Just goers to show how much of a "Must" Photo-editing software is.

[moylan]

Well, I cruised up to Byron bay for the morning, to take a few pics of the Light house, and what not. This would have been fine, but not only was the day pretty cloudy and hazy, but they were working on the fence around the lighthouse...

So anyway i took a couple of snaps and decided to pimp it out a little bit at home, heres what i came up with:

Original:

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/moylanishot/LightHouseoriginal.jpg

Pimped:

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/moylanishot/LighthousePimped.jpg

Hows that? Both the exact same Photo, but ran through Photoshop. Im a bit of a show-off i know, but i love it! :cool:

[snowygal]

love it without the fence, makes it so much nicer

[moylan]

Yeah, Imagine if you were one of the Million asian tourists they get every year.. and you were stuck with a shot with the construction barricade fence ruining the whole picture :eek: ... not to mention the ugly Truck sitting right in front of it....

hehe And just looking at that now, the bullbar and fence pole are still slightly visible in the pic :o (no-ones perfect :p ) , atleast it isnt very noticable.

[SSSchwing]

I think you've clear up the forground nicely and the fence. Although, personally, I think you've blown the lighthouse and the sky a little too much.

IMO, the light house would have stood out nicely against the cloudy sky. I'd just lesson the contrast on the lighthouse a little and remove the 'sun' you've added in the sky.

[moylan]

You dont like the sun rays shining on the lighthouse? i thought it looked awesome, cos of how that side of the lighthouse is already bright and shining, just ads that extra magical touch.. for me anyway.

Would like some more comments to see what everyone else thinks too.

Cheers SSSchwing for your comment, have you seen it in the black and white version? What do you think about it there, have a look at the one in the competition section, last page, cos i have it framed there.

[SSSchwing]

I dont mind the idea of what you've done, I just personally feel it the original 'mood' matched the shot. Sometimes excessive PP works and sometimes it doesn't.

I used to spend a lot of time at a lighthouse on the south coast of NSW as my dad used to 'rent' it... I found them to be moody places with lots of history etc. If I was into photography back then, I would have gone nuts.

IMO, and its just me, lighthouses were built to guide in times of low vision. I think your original shot had that 'overcast' type look to it. If I was going to PP to the extent you have, I would have gone the opposite way and darkened the sky. Made it 'stormy' rather than light.

By no means do I think what you've done is bad. It looks quite good. I just would have gone the other way. Or more likely, stopped at removing the fence and leaving the shot as is.

:)

[Mike]

I like the removal of clutter but the light shining onto the lighthouse just seems wrong..

[moylan]

Ok, well i'll work on that right now, it'll give me something to do... although this will take way longer than the other PS'd one to get right, in the mean time, here is the plain image without the fence.

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/moylanishot/lighthousebrushed1024.jpg

[moylan]

IMO, and its just me, lighthouses were built to guide in times of low vision. I think your original shot had that 'overcast' type look to it. If I was going to PP to the extent you have, I would have gone the opposite way and darkened the sky. Made it 'stormy' rather than light.

:)

Well this is about the best i can do, i can still see that something is wrong with it, mainly the light house is just so hard to make the right Shading/light, just cannot seem to make it quite right... so anyway here it is.

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/moylanishot/lighthouseShadedcopy.jpg

[moylan]

I like the removal of clutter but the light shining onto the lighthouse just seems wrong..

... no one likes my work :(

Hehe just kiddin, nah well i guess i just have a unique sort of a feel about what i think looks cool...

Although, now just looking between the light one and the stormy one, i guess the stormy one DOES have a bit of a better natural feel about it... oh well ive done both now, maybe some more comments from everyone?

[Rebecca]

Hey Moylan,
would you mind if I had a bit of a play with this and show you what I come up with?
I feel inspired and have this image in my mind I'd like to try and create with this.
I'm also totally sick of proofing photos and want to do something fun :)

[moylan]

Yeah sure go for it, If you like, i could send you the full 2048x1536 image.

[Rebecca]

Thanks!
I just grabbed the one you posted without the fence.
Just a quick play.
I wanted to see how it would look like this...
http://www.photo.net.au/members/d/6636-1/lighthousebrushed1024.jpg

[moylan]

Do you have the Mystical light plugin too ;)

Yeah that looks pretty cool. Im not one to use noise often atall, but it sort of suits that with the darkened/contrasted/black-and-white kind of look

[SSSchwing]

i think Rebecca has it spot on.

Moylan, I think your effort is better than your first effort. It matches the mood much more except I still think there are some issue around the light house itself.

I'm not a big fan of processed stuff usually, so I can be a bit critical of these types of shots.

Rebecca's edit I really like tho. It shows the right 'character'. A beacon of light in a dark time. I think the noise and depth of the black n white conversion look great.

Again, in no way do I mean to offend you work moylan. Just my personal opinion. :)

[moylan]

Yeah nah, thats allright, ive only just started this stuff about 5 days ago, im still learning ;)

Atleast i got the part right how i got the fence out of the picture :p

[littlealbert]

I like the stormy one ;)