Congratulations Dennis!
This grist mill, originally built in 1906, was restored in the early 1980s when the site became a city park in Valdese, North Carolina. It was another find thanks to a Hampton Inn. According to the waterfalls guidebook I was using, the falls there wasn't worth a stop. However, there were two photos of the mill in the Hampton, and that led to a detour in our travels. The falls was slightly behind and to the right. The tripod and I were low to the ground and nearly in the water. The shot from the top of the falls has some merit but it features the building rather than the wheel.
Nikon D3S, ISO 200, f/22, nine-exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, zoom at 28 mm
processing highlights (The file size is a bit over 1 GB.)
- cropped substantially from the right, less from the bottom
- skewed and stretched in an attempt to correct distortion resulting from the camera angle
- It looked like water may be directed into the sluice on special occasions. I added some from Widow's Creek Falls via Photoshop.
- Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II preset, masked to reduce webbing
- Nik Color Efex -- Contrast Color Range
- Nik Color Efex -- Darken/Lighten Center, masked from wheel and supports
- Nik Viveza -- some darkening of replaced siding in the upper left of the building, masked from wheel and supports (so Contrast Color Range effect showed)
- Flypaper Textures -- two at Hard Light blend mode
- copy of base image -- masked to reveal wheel and supports, reduced opacity, Darken blend mode to bring back some of the texture lost during Simplify application
- Flypaper Textures -- one masked to sky, Subtract blend mode
- Fractalius -- three B&W layers at Multiply blend mode (one used only for a uniform gradient vignette)
- Alien Skin Snap Art -- Stylize Line Art, B&W layer, Multiply blend mode