Bothwell Castle 3

[weepete]

This is my latest shot, I just managed to get home in time and grab the tripod and camera, get down to the castle, get set up and shoot in 1 EV incraments for the entire dynamic range for this one composition before I lost the light. Managed to get some pink clouds I was after, the skys are really very nice at this time of year.

This took me 4 or 5 attempts, processed almost entirely in photoshop and is a blend of 5 different exposures using a bit of luminocity masking and hand blending. I had real trouble trying to keep the luminocity values in the sky and not over brighten the castle and some major problems with tree branches but I feel that I'm finally making a little progress especially with the edges and using the lighten/darken blend modes.

I'd appreciate some C&C on this as I'm not convinced it's totally spot on yet. I'm much more comfortable using lightroom and editing single shots.

Bothwell Castle 3 by wee_pete, on Flickr

 

[stapo49]

Looks great to me!

You obviously spend much more time processing than I do

 

[weepete]

Looks great to me!

You obviously spend much more time processing than I do

Thanks Stapo! normally I'm quite quick but trying to learn a few new tricks so took longer than it should have!

 

[Jeff G]

I would have never guessed you struggled with it so that's a good thing, very nice shot.

 

[Sil]

great !!!

 

[K9Kirk]

Looks great to me! Take a break.

 

[weepete]

I would have never guessed you struggled with it so that's a good thing, very nice shot.

Thanks Jeff, using masking in this way is new to me and I'm finding the balance difficult to get really good. It offers an oppertininty to make a subtle increase in quality though. So instead of shooting one exposure and raising the shadows, for example, in post I'm getting them as near as I can to properly exposed in camera then blending. The transitions can be challenging, especially around trees and areas that are backlit. But careful use of a small brush in lighten or darken mode is letting me burn and dodge the halos away which is pretty cool. Hopefully I'll be able to get a workflow down that will make things easier

great !!!

Thanks Sil, that means a lot to me. I've a lot of respect for your work and the use of lights and darks in your shots that convey a sense of mood is something I admire.

Looks great to me! Take a break.

Thanks Kirk! yeah mate, it's fishing this weekend so no photography for a while. I'm happy to let this marinate though I may still re-work it a little. Other stuff to be getting on with though..... and there's a few techniques I want to try in my workflow but next weekend CoD 2019 is out so that'll be written off too!

 

[K9Kirk]

I would have never guessed you struggled with it so that's a good thing, very nice shot.

Thanks Jeff, using masking in this way is new to me and I'm finding the balance difficult to get really good. It offers an oppertininty to make a subtle increase in quality though. So instead of shooting one exposure and raising the shadows, for example, in post I'm getting them as near as I can to properly exposed in camera then blending. The transitions can be challenging, especially around trees and areas that are backlit. But careful use of a small brush in lighten or darken mode is letting me burn and dodge the halos away which is pretty cool. Hopefully I'll be able to get a workflow down that will make things easier

great !!!

Thanks Sil, that means a lot to me. I've a lot of respect for your work and the use of lights and darks in your shots that convey a sense of mood is something I admire.

Looks great to me! Take a break.

Thanks Kirk! yeah mate, it's fishing this weekend so no photography for a while. I'm happy to let this marinate though I may still re-work it a little. Other stuff to be getting on with though..... and there's a few techniques I want to try in my workflow but next weekend CoD 2019 is out so that'll be written off too!

GL fishing, if you catch anything get some pics. A good close-up of a shiny face would be cool.

 

[GimmeAnother1]

1. Gorgeous pic! Love the angle you caught and the tree highlight along with the pink clouds are A+ for adding to the scene.

Here are some options for post processing in case you like them. Otherwise just disregard. The pic is a great representation of the castle

0. Original
View attachment 180994

1. Color the blues a little more in the sky for a deeper look

2. Drop the exposure a stop for a more rustic look. Also radial filter right side pinks clouds on a right angle and saturate the pink a little as well as down expose a little.

3. Take #2 and bring down clarity of everything outside of/around castle. Also highlight castle by dropping exposure a little of everything outside of castle so castle is subtly brighter in the pic.

