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View Full Version : Split Rock Lighthouse, Minnesota



kevinmat
11-13-2009, 02:37 PM
A cold, late fall day in Northern Minnesota. The Split Rock lighthouse, recently renovated for its 100th anniversary looks out over Lake Superior.

Canon 1D Mk III 17-40mm F/22 ISO 200 4 secs

Dave Mills
11-13-2009, 02:42 PM
Hi Kevin, I don't see an image...OK..Now I do

Dave Mills
11-13-2009, 02:55 PM
Hi Kevin, In this image you have very pleasing even lighting.IMO(others may disagree) I might crop out about half the trees on the left which would balance the image more to my taste. I might also crop the sky down to just above the small opening above the lighthouse. The lighthouse is in a wonderful location and would love to have the opportunity to shoot it....

Jerry van Dijk
11-13-2009, 03:11 PM
Hi Kevin, lovely place! Looks like you were in for some nasty wheather. Agree with Dave on a little cropping. Placing the lighthouse in the upper right ROT hotspot might work wonders! I might consider increasing contrast a little using levels.

Roman Kurywczak
11-13-2009, 05:42 PM
Hey Kevin,
I hate to be the one:D....but here goes Dave's (and Jerry's) disagreement....you have to chose somewhere to cut those trees and the V of the tree you chose was well thought out.... I also like the way the lighter rock is placed in the lower edge of the frame surrounded by the others. I love the flow of this image and while I am normally a high contrast kind of guy.....the color pallete/tones/ and textures of this are very, very nice. Leave it as is for my tastes...super job.

kevinmat
11-13-2009, 06:29 PM
Thanks Guys for the comments. I appreciate you taking the time. I took almost 80 images at this location and it was difficult to know which to post. I chose the image above to show a little more of the environment, with processing to go with the season and temps.

The image posted here is different image with a warmer feel which shows what I think you were suggesting re. cropping the image above.

It's a great location - but difficult to catch good light (especially this time of year).

Thanks for your comments Roman - as ever they are much appreciated.

Jerry van Dijk
11-14-2009, 08:07 AM
Hi Kevin, I really like this second image! I like the more balanced colors, the slightly warmer feel and the fact that there is more motion blurred water. The composition is much more powerful IMO. Great job!

Robert Amoruso
11-14-2009, 11:06 AM
Kevin,

I am good with the original crop for the reasons Roman suggests. I am not partial to the warmer version posted as the OP conveys they feeling that it was cold out as you mention. In the warmed version the message of the image is competing as the scene, fall on the lake would be known to me to be cold, the the tone says warm.

I noticed that the original scene has a green color cast so I removed that with a gray point balance. I then ran a reverse s-curve correction (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=24075) to open up the shadows and to accentuate that soft, subtle colors and tones. I was not liking the too cyan sky and water so desaturated that in hue/saturation. All work in PS3 and reposted. I would have tried a longer shutter speed to get a more silky feel on the water.

Great scene you have here and I can see why you worked it so much. Nice work.

Caveat: What I did in the image reposated here is not always evident until you try it and toggle the tweaks on and off. Then the difference is readily noticable.

kevinmat
11-14-2009, 04:11 PM
Robert, this is extremely helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. This is what makes this community such a great place.

I'm working on my laptop as I'm on the road, so color adjustments are not optimal. The reverse s-curve adjustment makes a real difference - I'm sure I have read this, but will go back and read it again to get hold of the concept. Looking again at the results you have obtained, I'm thinking I need to add this technique to my adjustment toolbox.

There was quite a wind blowing off the Lake and longer shutter speeds were showing some softness and motion blur as I only had a weighed down travel tripod - I guess we don't always get what we want on the day we have. This scene will be worth another visit when I'm back that way in the Spring - perhaps then conditions will be better and I will be better prepared!