Bill Peake  


Last Store by Bill Peake

August 2022 - Last Store

August 2022 - Bill Peake

Original

About the Image(s)

Here is an image I took in July of 2019 while visiting Randsburg, CA on a field trip with my photography club. This was taken in late evening after sunset. It was taken with a Nikon D7200 with a Nikkor 18-140mm lens at 30mm. The aperture was f/4.5 and shutter speed was 1/100. The ISO was set to 640. Post processing was done in Photoshop. The image was first straightened and cropped. A camera raw filter was added to bring up the shadows and overall exposure. Brightness was increased on the building with 2 addition masked brightness contrast layers. Lighting was added to the signs and the lightbulb at the top of the store. The Coors neon sign was lite with a masked exposure layer and 2 masked color fill layers. The original image is included for reference.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted




Arne Skinlo   Arne Skinlo
I like the simple lighting of the building that give it an atmospheric feeling. This is a great improvement from the original. It reminds me of a scene from a modern western movie.   Posted: 08/07/2022 13:12:39



Larry Treadwell   Larry Treadwell
Like Arne I was immediately taken by the lighting you added. You processing here was quite good and skillfully done. Since you have produced such a captivating image I have a bunch of suggestions. This has such a wonderful "old time" feeling that it might be worth some additional effort. I would remove the wires from the sky area.

Now the lighting---which is really wonderful and as noted makes the image come alive. However there are several apparent reality flaws. The light from the bulb should have a slight yellow orange caste and adjusting the temperature would be quite easy. Second, the light is coming from the top of the building and shining down. It would NOT strike the vertical part of the step of the boardwalk. So I would dim that section of the boardwalk. Finally the Coke sign is not being struck by the light, but it is still quite bright. If you added a gradient moving from the right to the left of the Coke sign and placed it on a slight angle (higher on the right and lower toward the left it would look more realistic. With these changes it would be a good image to submit in a creative competition. As it is a judge would spot the oddities in the light, but they could be easily fixed and the result would be very powerful. I like what you are trying to do and it is nearly perfect.

Glad to see you play ng around with the editing. You did a great job with the pool last month and this is a good effort as well.   Posted: 08/07/2022 14:45:02
Barbara Gore   Barbara Gore
Larry, good comments about the lighting. When I composite an image it's always the biggest challenge.   Posted: 08/13/2022 08:07:32



Michael Jack   Michael Jack
This image has impact for me. I agree with the comments Larry made on lighting. The "prospecting supplies" wording almost looks neon-like to me. The whole building looks on my screen looks like it is leaning left. I checked it with a paper and indeed it is. I would consider making the whole structure straight. I would consider cropping or darkening more the structure on the right. Well seen and good processing steps.   Posted: 08/07/2022 18:32:10



Barbara Gore   Barbara Gore
I love photographing places like this. Nice job bringing the image to life. My only comments were about the lighting and leveling of the building which were mentioned by Larry and Michael.   Posted: 08/13/2022 08:23:47



Bill Peake   Bill Peake
Thanks for all your comments, they are definitely helpful. I will make adjustments based on your suggestions.   Posted: 08/24/2022 19:37:40