Armadale Castle - natures revenge?

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

A bit of a moody picture from inside the ancient and crumbling Armadale castle at the side of the main Clan Donald visitor centre IOS, and relatively close to where I live. This type of low key image may not be to everyone’s taste, but I just enjoy looking at how the building is being slowly consumed by weeds, as mother nature takes her revenge and slowly pulls the place to pieces, stone by stone.

Dave

[Justan]

Would you talk a bit about your processing? Your work typically has a very soft yet sharp finish, as is shown here. What do you do to achieve that?

BTW I like the image, except for the sign.

[RSL]

It's a fine shot, Dave, but I agree with Justan: the sign's just got to go.

[amolitor]

.. and no photoshop. Go pry it off the wall and reshoot.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

It's a fine shot, Dave, but I agree with Justan: the sign's just got to go.

You know even as I was shooting this I knew I would be hitting the content aware fill for that sign, but then I left it in as I thought it adds something - don't know what, but something.

So sorry folks, but it stays I am afraid  

Dave

[RSL]

No sweat my friend. It's your picture. I'm with you.

[John R Smith]

You know even as I was shooting this I knew I would hitting the content aware fill for that sign, but then I left it in as I thought it adds something - don't know what, but something.

The something it adds is historical context. It places the picture firmly in the now, rather than attempting to be some pictorialist confection where nothing contemporary or jarring must intrude. For the same reason, I leave power lines in my pictures, and get slated for it.

Leave it in, Dave  

John

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Would you talk a bit about your processing? Your work typically has a very soft yet sharp finish, as is shown here. What do you do to achieve that?

BTW I like the image, except for the sign.

I sort of discussed that on a previous post now copied below, hope this helps..

Did you use any kind of Orton effect ..?

No Slobodan, it isn’t the Orton effect - the effect (if indeed this is what you would wish to call it) is something I have sort of developed over the years, but it isn't a series of quantifiable steps that can be set out like a recipe I am afraid, but none the less in the spirit of sharing with you all, here is the best way I can describe what I did from memory.

I turned the colour image into black and white using a green filter in PS and added a slightly warm tint, which seemed to work nicely on this mainly green image. I then duplicated the original layer, then over-sharpened the new second layer and also added some contrast. I then duplicated the sharp/contrast layer and added quite a bit of Gaussian blur to soften the second sharp/contrast layer - yes I know, blurring a duplicate over-sharpened layer sounds counter intuitive. I then blended them and the original layer together using the opacity sliders, at say 30% for the sharp layer and 60% for the soft/sharp layer, over the original background layer. I then did a Ctrl_Alt_Shift+E to make a compound layer from all the layers below, then I added a vignette, where the vignette is achieved by darkening the dark to mid tones and lightening the mid to light tones with highlight and inverse highlight curves selections (Ctrl+click RGB Channel for light tones and the same selection but inverted for the dark tones, then push/pull the curves centrally) and then masking them in to taste over the compound layer.

All in all and if I am honest, there is probably much more to it than this simplified version (yes really!), but after much fiddling about, the idea I was aiming for was to produce a monochrome image with a sort of sharp, contrasty yet soft effect, that in this case also just happens to look a bit like it has the glow of old infrared film and which if I tried to do it again, it would probably look completely different.

Dave

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It's a fine shot, Dave, but I agree with Justan: the sign's just got to go.

I am shocked, SHOCKED!!! to see that Russ has actually suggested cr*pping the sign out (Content-aware fill can, of course, be thought of as a form of "internal" cropping).

I love the mood of this photo and don't mind the sign at all.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

The something it adds is historical context. It places the picture firmly in the now, rather than attempting to be some pictorialist confection where nothing contemporary or jarring must intrude. For the same reason, I leave power lines in my pictures, and get slated for it.

Leave it in, Dave  

John

Thanks John, you have completely answered my question, I felt sure there was a reason it had to stay, even though I couldn't for the life of me think why and you've gone and hit the nail right on the head for me - thanks again, I am dead chuffed with that  

Dave

[popnfresh]

I like the image overall. The sign doesn't bother me that much. But it would be no big deal to make it darker or clone it out if need be. What does bother me is the bland daylight scene visible through the windows. It seems out of place in the context of the rest of the image, which is quite lovely.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... What does bother me is the bland daylight scene visible through the windows. It seems out of place in the context of the rest of the image, which is quite lovely.

+1

Perhaps different time of day, stormy sky, or just manually blended?

[wolfnowl]

It's a fine shot, Dave, but I agree with Justan: the sign's just got to go.

Yup.

[jule]

Dave, I really like the sign. I think it adds another element of interest and allows me to ask more questions in my mind as I am viewing it.
perhaps... "Beware the triffads" (only having a little joke boys. :-) ).... but seriously I do quite think the inclusion of the sign is important.

Julie

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

What does bother me is the bland daylight scene visible through the windows. It seems out of place in the context of the rest of the image, which is quite lovely.

Hi Pop,

Yes I also thought a bit more drama through the windows might help the scene, so (confession coming up) I did try dropping in some storm clouds, then some flufflies, then some bland but more detailed clouds, but nothing worked, nothing looked real with the light in the image, and as I know how you all feel about cropping out parts of an image or compositing images to make a new image. So yes I agree the view through the windows are a bit featureless, but in the end I thought this actually helped the composition, because the main interest and focal point is the weeds and the stonework etc and so that is where the eye needs to be directed to I think.

The shape of the windows also reminds me for some reason of the expressionless face of a robot, like something off Dr Who.

But Slobodan, I do aslo agree with you and that I need to go back on a day when there is better detail in the sky - leave it with me...

Dave