Witta Priester  

Sunny Isles Beach - Night Skyline by Witta Priester

January 2022 - Sunny Isles Beach - Night Skyline

January 2022 - Witta Priester

Original

January 2022 - Witta Priester

Original 2

About the Image(s)

Having temporarily lost interest in taking photos, I’ve been editing some older ones. These buildings were photographed (with my cell phone) on a trip to Florida in 2019 for my brother’s celebration of life.

As is often the case for me, an idea grows as I look at photos taken at about the same time. The buildings photo was from a beach walk, and the pattern “overlay” photo is a digital double exposure of two photos taken inside the hotel where we stayed.

The initial overlay was modified using the polar coordinates filter in PS. The result was selectively applied to the buildings using a mask. The sky was replaced with one of my sunrise photos.
See the intermediate photo, which shows 4 steps / details along the way to the final image.

Wanting to create a night-time feel, the colors of the composite were changed in Topaz Restyle, and eventually the sun was replaced with a photo of the moon. Since I felt the building were too squat, the final composite was elongated / transformed. Then I moved the moon to a higher position. Along the way there was quite a bit of selective lightening and darkening of the buildings and the sky, both in PS and in LR.

I like the final gold/purple duotone and the idea of the interesting curves that can either be viewed as part of, or projected onto, the buildings. I would like the lighting to seem more realistic (as if lit by the moonlight), but don’t really know how to improve on this. Perhaps you have a suggestion, or you can see a different direction to take with this composite? Ideas and critique most welcome.

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

Linda M Medine   Linda M Medine
How do I critique Fine Art. This is great work. Love the colors and the textures.   Posted: 01/04/2022 10:53:55
Michael Moore   Michael Moore
You really have created a compelling image here. You have managed to make the scene look both otherworldly and natural at the same time. Applying your overlay selectively was a good decision. I think it would be difficult to do much more with the lighting as the moon is behind the buildings so any light on the front of the buildings must be reflected from somewhere.   Posted: 01/10/2022 15:18:22
Georgianne Giese   Georgianne Giese
This is a very inspired idea! The only thought I have about it, with respect to making the moonlight more realistic, is to keep the moon in the lower position, as when it is lower, it looks more responsible for the light reflections on the buildings, as well as the fact that a high moon is not that large, but a low moon is.

Great composite!   Posted: 01/11/2022 15:32:33
 
Thanks Georgianne. I appreciate your helpful comments. Good points.   Posted: 01/11/2022 21:37:50
Connie Reinhart   Connie Reinhart
The direction of the moonlight is reasonable. The light is on the left side of the buildings; the moon is not quite behind them. A building across the street could be reflecting the moonlight onto the buildings. However the lighting came to be, the image is one of a sci-fi cityscape, just dark enough to be interesting, not scary. I love it. When working on an idea like this, do you know what tools to use or do you just experiment?   Posted: 01/13/2022 14:20:59
 
Connie, Thanks!
I do know a bit about the tools, so they are rarely in my mind. (At the same time, I do try to learn more and more about them all the time.) Generally, the experimenting that goes on for me is mostly about what images to combine, the color choices, the lighting, and mostly about how to make things come together.   Posted: 01/19/2022 19:34:09