Settling fog..

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys

I took this image a little while ago in a little town I was brought up in NZ. The town has basically died after the local meat industry closed, it was the main industry that kept the place going. ironically, Cows now comfortably graze behind these buildings in the space where the meat industry buildings stood. What you can see is the remnant's of a cheese grading & storage facility. As a child I remember seeing little ships docked at this wharf loading the cheeses and other goods for transport to other ports. This all happed before the trucking & railway industry's got established. I resurrected this image recently for a camera club competition where the subject was 'Urban Decay'. It got a 3rd place..., though some might be interested. Let me know how you would change it so next time it's a 1st place..

1D4 & 50mm F1.4 prime on a tripod.
It's a crop from a much bigger image showing a lot more of the river.

DON

[Dvir Barkay]

Very nice, moody. Really like the atmosphere, could be a start of a depressing movie out of poland :)

[Diane Miller]

Lovely, and wonderful misty light. My only thoughts might be to leave a bit more canvas on the bottom, so the reflection wasn't so close to the edge, and do a gradient burn from the bottom to give it a little base. (You have some in the LL.)

Was this a soft focus filter? Lovely effect!

[Don Railton]

Hi Diane & Dvir,

Thanks for the comments...

Diane, no filters used here. There was fog over the water which was lifting actually, not settling, but I called it settling as it suited the mood I was after. I have attached the parent image below which was a 4 image stitch which has a lot of possible crops including more FG as you suggested. I took some time with the crop in the OP although never really thinking I had it right... feel free to hack it around if you like.. With the parent image below I was conscious of the leading line formed by the near side river bank bottom left leading the eye straight out of the picture... I wanted to include this riverbank but couldn't see how without another image to the left of this line. Hope that makes sense...

I will also post another image from the local museum showing this port in its prime.. I think that is allowed.

DON

[Don Railton]

moderators, feel free to remove this image if I have overstepped the mark.. image provided for interest sake only...

[Diane Miller]

Fascinating old ships -- what an interesting place it must have been!

I don't mind the FG but could envision a version removing as much as possible of it (made easier by the fog), cropping from the left at the point where removal gets difficult, and possibly doing some distort to pull down the distant details -- a sort of view camera move. I like the inclusion of the whole building on the right, and might add a bit more sky on top.

Here's a quick sketch -- you could go further with cloning on the left on the full-sized image.

It's a rather different interpretation, but all's fair in love, war, and with a view camera.

[Don Railton]

Thanks for your time Diane.. I do like what you have done, espc the inclusion of the whole building... I think it provides a lot more depth to the image. In hindsight I should have moved down the river (to the right of screen), its on a bend which would have had me looking up the center of the river more and the river bank I was standing on could have been framed out a lot easier. Might look at tilt shift lenses also...

regards

DON

[Diane Miller]

They are wonderful, but a PITA to use. Quite a few of their advantages can be mimicked in PS, by compositing focus points and distortion.

They are better than PS for correcting the extreme wide-angle distortion when you aim down to include a shoreline at your feet and get leaning trees in the mid-ground.

[Morkel Erasmus]

A really moody, eerie shot Don! I like it loads.
Thanks for the additional and historical info too...

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Don, very nice scene and mood...I love these abandoned places. My preference is the post in Pane #4....I like the pano look much more...the additional "urban decay" along the left side adds so much more in my opinion. Nicely done!

[Don Railton]

Hi Andrew,

Glad to hear you like #4.. I too like this however I was worried about the composition, so opted to focus in on the buildings. It's difficult sometimes to separate the emotional connection an author has with an image from what might be considered good artistic presentation. Getting opinion from those without the emotional connection is one of the biggest values i find in sites like BPN.

DON