Gothic ROT Study
by obsidian

Comment by Melethia:
My kinda picture, Carl! I like this quite a bit. Of course, what I like and what the voters at DPC like tend to be rather different... :-)

P1030712-bridge.jpg
by obsidian

Comment by nova:
Hopefully this location is close to you and you can retake the shot. In fact you might want to take several at various times of day... a night shot with lights reflected in the water might be wonderful. Even as it is, it's lovely.

P1030712-bridge.jpg
by obsidian

Comment by Melethia:
I'm one of those that actually like blown highlights. And I think this is indeed a marvelous shot! It conveys to me the peacefulness and quiet coolness that I'm sure you experienced on your walk.

P1030712-bridge.jpg
by obsidian

Comment by MikeJ:
I agree that the sidewalk on the right is blown and detracts from the rest of this excellent image. That doesn't mean it can't be fixed by someone that knows Photoshop though.

When you are shooting from within a dark area into a lighted area, even if it doesn't look like it to your eyes, you are going to get a situation like this. The reason is the high contrast between your shadow area and your lightest highlight area (the sidewalk). In some cases, even film might not have the lattitude to cover both areas successfully. What I do is take 2 or more pictures. I'll take one metered for the shadows, one metered for the highlights and if the lattitude is several fstops apart I'll take one for the mid-tones. I think combine all the images in Photoshop using a action I got from Fred Miranda's site (his action does it a lot smarter and quicker than I could ever do) which takes the best parts of all images and combines them into one.

You can do this with one image as well... take two copies and adjust one for the shadows. Then take the 2nd copy and adjust it for the highlight area. Then merge the two together. Photoshop CS2 has the builtin HDR feature that can do this although I've not used it yet. I just use my action.

It's a great shot and I think it's worth your time in trying to tone down the sidewalk a bit and see if you can bring out it's full potential.

Mike

P1030712-bridge.jpg
by obsidian

Comment by Germaine:
What blown highlights? Beautiful composition. Reminds me of an Asian moon bridge.

P1030712-bridge.jpg
by obsidian

Comment by _eug:
To be honest I don't think the blown highlights is that big of an issue here. It could use a bit of sharpening, but other than that it's a very pleasing image.

"Autumn's the mellow time." (William Allingham)
by obsidian

Comment by Nikonian Ninja:
I LOVE BONSAI'S!!!

P1030433-reclining-tramp.jpg
by obsidian

Comment by WaysOfSeeing:
A wonderful street/photojournalistic shot. For me, it is the reflections rather than the main subject that make this image as interesting as it is. The ghost-like reflection of the passerby, unheard, hardly seen, seems to relate perfectly with the homeless fellows existance. Is that a car of affluence? Judging by the wheel trims it sure seems to be.

"Autumn's the mellow time." (William Allingham)
by obsidian

Comment by ellamay:
this is a little too red for me...strikes as very PS

"Autumn's the mellow time." (William Allingham)
by obsidian

Comment by alanfreed:
A little ambitious on the editing, eh?