Just some quick ideas to think about if your interested. Love the pic though! The timing for the lighting is perfect. Looks wonderful.

 

[weepete]

GL fishing, if you catch anything get some pics. A good close-up of a shiny face would be cool.

Thanks mate, unfortunatley tonight was a total wash out. The place we were fishing runs hot or cold with the chance of some big (for uk standards) fish. Unusual activity there tonight with lots of weed washed up (that's not normally present) and bumper crab activity (which is not normally a good sign). Normally we'd expect a dogfish or two to save the blank but it was totally dead and the match was won with a single mackerel! Last year the boys fished it at the same time and were getting thornies, ling and spurdog into double figures so I'm guessing the weather has uprooted significant amounts of the local kelp beds. But that's why the call it fishing and all that...

 

[weepete]

1. Gorgeous pic! Love the angle you caught and the tree highlight along with the pink clouds are A+ for adding to the scene.

Here are some options for post processing in case you like them. Otherwise just disregard. The pic is a great representation of the castle

0. Original
View attachment 180994

1. Color the blues a little more in the sky for a deeper look
View attachment 180991

2. Drop the exposure a stop for a more rustic look. Also radial filter right side pinks clouds on a right angle and saturate the pink a little as well as down expose a little.
View attachment 180992

3. Take #2 and bring down clarity of everything outside of/around castle. Also highlight castle by dropping exposure a little of everything outside of castle so castle is subtly brighter in the pic.
View attachment 180993

Just some quick ideas to think about if your interested. Love the pic though! The timing for the lighting is perfect. Looks wonderful.

Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate the advice. Brightening the castle slightly is definatley one I'll look at, that's one of the things I was struggling with and my first edit was far too bright. I get what you mean about the blues too, they've definatley lot a bit of luminocity, particularly in the upper left which has gotten a bit muddy.

 

[Original katomi]

Looks great to me you are using methods that I have never tried. I will have to look up masks in my pse for dummies
I am a heavy user of layers

 

[GimmeAnother1]

1. Gorgeous pic! Love the angle you caught and the tree highlight along with the pink clouds are A+ for adding to the scene.

Here are some options for post processing in case you like them. Otherwise just disregard. The pic is a great representation of the castle

0. Original
View attachment 180994

1. Color the blues a little more in the sky for a deeper look
View attachment 180991

2. Drop the exposure a stop for a more rustic look. Also radial filter right side pinks clouds on a right angle and saturate the pink a little as well as down expose a little.
View attachment 180992

3. Take #2 and bring down clarity of everything outside of/around castle. Also highlight castle by dropping exposure a little of everything outside of castle so castle is subtly brighter in the pic.
View attachment 180993

Just some quick ideas to think about if your interested. Love the pic though! The timing for the lighting is perfect. Looks wonderful.

Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate the advice. Brightening the castle slightly is definatley one I'll look at, that's one of the things I was struggling with and my first edit was far too bright. I get what you mean about the blues too, they've definatley lot a bit of luminocity, particularly in the upper left which has gotten a bit muddy.

Btw everything I did was in Lr.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[weepete]

Looks great to me you are using methods that I have never tried. I will have to look up masks in my pse for dummies
I am a heavy user of layers

Masking in photoshop is pretty good, it's extremely powerful but there's a learning curve. Simple masks are useful and resonably easy to create, non-destructive and a great way of creating targeted adjustments. Using the selection tool to create them is key, but how you create the selection is important but refining the mask is where the power and complexity lies.

if you use layers and are comfortable with it learning to create masks is something I'd reccomend, but if lightroom masking was a book, photoshop masking would be the internet

 

[weepete]

Btw everything I did was in Lr.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, I figured it was similar. I like to think I'm pretty good in Lightroom, but I'm trying to increase my skills in photoshop so trying to learn how to leverage some new techniques which have the potential to give me more options. That's somthing I'll have a look at though, creating one edit in lightroom and another in photoshop to get as close as I can. I think that may be very useful.