Bill Peake
About the Image(s)
Here is an image I took on the Palace of the Fine Arts in San Francisco on a trip there in August 2017. My wife and I have been fascinated by this structure and park after seeing it featured in the 1979 move, Time After Time. It was originally built for the 1915 Pan American Exhibition and was only intended to remain for the duration of that event. Built out of burlap, wood and plaster, by the early 1960’s it was a crumbling ruin. It was saved from demolition and rebuilt out of more durable steel and concrete from 1964 to 1972.
My wife and I spent the afternoon wandering around the park, taking pictures and admiring the scenery. This is one of the many images were captured.
The image was taken with the stock lens, a NIKKOR 18-140mm, at 18mm. The aperture was f/22 and the shutter speed was 1/100. The ISO was set to 400.
Post processing was done if Photoshop CC 2021. The image was divided into 2 zones, sky and ground.
For the ground, a Camera Raw filter was added in which a dehaze was done and the highlights, shadows, contrast and exposure were adjusted. Saturation and vibrance was increased slightly in this layer as well. A duck which was in front of the swan and somewhat obscured by foliage was removed. Finally sharpening selectively to bring out detail in the buildings, foliage and the swan.
For the sky, Camera Raw filter was added in which a dehaze was done and the highlights, shadows, contrast and exposure were adjusted to bring out more detail in the clouds. A number of water droplets were removed as well.
The image was then cropped to exclude negative spaces and to eliminate some rocks at the bottom and a clump of foliage on the right.
I am attaching the original image for reference.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
To me this is one of those scenes that could do with a bit more dodging to bring so me life to the building and open the very dark shadows found on the right side. It would take a careful hand but if you look closely there are highlights striking the structures caused the the angle of the sun Adding a bit of warmth (yellow) and making these a bit brights would bring this fine image to another level. The camera captured all this and just averaged the scene---you could bring it to life.   Posted: 11/02/2021 10:34:19