Hi all, I'm new to this group. I've been a hobby photographer for several years now using mostly Lightroom but recently have started playing around with Photoshop. I watched the free tutorial, lesson 1 in photographing the world as well as Eli Lopcardi's where he edits his famous subway station shot. I took some of this knowledge back to this image I shot 2 years ago. The original image was pretty blown out in the middle (towers, etc). I used dodge/burn to highlight the glow of the arch and try try and reduce the blown out effect by the towers.
I know this is an iconic image shot by many famous photographers so by no means do I think this is the greatest image ever but it's mine and I'm trying to make it the best I can for me. Mt main concern is where the towers are in the middle I seem to have some black "haze". That area of the photo was very hazy in the original. Does it look weird to you? Is their a way to get rid of it? Any other tips are greatly appreciated
For comparison I attached the original that I edited in Lightroom only.
Thank You!
Dark spots by tower?
Hi Randy,
To me, the no processed image is more natural and obvious than the photoshoped version. I would try to decrease the orange color below the arch by desaturating and reducing highlight in order to obtain something a little bit more natural. The goal of my proposal is to leave the background. It's always more hazardous to increase the quantity of informations in a photography than decreasing. That's why I would try to reduce highlights to get a more a more natural texture below the arch.
David
Yeah Id agree that the dark spots don't look great, even though they are natural. Your correction should be more selective, by raising the exposure on those dark spots you also blew out part of the background on the right side.
The other issue I see with this shot is the bottom of that rock structure looks blown out with orange.
Also, you had some banding in the top left corner of the original image. The solution for that is setting the image at a higher bit rate and using a gaussian blur to blend the lines.
I always recommend using blending multiple exposure with luminosity masks in cases of a huge dynamic range, as you had here. So the result is the best and most natural in line with the situation in the field, of course, if done with a measure.
Requires a little more learning and practice, but because of the obtained results are worth it.
Anyway, very nice image from this popular location!
The non-processed one is gorgeous. However there is some conspicuous chromatic aberration along the top of the arch I would take care of. Apart from that I would approach this shot with a very light touch. Although the light is bright it's quite delicate. Sometimes the best thing you can do is leave it alone!