For this post, Sue at WordsVisual is my muse. She inspired me to find atmosphere, story and figures in the scenes I photograph.
I rarely take photos at night – largely because I rarely go out at night. But I was inveigled into this back part of Castle Square for another Chopin concert, in what I learnt was once part of the castle kitchen. I was planning to photograph the giant Christmas tree and the other Christmas lights, without much hope of success. So my camera was slung around my neck and when I saw the archway I snapped.
Looking through my somewhat disappointing haul later, I was taken by the peopling of the scene in one shot: the couple striding along on the left; the man standing at the door of the Chopin venue; and the three figures in the brightness of the arch itself. I was idle and playing around with Snapseed when I saw possibilities, mainly with the filters, steering away from my usual desire to sharpen everything. Here are the results. Take your pick!
The original:
Cropped:
Drama and lens blur
Drama and details
Black & white, details, HDR scape
White balance
Vintage; grunge
Oooo love the black and white. Very nice scene.
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Looks as if there’ll be a sequel post, following a trail of suggestions. Any ideas about getting rid of the lamp blur on the left?
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Looking forward to it. You mean the glow from the lamp that you’ve cropped? Not sure what you mean.
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That double lamp mid left, about halfway down. It should be stars!!!
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Hmnnn if you were in Lightroom I would say try the healing tool…..
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I agree with Desley Jane re: the black and white, and the grunge is a bit of fun. The first thing I would have done is to crop the original image, cutting off the right hand side to get rid of the car, and the left hand side where nothing much is happening…. Then play with that image, comprising of people, archway and roofs…..
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OK. I’m on it! Thank you. I liked the bustle of people but we’ll see how it goes.
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Well, you’ll still have three people under the arch, and two on the left…..and you might decide to crop those roofs out as well…..
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Like Sue said, I rather like the roofs in the original shot, especially the colour of the tower. I’d have cropped it to include that at least. My preference is drama and details. It’s fun to play…
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Crop away and email it to me and I’ll post it in the corrigendum / addendum post! The problem is those two wretched bits of lamp blur.
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I shall see what I can do, but it may not be as good as what you came up with.
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Haha.
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Did you hear me breathe in as I scrolled down the first photo? It’s really striking, and I wouldn’t have cropped the top either. Editing is such fun isn’t it? You should have a look a Nik, the choices are endless!
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You’ve tried this Nik temptation before, but I’m housebound with a hacking cough (and cranky!) so it may be a lifesaver. Now I’ll play around with the top. Another post sometime, with the result of my fiddling, but I want to fiddle round with childbirth first. If you want to fiddle and email me the results I’ll include them in the addendum post! There’s a challenge.
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This was a fun post! I really enjoyed it.
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It’s a bit addictive. There’s an addendum in the pipeline. Do you post-process at all?
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I haven’t done so, but after my window reflections post I’ve thought about experimenting more with some of my posts.
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Pingback: Playing with a photograph – Pixel Talk
I have played with your image – I hope you like the effects here! https://pixelalate.wordpress.com/2017/02/19/playing-with-a-photograph/
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I love the abstracted swirls-and-colours ones particularly.
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Missed this! I was Algarving it 🙂 I like the original very much and probably wouldn’t have done much with it… you know me 🙂 But I like the drama and details one too. Now let’s see what the experts have done 🙂 🙂
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