Martin Newland, QPSA
About the Image(s)
This is a gas fired power station and it supplies much of the electricity to the city of Adelaide. Despite the ominous looking fumes emanating from the two chimney stacks it is only steam. A quirk of Photoshop gave it this dramatic look.
The weather conditions have to be just right for the steam to condense close to the Power station like this, so it is a matter of hit and miss if there is a photo opportunity or not.
The power station is located on Torrens Island (an old quarantine station last century) and is in the middle of mangrove swamps and the Port River in Adelaide, South Australia.
The image was taken just before sunset and has had a lot of work done on it to remove power lines, enhance the mangroves, the clouds and the steam etc.
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark iv, 1/200 sec, f/11, ISO100
Lens: Canon EF 70 - 200, f/2.8 IS USM @ 200mm
This round’s discussion is now closed!
12 comments posted
(Groups 66 & 86)
I wonder if one of your colleagues will suggest a horizontal flip. It would produce the left to right flow of smoke, though I find the maker usually prefers the original orientation.   Posted: 09/03/2021 17:30:54
My analysis of the original image is that the eye is led into the image from the lower left side by the foreground water, then up the chimney stacks and then out of the image by the steam. Unfortunately, there is nothing to keep the eye in the image, unless it goes back to the brightness of the foreground, which is the dominant part of the image.
  Posted: 09/03/2021 18:56:35
  Posted: 09/04/2021 14:57:08
I opened the image in Lightroom and adjusted the exposure, lifted the shadows, sharpened the image, did lens correction etc and then moved into Photoshop.
I cropped the image so I knew the extent of the powerlines that I had to remove. I did this removal with a combination of dragging Spot Healing Brush Tool along each power line and the Clone tool.
Then back into Camera Raw and used the Adjustment Brush to "sculpt" the light over the foreground foliage (increased exposure and shadows sliders) to paint in the "sunny" spots.
Then back into PS where I used the Polygonal Tool to separate the chimney stacks and the powerhouse from the sky on a curves layer and painted in the brightness.
I then took the inverse of my selection and worked on the sky, indiscriminately moving sliders until I fluked the combination to give the sky and steam that I have in the final image.
I then spent a lot of time removing any ghosting left by my masks around the chimney stacks and any artifacts that I came across with the clone tool.
I hope that helps!   Posted: 09/04/2021 18:19:20
  Posted: 09/07/2021 14:55:11
(Group 42)
At first glance, this looks like it could be a poster child image for Global Warming. The ominous clouds are mirroring the dark smoke (we know that it is steam) that might have contributed to them being that ominous.
Great story. Great edits. I'm envious of your editing skills.   Posted: 09/17/2021 05:28:45