to have got a shot that I'm happy to post.
Oh, and if you're interested, I've posted a 'straight' version of the RAW file I used here:
comment byBen Brooks at 08:14 PM (GMT) on 1 July, 2008
Very cool. Love the B&W conversion. The subject is incredibly interesting and really intrigues me. Love it!
comment bynirudha at 08:16 PM (GMT) on 1 July, 2008
Since your experimenting with HDR I wonder if you tried the Enfuse tool. It doesn't go through the two step process of building an HDR and then allowing you to tone map. You feed it a bunch of exposures and it outputs a LDR image with different parts from different exposures. I find that this can then be tweaked in photoshop or other tool to good effect. It automatically does compensation for camera shake so you can actually feed it hand held shots of a still subject.
comment bynirudha at 08:17 PM (GMT) on 1 July, 2008
forgot to include a link to enfuse
http://wiki.panotools.org/Enfuse
comment byJosef Renklint at 08:36 PM (GMT) on 1 July, 2008
Well, this is far far better than any of mine! Great detail in the sky and the Wyre Light itself - this feels like a late-evening shot. I'll have to go back and try again next year!
comment byowen-b at 09:02 PM (GMT) on 1 July, 2008
It's a lovely shot - but I don't think it's fair to say it bears little resemblance to the original! Out of interest, what motivated the tiny amount of crop?
comment by Rick R. at 03:11 AM (GMT) on 2 July, 2008
Great capture. I like the way you show the settings you used. Great work my friend.
Rick R.
Great capture. I like how you brought out the details in the sky. This image didn't see any Photoshop at all? All entirely processed in RAW? B&W conversion correct?
Nice B+W conversion. It's almost more Sepia. From the looks of it it might be standing much longer. Look at the far right leg...it's completely rusted away. Nice capture!
On another note, I've relaunched my photoblog over at F/1.8 and the only reason I mention it here is because Dave helped me come up with the name a long long time ago (about 2004ish). Chromasia has always been a huge inspiration and the fact that there are new images day after day just amazes me. I know first hand the amount of effort it requires and to have the quality of images you have here...it's simply amazing. So thank you Dave for the inspiration and the help in past and no doubt the future.
interesting lines, but a little busy for my taste. i do love the lines tho.lol.
comment bybluechameleon at 01:47 PM (GMT) on 18 July, 2008
Excellent conversion and image. Of course the drama of it all is what caught me and drew me in. The corrosion and still, moving water gives it an 'other worldly' feel.
Love this!
In my previous entry I mentioned that I'd taken part in the annual Fleetwood Wreck Trek, a six mile walk over the sands of Morecambe Bay with guided visits to the Wyre Light (an abandoned lighthouse) and the site of Stella Marie wreckage on the North Wharf Sands. I also said that I didn't think that I'd got any decent shots of the Wyre Light.
Well, after a lot of false starts I have managed to come up with this one. It started out as part of a sequence I shot for what I thought would be a good HDR. However, having tried various methods of using the HDR sequence (the Local Adaptation and Gamma and Exposure methods in Photoshop, Photomatix Pro, and FDRTools) I had to admit defeat, as none of them would produce anything that looked at all reasonable.
So, instead, I decided to start with the +1 EV shot from the original exposure sequence, and by being careful when I processed the RAW file I was able to bring out the detail in the sky while retaining the shadow detail from the original scene. It's not the most striking of shots I've ever produced, but given that the Wyre Light is only accessible a couple of times a year - it's about two miles from shore, and only on dry land when there's an especially low tide - I'm pretty pleased to have got a shot that I'm happy to post.
Oh, and if you're interested, I've posted a 'straight' version of the RAW file I used here:
.../archives/the_wyre_light.php
This was processed using the default settings in ACR, and as you can see, it doesn't bear a great deal of resemblance to the final image :-)
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
cropped?
Canon 1Ds Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
30mm
f/5.6
1/250
aperture priority
+1
evaluative
100
no
RAW
RAW Developer
minor rotation
Very cool. Love the B&W conversion. The subject is incredibly interesting and really intrigues me. Love it!
Since your experimenting with HDR I wonder if you tried the Enfuse tool. It doesn't go through the two step process of building an HDR and then allowing you to tone map. You feed it a bunch of exposures and it outputs a LDR image with different parts from different exposures. I find that this can then be tweaked in photoshop or other tool to good effect. It automatically does compensation for camera shake so you can actually feed it hand held shots of a still subject.
forgot to include a link to enfuse
http://wiki.panotools.org/Enfuse
Gorgeous angle. Love this b+w as well.
Well, this is far far better than any of mine! Great detail in the sky and the Wyre Light itself - this feels like a late-evening shot. I'll have to go back and try again next year!
It's a lovely shot - but I don't think it's fair to say it bears little resemblance to the original! Out of interest, what motivated the tiny amount of crop?
Great capture. I like the way you show the settings you used. Great work my friend.
Rick R.
Great capture. I like how you brought out the details in the sky. This image didn't see any Photoshop at all? All entirely processed in RAW? B&W conversion correct?
Interesting shot. This tower almost takes on an organic or creature-like feel.
Nice B+W conversion. It's almost more Sepia. From the looks of it it might be standing much longer. Look at the far right leg...it's completely rusted away. Nice capture!
On another note, I've relaunched my photoblog over at F/1.8 and the only reason I mention it here is because Dave helped me come up with the name a long long time ago (about 2004ish). Chromasia has always been a huge inspiration and the fact that there are new images day after day just amazes me. I know first hand the amount of effort it requires and to have the quality of images you have here...it's simply amazing. So thank you Dave for the inspiration and the help in past and no doubt the future.
Thanks all.
nirudha: thanks, I'll try it out.
Pete: I'll join you, I'd like to get some more shots.
Al: there was a bit of minor tweaking (and cloning) in Photoshop, but nothing much.
Brad: I'm glad to hear you're up and running again, and thanks for the kind words - they're much appreciated.
Good job on actually getting something out of the almost burned out sky. The tones are just "your style"
futurist!
interesting lines, but a little busy for my taste. i do love the lines tho.lol.
Excellent conversion and image. Of course the drama of it all is what caught me and drew me in. The corrosion and still, moving water gives it an 'other worldly' feel.
Love this!