<<< o >>>PING !!! 17 comments + add yours
chromasia.com

My previous image was probably the most lightly processed I've posted in quite a while so, by way of contrast, I thought I'd post this one next. It was taken at an abandoned village in Ras Al Khaimah (one of the less well known Emirates of the UAE), and, as you can see if you've taken a look at the original, it's quite flat and lacking in detail.

To bring out the detail I tone mapped it using Photomatix Pro. At this stage it was looking a bit better, but not much, so I used a rather unusual curve to add a large increase in contrast. 10 points to the first person who can tell me the shape of the curve :)

captured
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
image editor
plugins (etc)
cropped?
2.14pm on 15/3/11
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
24mm
f/5.7
1/64
aperture priority
+1
evaluative
100
no
RAW
Photomatix Pro
Photoshop CS5
none
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3x2 + travel [Dubai, UAE] + graffiti + show the original + urban
comment by Adrian at 08:33 AM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

My guess is that it's an N shape (though not with the sharp angles). With my setup (shadows left, highlights right) the N is reversed.

As for the image, another great example of how to use PS to bring an otherwise unremarkable image to life!

comment by djn1 at 09:26 AM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Adrian: you're on the right lines, but no, it's not N or И shaped.

comment by Claus Petersen at 09:39 AM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

This one is really nice one the eyes ;-)

comment by Kevin at 09:45 AM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Interesting processing. Is it a U shaped curve? Or better still a V shaped one?

comment by djn1 at 10:24 AM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Kevin: yep, it was V-shaped.

 
 
comment by djib at 11:48 AM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Great shot. I love all the details you brought out. You can almost read other letters below that huge “Ping!!!”. My guess was an edge detection algorithm, but I was wrong ;)

comment by Carlos Garcia at 11:49 AM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Great results from your vision and processing Dave.

comment by Philip Jensen at 12:29 PM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Couldn't you have achieved the same effect by inverting the colours, when I first looked I though that was what you had done.

Anywho I really like the end-result!

comment by Jason at 01:05 PM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Remarkable..! I had 3 attempts at processing my version of this shot but have yet to come up with anything I liked. This is really awesome and I have never even considered a trying a "V" curve :)

comment by CSJ @ID7 at 05:47 PM (GMT) on 30 March, 2011

Thats an insane conversion!, in fact from the RAW thats incredible really.... love it.

comment by Christopher at 04:27 AM (GMT) on 31 March, 2011

So very cool--thanks so much for sharing this PS technique!

comment by jessica at 10:42 PM (GMT) on 31 March, 2011

your are genius... this name is photography art.

comment by DedicatedRR at 02:42 AM (GMT) on 1 April, 2011

This is so cool! Haha. I love seeing how you can transform an image like that.

comment by Andrey Samolinov at 02:33 PM (GMT) on 1 April, 2011

Fantastic post-processing and excellent creative work
PS: thanks for the curve)

comment by djn1 at 12:15 PM (GMT) on 2 April, 2011

Thanks everyone.

comment by Michael Tuuk at 12:16 PM (GMT) on 2 April, 2011

So cool what you get out of these images!

comment by Chris at 11:23 PM (GMT) on 5 April, 2011

Interesting approach, you always have some different trick to send our way. It's what keeps us interested, on top of the fact we never know what we are going to see. It is always a surprise!