The picture of the wooden jetty and the flat smooth silky water at sunrise – the full edit


 Picture of the jetty in Corfu
Picture of the jetty in Corfu

I have been waiting a while to edit this image. And finally here we are. I really like this picture of a jetty, with the water flattened using a long exposure.

This picture was edited in Lightroom – there was no need to go to Photoshop which makes a nice change.

So I will describe how I processed this image in Lightroom. The previous version of this image I posted had the most basic of corrections. I do not anticipate the full edit of this image taking too long to be honest.

Crop

First job here is to straighten the horizon. It was quite a tight composition to start with, but I cropped in tighter on the right and a bit on the left to reduce the amount of sky in the image.

White balance

As this was a long exposure (60 seconds)correcting the white balance was a visual thing – none of the presets worked. This is in part due to the blue cast you get when you take a long exposure using the Lee Big Stopper filter – a 10 stop ND filter.

Basic panel

This was quite easy to do. I wanted depth in the lovely flat water, and the intensity of the sun striking the wood of the jetty structure.

I made minor adjustments to all the sliders in the basic panel, then went to HSL as I had work to do there.

HSL Panel

In the wonderful HSL panel I darkened the blues in the sky and lightened the yellows and oranges in the wood structure of the jetty.

Now I am getting there.

To emphasise the sunlight on the jetty, I painted the top of the jetty structure, not the legs, and added clarity, and brightened the shadows, highlights and exposure a little bit.

Finishing touches to this image were detail and a minor vignette,

And that is the image processing done.

Apart from a quick check in Lightroom Mobile on my iPad, which reminded me I needed to boost the exposure, just a bit, by about one third of a stop.

The image capture details were as follows.

  • Exposure – 60 seconds
  • Aperture – F16
  • ISO 100
  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 24-105mm lens
  • Focal length used 65mm
  • Manual Mode
  • Platypod Pro
  • Lee Big Stopper

Tomorrow the black and white version of this picture.

And then you wont see this image again until my luminosity mask work kicks in – this is top of my list for that treatment.

Rick McEvoy Photography Blog

Tuesday 29th November 2016

www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk

Rick McEvoy

I am Rick McEvoy, an architectural and construction photographer living and working in the South of England. I create high quality architectural photography and construction photography imagery of the built environment for architects and commercial clients. I do not photograph weddings, families, small people or pets - anything that is alive, moves or might not do as I ask!! I am also the creator of the Photography Explained Podcast, available on all major podcast providers. I have a blog on my website where I write about my work and photography stuff. Rick McEvoy ABIPP, MCIOB

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