West Pier

[Stan]

What remains of the West Pier after the ravages of the sea and fire is one of the icons of Brighton, so having spent the day there yesterday had to get a few shots. Mostly it is shot from the prom and usually late evening / sunset so i wanted to try something a bit different - this one is shot from the deck of the East Pier with my 70-200, handheld, 1/250, f 16, ISO 400

I processed it normally in colour and then added a black and white layer and reduced the opacity to around 50% to let a little of the colour through, followed by some saturation and sharpening

Stan


brighton west pier by Neptuno.Photography, on Flickr

[digiman]

Re: West Pier

Interesting viewpoint Stan. Also interesting processing. Out of curiosity, why did you process that way? B+W layer at 50%?

Looks good,

Garry

[tesarver]

Re: West Pier



Tom

[Stan]

Re: West Pier

Cheers tom and Gary

Out of curiosity, why did you process that way? B+W layer at 50%?

just experimenting really. I was just going to convert it to B & W but liked the effect when i lowered the opacity of the layer

Stan

[digiman]

Re: West Pier

just experimenting really. I was just going to convert it to B & W but liked the effect when i lowered the opacity of the layer

Stan

Fair enough! Thanks for replying,

Garry

[Petros]

Re: West Pier

Nice shot and interesting effect.

I have occasionally used a similar approach but a step further to make a mask for contrasty shots - turn the black and white layer into a negative and select overlay blend mode. The dark parts of the negative image mask will hold back bright areas, the lighter parts will allow the darker areas to come through a bit more. Usually needs opacity below 20%. Won’t sort out burnt out highlights though!

Peter

[AlexR!]

Re: West Pier

I really like that, Stan, and the effect you've achieved. As a matter of interest (I like a good compare/contrast) would you mind putting up the black and white version?

[tesarver]

Re: West Pier

Cheers tom and Gary



just experimenting really. I was just going to convert it to B & W but liked the effect when i lowered the opacity of the layer

Stan

I knew you where a closet B&W photographer all along Stan

Tom

[mikep]

Re: West Pier

Hmmm, like that. I like the simplicity, with the pier just standing there, on it's own.

Thanks for the PP tip as well... that's the sort of info I find most helpful.

All the best, Mike.

[Stan]

Re: West Pier

thanks guys

I knew you where a closet B&W photographer all along Stan

I am not averse to B&W its just I take very few shots that would be right for the treatment, ie mostly wildlife

As a matter of interest (I like a good compare/contrast) would you mind putting up the black and white version?

In fact Alex I did not save either a B&W version or a colour but just for you I have processed the original file again similar, I hope, to what i did the first time

Here is the colour version



brighton west pier colour by Neptuno.Photography, on Flickr

and the B&W

brighton west pier mono by Neptuno.Photography, on Flickr