My Husband's a Photographer, and He Wonders What You Were Doing

[Dennis Bishop]

This image has a connection to the ugly jug one I posted before it. This building is iconic in the community where the art center at which I taught the class is located. You're looking at the upper part of the south side. Large open pavilions extend east and west under the roofs in the lower part of the image. Under the center, is a large arched walkway that opens on the north side to a dock that juts out into Lake Erie. Nowadays, people enjoy the water in many ways from the dock. Years ago, many of the people who came to visit disembarked from steamboats anchored there. The community has religious roots, hence the cross atop the building.

When I saw the dramatic sky, I grabbed my gear and walked quickly to the shore. For 45 minutes or so after setting up and composing the shot, I stood by the tripod watching the clouds move and took sets of bracketed photos. Finally, everything lined up pretty well. As I was packing up for the walk back, a woman descended the stairs from one of the pavilions and spoke these words, "My husband's a photographer, and he wonders what you were doing." I explained that I was waiting for the right sky. That was three years ago; I still wonder if he understood. And what she meant by "photographer."

5-exposure HDR
Nikon D2X (small sensor), f/11, ISO 100, DX zoom lens at 23mm

processing:

• Photomatix -- tone mapping for a good histogram
• Topaz Simplify -- preset based on BuzSim but with less saturation
• Nik Color Efex -- Tonal Contrast
• Red Giant Knoll Light Factory -- two layers, one each for narrow and broad light rays
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Stylize line art b&w, masked to sky only, Divide blending mode to eliminate the black and outline portions of clouds in white
• Digital Anarchy ToonIt! -- used a preset similar to the cartoon one in Simplify, applied to building except the cross
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Warming to compensate for the blue reflection on the building
• two layers of Fractalius -- each a different b&w preset based on Sketch; one to sky with Color Burn blend mode; one to building with Multiply blend mode
• Hue/Saturation adjust layer -- increased saturation of yellow in clouds
• gradient vignette -- all edges but masked from bottom

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dennis, I love the story! And the image. It looks like a lot of work went into it and it shows in finished product. It looks like there are either 2 floodlights or speakers on the roof under the cupola. One is gray and the other one is black - what do you think about them being the same color? I prefer the gray one.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . It looks like there are either 2 floodlights or speakers on the roof under the cupola. One is gray and the other one is black - what do you think about them being the same color? I prefer the gray one.

Hmmm. Perhaps they're speakers because they don't show up in after-dark shots. After looking at it, I think I prefer their not being there, at all. And not being a photojournalist, I wouldn't mind getting rid of them. Thank you for pointing them out. (I'm pretty sure they're the same color but look different because each is pointed in a different direction.)

[Maureen Allen]

This is lovely, Dennis. The lighting is very well chosen. For my personal taste, I think I'd back off on the light ray layer(s) opacity just a bit to give them a more subtle appearance. I agree about evicting the speakers.

[denise ippolito]

Dennis, I like the final result and can appreciate the steps involved to create such a wonderful image from capture to output. I like the entire scene and agree the speakers could go. Nice work. Do you think that Digital Anarchy ToonIt differs enough from Simplify to warrant a download?

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . Do you think that Digital Anarchy ToonIt differs enough from Simplify to warrant a download?

I have to admit I was surprised to see that Digital Anarchy is still around. Knoll Light Factory, which I use more often than ToonIt, used to be theirs, but now belongs to Red Giant. It's probably been at least three years since I bought ToonIt, and my records don't show an upgrade. For free, though, it's probably worth a try. There are many more presets -- some not really like cartoons -- than an admittedly fairly quick look at their website revealed. In addition, I think the user variations that can be made on the presets probably exceed those available in Simplify.

[denise ippolito]

Thanks for the extra info Dennis.

[Judy Howle]

Outstanding base image and processing Dennis! I enjoyed the story too. I agree about evicting the speakers and toning down the light effects a smidge.

[Bob Miller]

Dennis.....very impressive image. I love it just as posted minus the speakers. I love the light rays and plan on googling Red giant Knoll Light Factory tonight. TFS and giving your workflow!

[Dennis Bishop]

Dennis.....very impressive image. I love it just as posted minus the speakers. I love the light rays and plan on googling Red giant Knoll Light Factory tonight. TFS and giving your workflow!

Thanks for your comments, Bob. When you go to the Red Giant site, be sure to look at Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop 3.2. The company largely does video-related software, and they have Knoll Light Factory 3.0 for that. For the number of times I use the software, it's fairly expensive (although I bought it for less when it belonged to Digital Anarchy and was able to take advantage of the upgrade price after Red Giant took over and developed a new version). And the user interface is not all that good. Nevertheless, I can accomplish things with it that I'd never be able to do with any other software I've tried.