Houghton Mill

beautiful image...

 

Hi Richie,

This has all the elements of a very nice picture. Do I have your permission to post an edited version?

Cheers,

John

 

Well done Ritchie. Great picture. I like the atmosphere a lot. Thanks for sharing.
Have a great weekend.

 

It would be nice to see a multi-exposure HDR image produced of this shot so that the inherent dynamic range in the photo could be developed while retaining the exotic darkening mood of the original.

Bokeh Diem

 

Hi Richie,

I've had a go at editing in Elements and came up with this:-

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The first adjustment was in Levels. The histogram was bunched to the left, with the highlights curve ending well short of the left edge. I dragged the highlights slider to meet the curve and this recovered some of the dynamic range. The image still seemed a little dark for my taste, to be expected as the shadows curve went off the edge of the histogram, so I used Adjust Lighting, Shadows/Highlights and lightened shadows by 15%. I then cropped soem of the remaining darkness of the bottom and right side of the image. The danger with this type of editing is a risk of increased noise, but in this case I think it remains acceptable.

It's all a matter of taste, of course. There is no right or wrong way and many people would consider that your original exposure captured the mood just fine. Others may have used a smaller adjustment of the shadows or stopped after sdjusting Levels to get an in between result. I always think it is worth expoloring the possibilities to see which result you prefer yourself.

Thanks for sharing this lovely image and offering it for debate.

Cheers,

John

 

Woo Hoo! Amazing what lurks in them thar shadows. And all that subtle lighting in the background is still very much there.

Bokeh Diem