Connie Reinhart  

Niagara Falls Church by Connie Reinhart

February 2021 - Niagara Falls Church

February 2021 - Connie Reinhart

Original

February 2021 - Connie Reinhart

Original 2

About the Image(s)

This was taken on a trip to Niagara Falls. I took 3 shots of the church with the intention of making an HDR image. But when looking at the images, the church was good in one, the sky in the other, so I didn’t use the middle exposure. I selected the church using quick selection tool in PS. The edges were crisp, so that was easy. Then the church was pasted into the dark image with the dramatic sky. Merged up then ran AI Clear. The next step was Precision Contrast, but not the subtle adjustments I usually use. I played with the sliders for Micro Contrast (at 0.46) Low Contrast (0.45), Medium Contrast (0.49) and High Contrast at -0.88. Whoa! I usually never adjust High Contrast. Hue and saturation on red, yellow, cyan, and blue. There is some keystoning in the originals, so I saved my progress thus far and flattened the image. Then I fixed the perspective and cropped. It pays to play with these adjustments; you never know what you will get.

7 comments posted

Witta Priester   Witta Priester
Connie - an interesting building and lots of drama in the sky, so I can see why you wanted to capture it. You did a great job of dropping in the darker sky, without any of those tell tale edges showing up. But, in my opinion, the picture as a whole looks "fake". Perhaps it is because I would expect this wide range of sky colors to show up as a light/dark "reflections" in the stones of the foreground.

Just for fun, I used the new Sky Replacement tool in PS and dropped in one of my sunset skies to go with the yellows in your original photo. This tool often does a good job of adjusting the colors of the foreground and other non-sky image parts.   Posted: 02/04/2021 17:24:23
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Connie Reinhart   Connie Reinhart
I agree that the final image looks fake. Perhaps it is the perspective correction. It makes the church steeple look very wider, wider than one would expect. The keystoning in the original doesn't really bother me; at only 5 feet tall, everything is keystoned for me. I just noticed that the left edge of the tower and the building seem to have a dark halo. Ooops.   Posted: 02/10/2021 13:01:49
Linda M Medine   Linda M Medine
Great job on this image. Beautiful old church and dramatic sky. When I am looking at this image I first have to get around the flowers on the left hand side to get to the church. I flipped the church, I know that there is writing on the church. I can't read it. I don't think the clock matters, I can't see it. This is just an idea to flip it and possible clone out the writing. I feel like I am not distracted by the flowers when going to the church.   Posted: 02/05/2021 15:15:27
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Connie Reinhart   Connie Reinhart
You are right about reversing the image. Why didn't I think of that?
  Posted: 02/10/2021 13:02:20
Mary Hinsen   Mary Hinsen
Hi Connie - I too like the natural perspective. I feel I am standing in front of the church and looking up at it.
Thanks to Linda for showing us the flipped option. I admit I often forget to check how it looks from both directions.
If you're looking for realism and place, then keep the original direction with its writing intact - it stays a recognisable church that way.   Posted: 02/10/2021 13:39:15
Denise McKay   Denise McKay
I also like the perspective of the original image, but with just a tad bit of straightening. I have never tried cutting out parts of an image and replacing them, so I can't offer any advice for getting a better result. But I do have to agree with the others that it doesn't look natural.

I like your composition and choice of subject.   Posted: 02/21/2021 09:57:22
Georgianne Giese   Georgianne Giese
Connie, I like the final image of the church, and prefer the flipped version. The outline of the church does not bother me, as it looks artistic to me. I agree with what others have said about the flowers. While I like the edging there, of the tree and flowers, I find that post distracting. You might consider cloning it out with Content Aware in PS. Also, darkening the flowers a bit so that they don't catch the eye first.

The clouds are spectacular, as is the detail on the church entry. Good job in capturing and using that!   Posted: 02/24/2021 10:33:42

 

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