Rick Taft  

Old Dock Posts by Rick Taft

December 2024 - Old Dock Posts

About the Image(s)

Description: Seaweed-encrusted Wood dock posts in a lake in Inverness

Intent: While walking along the beach of a lake in Inverness, Scotland I saw a cluster of weather-beaten and overgrown posts sticking out of the water, obviously part of an old dock that rotted away long ago. I wanted a shot that captured the texture and color of the seaweed encrusting the posts, as well as of the old wood itself.

Edit: All edits done in Capture One v. 16.3. The shot was a bit underexposed out of camera to keep the sky from blowing out. Initial edits were to use the levels tool to push the white point and black point in a bit, drop highlights a bit and recover some shadows. I did a luma mask to isolate just the posts in the foreground, recovered some shadow and also boosted brightness a little, and warmed it up a little with white balance adjustment. I then masked everything except the posts and reduced contrast, brightness and saturation. Finally, I brought in a radial mask from the upper right corner and across the posts and warmed up the white balance in just that radial mask to give the illusion of a beam of warm light coming in from that direction.

Tech details: Camera: Sony A7Riii Lens: Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G. Focal length: 70 mm. ISO: 100. Shot in Aperture Priority mode with aperture set at f/16. Camera picked shutter speed of 1/25 sec. Tripod.

4 comments posted

Linnea Matthiesen
WOW! Your post processing skill are great. Please feel free to give me some hints for post processing. That is what I hope to work on at this time. I think you have a good eye for the textures and the different subjects. Both are evident in this image. There are only two things in this image that cause distractions for me. First, in my opinion, the background should be more out of focus, or a shallower depth of field should have been used. I think the subject would stand out if that could be done. I do understand why you may not have been able to achieve this in camera. Again, just my opinion. Second, there seems to be a post, that is in the background, just to the left of your subject posts, that has merged with your subject. If you intended this, and I am looking at this wrong, please disregard this comment. The other post that is back there is also a bit distracting, in my opinion. I would remove both. Ultimately, Great job and I need the hints for post processing.   Posted: 12/13/2024 01:23:49
Lori Azevedo   Lori Azevedo
Hi Rick: I love this image. Love the texture and colors. One would think that f4 would give you a more blurred background. However, I wonder if you had made it shallower you may have missed the last posts. My only other thought is I would have liked to have a little more space to the right. It seems a little tight to me. But who know maybe there was an outhouse we didn't want to see :-)   Posted: 12/16/2024 22:31:55
Alec Chester   Alec Chester
Rick, This is a most interesting image. The angles of the branches are perfect and serve as leading lines. I tried a few things, just for interest. I increased sharpening, brought out the shadows and darkened the sky, none of which made a great deal of difference.   Posted: 12/17/2024 19:08:53
Comment Image
Carol Heffernan   Carol Heffernan
Rick, What an unusual image. The detail is great on the seaweed and poles. I am slightly distracted by the background (butlove the colors) but more distracted by the seaweed (which is unavoidable). I like the way the poles crisscross, but maybe would take out the one on the far left since only half of it is in the image.   Posted: 12/18/2024 21:26:15

 

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