Theme: Night Comes to Los Angeles

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

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I took this photo some time ago on a flight from San Jose to Orange County. An unusual flight path took us over LA. For packing purposes I had my 200f2 mounted on my camera. The sun was setting and LA was enshrouded in fog and haze and I was rewarded with, well, a hazy, foggy shot with very little detail... the histogram all bunched around about 1/8 of the tonal range. Now, 4 or 5 years later, how processing has changed (not to mention my skill set). Topaz Denoise, Topaz Detail, curves and curves, a homegrown contour filter (posterized at 64 levels), more curves, and an orange overlay at 5%, The airplane window distortion filter at the bottom provides the lower vignette ;-).

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

Well seen and definitely a unique point of view!! Great composition with that wonderful curve of fog stretched across the top, the cluster of tall buildings and the points of light scattered throughout. This is truly a fascinating view of LA!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Michael, fascination view of LA. I just took some images of waves in the sand and this is exactly what they looked like:S3:

[Anita Bower]

It was fun to scroll down to see the whole image. I first saw the top, and thought it was an ocean image. What a surprise to see LA instead of a beach. Are the skyscrapers tilting slightly to the right? I'm wanting more contrast and detail, but that might destroy the foggy look.

[Randall Farhy]

Michael, fascinating image with an unusual view. I really like how your processing affects the scene, it seems as though it could be a still from a Twilight Zone episode. Here's an alternate version keying on Anita's contrast comment- In LR5 I used a blue contrast filter >Topaz Labs Wenge Dynamic filter for fun. This one has a wide variety of interesting possibilities! Great capture, TFS.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Nancy, Cheryl, Anita, Randall,

I really appreciate your comments. Randall, your repost is very cool. I went so far with the contrast... you pulled out even more! Here's the original to see what I mean...

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D3 200f2 1/125 at f/4 ISO1600

I have most of the Topaz suite where is Wenge Dynamic filter to be found?

Thanks much.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Anita Bower]

Wow! You did a great job with the original image.

[Randall Farhy]

Anita is right, wow! Smog-n-Fog, would never have guessed the original was that obscured. Nice recovery.

Wenge presets are in the Topaz BW Effects 2, Vandyke Brown series.

[Nancy Bell]

I love seeing the before and after of an image. It really shows the vision and creativeness of the photographer. And it gives the rest of us a better understanding of the process to the final image. Michael, you had a great vision & very effective processing to pull your final image from the original.