Two weeks ago I woke up extremely early (considering I was holiday); I grabbed my camera bag and headed down to the harbour. The sun had broken the horizon by the time I got there, but because of the cloud cover the sunrise light continued for a lot longer than normal; until the cloud burnt off. I took a lot of pictures that morning and the one I am editing today was one of the first I took as I walked around the harbour. I bracketed the exposure +/- 2 stops, I didn’t have a tripod so I rested my camera on a post to keep it steady.
I merged the three exposures together in Lightroom.
I added a Landscape colour preset, which has a strong bias towards blues and darkening shadows.
I adjusted the shadows and highlights and added a graduated filter to darken the sky.
Using the brush adjustment to brighten the shadows in the inner harbour and reduce the highlights in the sky.
A second graduated filter was used to add more colour to the sky.
I adjusted the curves to add a slight amount of contrast. I also sharpened and reduced noise.
I stepped away from the picture for an hour as I went to do the weekly shop and came back noticing the blue on the tarpaulin covering the gig in the foreground was too intense. Using an adjustment brush I reduced the intensity of the blue to bring it more in line with the rest of the image.
Three more brush adjustments were added to darken the sea in the outer harbour, brighten the Harbour Masters Office and added contrast to the white tarpaulin covering the second gig.
Inner and outer harbour from left side of Charlestown harbour at sunrise with two gigs in the foreground
I quite like this picture, the colours for me sit between real and unreal, my memory though maybe swaying over this. I like how there are many lines but they all tend to lead you from the foreground gig to the gap in the cloud in the background. Personally this will be added to my print list.
Next week will be After Before Forum and Editing Friday will be back in two weeks.
Over to you. What do you think, let me know in the comment box below or if you like just say hi.
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Interesting walkthrough, I’m often curious as to how others achieve the look they want…..
Hi Sue, I generally tend to imagine what the scene looked like and replicate it. Also sometimes there is something in the scene that I want to emphasise and create contrast to make it stand out. I would say though, I do a lot of previsualization when i take the picture thinking then how would this work when edited.
Yes, I’m trying to do that more….
Nice! I love what you did and you ended up with a great photo.
Thank you Mary, I also like the end result there is something magical about the whole scene I think.
Thank you for the step-by-step instruction, Ben! Great process!
My Pleasure Amy I am glad that you like it.
It’s a gorgeous image.
Thank you. The whole area is gorgeous, I wonder sometimes why I moved away.
The things we do…… 😉
Wonderful editing Ben .. Super result
Thank you julie, glad that you like it.
Lovely image Ben. Really like what you have done with it.
Thanks Katie, I am glad you like the overall effect.