PAD 218 - Clocktower

[Mike Farley]

Day 218 and at long last the scaffolding which has covered Croydon Town Hall for several months is starting to come down.

Panasonic DMC-G3
Lumix G Vario 14-45 f/3.6 - 5.6
Focal length 38 mm (76 mm @ 35 mm equivalent)
1/500 sec
f/8
ISO 160

[Paul Heester]

I thought for a second it was another IR, based on the sky, but I see not. I really like the angle taken and the dramatic sky adds to the effect.

[Mike Farley]

Thanks, Paul. I took a number of shots, but this is the one where the sky worked best and gave the effect I was after.

[davidc]

What processing did you use?

[Mike Farley]

What processing did you use?

LR5/PS CC/SEP2. There was no processing in PS CC other than to act as a launchpad for SEP2 as I had done everything I wanted at the Raw processing stage other than the conversion to mono.

LR5 settings and image pre SEP2 are in this screen shot. I tweaked the Clarity setting up to boost the midtone contrast as a precursor to the SEP2 adjustments.

Image with LR5 adjustments

Capture.JPG (107.13 KiB) Viewed 2530 times

In SEP2, I mainly boosted the Blacks and increased the Midtone, Shadow and Fine Structure. I also reduced the Dynamic Brightness, added a Control Point to lighten the very top of the tower and finally included a moderate vignette. Screenshot below.

Image with SEP2 adjustments

Capture2.JPG (173.81 KiB) Viewed 2530 times

[davidc]

Nice explanation, those images are quite useful/interesting too

[Mike Farley]

Nice explanation, those images are quite useful/interesting too

Thanks. In this case, it really is the case that an image is worth a thousand words.

[Paul Heester]

Would say this is a good submission for the calendar competition you posted recently

[Mike Farley]

Would say this is a good submission for the calendar competition you posted recently

It's certainly one of a number of possibilities, although I have another image which I took recently and particularly feel that it more fully meets the exacting brief of capturing the essence and vibrancy of the town in one image. It's neither one of my PAD images nor published here on the forum yet, but maybe will be included in a post on 21 September when I can safely reveal my options for the competition.

[davidc]

What proportion of your mono images would you say are processed in SEP?