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Author Topic: The last ship in the world.  (Read 3860 times)

stamper

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The last ship in the world.
« on: October 30, 2012, 07:52:45 am »

This is an image of the last sea going paddle steamer in the world. Leaving Helensburgh - Scotland - on it's final trip of the sailing season 2012. Sixty five years old this year and still doing thousands of miles in Scotland and England. I managed twelve trips on it this year.

francois

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2012, 09:14:03 am »

This is an image of the last sea going paddle steamer in the world. Leaving Helensburgh - Scotland - on it's final trip of the sailing season 2012. Sixty five years old this year and still doing thousands of miles in Scotland and England. I managed twelve trips on it this year.

Absolutely fantastic. Not only the colors are stunning with a great sky but the paddle-boat gives an out-of-the-time mood that I love.

Bravo!
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Francois

32BT

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2012, 10:09:56 am »

I would like the ship (vessel, boat?) to be better separated from the background. (Additionally, without the story, what is the point of interest for a naïve bystander? I do not know the story, can I derive part of it from the image? )
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RSL

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2012, 11:14:33 am »

Good shooting, Stamper, but a little work with a selection, gradient and blending mode change might make the boat a bit more visible.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2012, 12:07:31 pm »

Oscar and Russ have a point: the ship needs more details, especially given the title. However, when opening the shadows, they should be opened in unison for both ship and the pier, otherwise believability suffers. Also, the shadows should be opened gently, to preserve the sense of dusk and contre-jour. My take:

P.S. I got more and more curios lately (sorry Russ): why are the masts leaning so much? Wide angle distortion or...?
« Last Edit: October 30, 2012, 12:09:47 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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RSL

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2012, 12:10:36 pm »

Good conversion Slobodan. The landscape master.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

sdwilsonsct

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2012, 03:43:32 pm »

why are the masts leaning so much? Wide angle distortion or...?

The same reason there are racing stripes on cars?

I like the photo and the processing.

stamper

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2012, 05:25:25 am »

Good shooting, Stamper, but a little work with a selection, gradient and blending mode change might make the boat a bit more visible.

Russ the sun was setting to the other side of the ship therefore the side you see is in shadow. Despite that I had made a duplicate layer blend mode screen inverted and masked in to bring up the whites on the side of the ship. I thought anything lighter would be false looking. Regarding the masts there isn't any distortion that is the way they are. They aren't masts for sails. Regarding opening the shadows for the pier then if I make the lighter bits between the pier legs lighter then I need to make all of the water lighter or it looks false? Thanks for the feed back.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2012, 05:29:34 am by stamper »
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Bruce Cox

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2012, 08:51:24 am »

or it looks false?

There could have been movie lights and reflectors all along the shore just like in the movies.   I suspect the mental allowances we make for low resolution web images makes it easier to imagine that we are getting away with photoshoping already photoshoped images.  The thing I posted on your B&W boat thread was full of processing artifacts, but it looked "good".  All's fair in education.

Bruce
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bdosserman

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2012, 10:34:32 am »

Interesting shot. I like the sky and water, but I find the leaning masts very visually distracting, somehow. Not sure what could have been done about it, but perhaps it would have been better if the ship had been facing into the frame instead of out (eg, on return voyage)?

Brian
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2012, 01:49:35 pm »

... to bring up the whites on the side of the ship... if I make the lighter bits between the pier legs lighter then I need to make all of the water lighter or it looks false?

Stamper, your OP version looks reasonably good. It preserves the deep-shadow feeling of the contre-jour sunset. I was more reacting to Russ' version, as it opened up shadows a bit too much, in an unbalanced way (i.e., ship vs. pier), and made them too contrasty.

Having said that, my version, when compared to yours, is not necessarily better, just puts a different emphasis. As I said, if the title (and presumably the main subject) refers to a ship, than the ship should have a bit more emphasis. If it were about a sunset in a harbor, then the ship could go even into a silhouette.

So, if we want to emphasize the ship, one of the important things is separate it from the background. If you look where the left-corner arrows point, you will see the difference. Also, in the right corner, in my version one can actually notice the flag.

One thing caught my attention in your sentence quoted above: "to bring up the whites on the side of the ship." My approach to lightening shadows is a bit different: I want to open shadows, not whites. If anything, whites in the shadows need to be restrained (relative to the rest of the shadows), as we do not perceive things in the shade having the same contrast as when fully lit. "Bringing up the whites" actually increases the contrast in the shadows.

As for the pier: the goal again is not to "make the lighter bits between the pier legs lighter", the goal is to open up the shadows in the pier. And, as you can see, from the attached comparison, it does not need to make all the water lighter. My sky and water is practically the same as in your version, just the pier becomes a bit less muddy and a bit more defined.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: On a side note, my "leaning masts" curiosity has been satisfied by googling the ship and seeing it indeed has slanted masts and chimneys. Phew, I can sleep well again now ;)
« Last Edit: October 31, 2012, 02:40:06 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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stamper

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2012, 05:31:04 am »

Interesting shot. I like the sky and water, but I find the leaning masts very visually distracting, somehow. Not sure what could have been done about it, but perhaps it would have been better if the ship had been facing into the frame instead of out (eg, on return voyage)?

Brian

I had just got off the ship so there wasn't a chance to shoot it coming into the pier. The idea of the image is to portray it leaving and the people left on the pier is waving it good bye after it had left for another destination. As I stated in another post the masts are the way they are I don't intend to try to straighten them in Photoshop. Thanks for the feedback.

stamper

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Re: The last ship in the world.
« Reply #12 on: November 01, 2012, 05:39:58 am »

Stamper, your OP version looks reasonably good. It preserves the deep-shadow feeling of the contre-jour sunset. I was more reacting to Russ' version, as it opened up shadows a bit too much, in an unbalanced way (i.e., ship vs. pier), and made them too contrasty.

Having said that, my version, when compared to yours, is not necessarily better, just puts a different emphasis. As I said, if the title (and presumably the main subject) refers to a ship, than the ship should have a bit more emphasis. If it were about a sunset in a harbor, then the ship could go even into a silhouette.

So, if we want to emphasize the ship, one of the important things is separate it from the background. If you look where the left-corner arrows point, you will see the difference. Also, in the right corner, in my version one can actually notice the flag.

One thing caught my attention in your sentence quoted above: "to bring up the whites on the side of the ship." My approach to lightening shadows is a bit different: I want to open shadows, not whites. If anything, whites in the shadows need to be restrained (relative to the rest of the shadows), as we do not perceive things in the shade having the same contrast as when fully lit. "Bringing up the whites" actually increases the contrast in the shadows.

As for the pier: the goal again is not to "make the lighter bits between the pier legs lighter", the goal is to open up the shadows in the pier. And, as you can see, from the attached comparison, it does not need to make all the water lighter. My sky and water is practically the same as in your version, just the pier becomes a bit less muddy and a bit more defined.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: On a side note, my "leaning masts" curiosity has been satisfied by googling the ship and seeing it indeed has slanted masts and chimneys. Phew, I can sleep well again now ;)

There is obviously a difference in the way we perceive things. I didn't try to open the shadows on the ship because I didn't think there was any information there and only possibly noise so I chose to lighten the white area which means the whole area doesn't look underexposed. Same with the pier, no information. I like to have some of my blacks in an image at 000.000.000. or clipped. Some like to have details in shadows such as 15.15.15. Not me. I agree about the whites needing to be restrained relative to the shadows and I thought that I had pulled it off but others differed. We all see things differently? :)
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