Up The Creek Again

[Digital Finger]

AS Toby was kind enough to say this image worked I thought perhaps in the spirit of the new emphasis on learning forum it would be of interest to someone how it was done

Original:


desaturated with no adjustments



balanced in Lightroom (also added some sharpening and a tone which really should have been a later step). I tried exposure and contrast to try to get the feel of light but wasn't happy and in the end decided the clarity filter did a better job for what I was trying to achieve (but used a tiny bit of exposure and contrast to taste)




It also had some light graduated masks added - as you can see there's two almost identical at the bottom



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I had intended to do it all in Lightroom because original I wasn't convinced the image was worth spending too much time on (I'm very quickly get bored and frustrated with editing) but having got it this far decided that it could do with some midtown tweets and masked brushing in of contrast which I find Lightroom too awkward for so I exported it to Photoshop. Also I noticed the shadow shapes were becoming more interesting so I wanted to get those exact too, I hadn't been able to get them as I wanted in LR, I wanted a little more contrast in the shadows without making the highlights more contrasty

I used the plug-in Nik detail enhancer - I used a very light setting (which actually also has the side effect of lifting the shadows a bit) and I also tried Nik's 'tonal contrast' but in the end decided I preferred Ian Barber's (one of this forum's authors) 'Midtone contrast' action

then as you can see I added some light curves adjustments masked and brushed in and finally used levels for a small selective vignette



I also used Alex Nail's sharpen for web action to finish off


the unedited mono conversion again for easy comparison:

 

[Toby Webster]

Very interesting Simon, thank you.

 

[Tommy]

...and there is an image there, well seen in the first instance Simon.

 

[Digital Finger]

...and there is an image there, well seen in the first instance Simon.

Thanks - I'm sure Ian and Martin would have down it differently but one thing I have found (though Im still learning ) is I like to use LR for as much as possible
I suppose really , thinking about it, it boils down to the old instruction to process globally then particularly = and I find LR is not only a very easy to use and effective global editing platform but very intuitive too. Then finishing off in Ps isn't that hard.