Slave House

[Sam W]

A replica slave house at Monticello.



f/9 1/20, ISO-100, 65mm, handheld

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[Manfred M]

This is a very effective image, Sam. The B&W conversion is right on and I love the lighting. I assume this is a light fog that is illuminated by sunlight? The only thing I don't like is that young tree in the foreground. That is something I would be tempted to clone out.

[Sam W]

This is a very effective image, Sam. The B&W conversion is right on and I love the lighting. I assume this is a light fog that is illuminated by sunlight? The only thing I don't like is that young tree in the foreground. That is something I would be tempted to clone out.

Thanks Manfred. Yes, the lighting was from the sun at about 30 degrees from the right (east). I have a version with the tree cloned out but it looks like something was cloned out. Perhaps I'll give it another try.

[John 2]

............................. The only thing I don't like is that young tree in the foreground. That is something I would be tempted to clone out.

Me too but I really like the mono rendering. The way the background fades away is perfect to bring the Slave House to the fore. Is this just the light/some mist or have you applied some PP?

[Dave A]

That is a wonderful image. Too bad about the small tree in the foreground but I can see how it would be tough to clone out.

Dave

[Sam W]

Is this just the light/some mist or have you applied some PP?

Thanks John. I increased the blue luminosity and brushed in a slight increase of highlight in that area...although there is not much difference in the before/after.

[Sam W]

That is a wonderful image. Too bad about the small tree in the foreground but I can see how it would be tough to clone out.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I'll try the cloning-out again on the next rainy day.

[Wavelength]

A superb image; it is a very powerful story teller; yes the slender stem is a distractor there, but such things we are helpless about

[John 2]

Thanks Dave. I'll try the cloning-out again on the next rainy day.

Had a play Sam. If you have PS and the use of a Spot Healing Brush, it responds quite well and needs very little cleaning up afterwards.

[Manfred M]

Had a play Sam. If you have PS and the use of a Spot Healing Brush, it responds quite well and needs very little cleaning up afterwards.

And is far less risky than taking a saw along and removing the offending tree physically!

[carloshpvp]

Great image. I'm impressed with the handholding of 65mm at 1/20... very well done!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi John,

I agree that young tree looks very incongruous - it makes me wonder why the site custodians even planted it there, since I doubt whoever originally built such slave houses would have put a young tree amongst those older ones. Still, I guess they have to maintain the site for generations to come and if some of the mature trees are 'on their last legs', they need to bring on replacements.

With regard to removing it electronically, I am another that now uses the Spot Healing Tool (in PS CC) over the Clone tool in many instances. It occurs to me that if you do want to try that, I suspect the Spot Healing Tool (SHT) will perform far better working with a colour image than the monochrome, so if you have a psd file saved prior to, or containing a colour layer, use that in preference to simply taking the above mono jpg image in to PS CC and attempting it. If necessary though, you might have to go back to the RAW capture (which should at least have remembered whatever you did in ACR).

I'd tackle it; at 100%, in small areas at a time, varying the brush size as appropriate, if unhappy with any edit, use Undo History list to go back just one or two steps, change the brush size slightly and/or placement, and try again. I might even save versions at odd times with different file names, to ensure that a mistake late in the workflow allowed access to a half done version without having to start over from scratch.

It will be tedious, you will need to tackle each branch and twig individually, I would try a brush diameter between 2 and 3 times the diameter of the branch or twig I was working on at the time - you'll soon discover what works well for retaining the background log continuity.

BTW, you do it as a series of click and drags, not individual spot clicks, despite the name of the tool - sorry if that stating the obvious, but if you're used to using the SHT to just zap spots, it can be a habit/practice you don't even know you have.

I would work on straight sections of branch only and treat each T-junction in a branch as a place to let go (of mouse button) and start the next section as a separate operation.

Good luck, Dave

[Digital]

Sam, nice capture. I was at Monticello years ago. A very impressive place.



Bruce

[Sam W]

Hi John,

I agree that young tree looks very incongruous - it makes me wonder why the site custodians even planted it there, since I doubt whoever originally built such slave houses would have put a young tree amongst those older ones. Still, I guess they have to maintain the site for generations to come and if some of the mature trees are 'on their last legs', they need to bring on replacements.

With regard to removing it electronically, I am another that now uses the Spot Healing Tool (in PS CC) over the Clone tool in many instances. It occurs to me that if you do want to try that, I suspect the Spot Healing Tool (SHT) will perform far better working with a colour image than the monochrome, so if you have a psd file saved prior to, or containing a colour layer, use that in preference to simply taking the above mono jpg image in to PS CC and attempting it. If necessary though, you might have to go back to the RAW capture (which should at least have remembered whatever you did in ACR).

I'd tackle it; at 100%, in small areas at a time, varying the brush size as appropriate, if unhappy with any edit, use Undo History list to go back just one or two steps, change the brush size slightly and/or placement, and try again. I might even save versions at odd times with different file names, to ensure that a mistake late in the workflow allowed access to a half done version without having to start over from scratch.

It will be tedious, you will need to tackle each branch and twig individually, I would try a brush diameter between 2 and 3 times the diameter of the branch or twig I was working on at the time - you'll soon discover what works well for retaining the background log continuity.

BTW, you do it as a series of click and drags, not individual spot clicks, despite the name of the tool - sorry if that stating the obvious, but if you're used to using the SHT to just zap spots, it can be a habit/practice you don't even know you have.

I would work on straight sections of branch only and treat each T-junction in a branch as a place to let go (of mouse button) and start the next section as a separate operation.

Good luck, Dave

Thanks Dave. To make it really look authentic (late 1700's I should clone out the mature trees . In my eye's mind I did try to imagine just that. For that reason I did not really mind the young tree although I agree it is very distracting in the photo.

I have not purchased PS yet and do most of my editing in LR. I believe I can do well enough in LR. I think your suggestion to use the colour version is the best approach as much as I hate to try to recreate the B&W white refinements. I have removed tree limbs before and agree that your suggestions are the best approach.

[Dave Humphries]

To make it really look authentic (late 1700's I should clone out the mature trees

Yeah, I walked right in to that one

I have not purchased PS yet and do most of my editing in LR. I believe I can do well enough in LR. I think your suggestion to use the colour version is the best approach as much as I hate to try to recreate the B&W white refinements. I have removed tree limbs before and agree that your suggestions are the best approach.

Ah, yes, I keep forgetting that LR (and ACR) has a spot healing function too - I don't think its automatics will be as good as those in full blown PS (which has all the content aware code in), but I might be wrong there; since I so rarely use it (in ACR).

Cheers, Dave

PS apologies is I was teaching you to 'suck (the proverbial) eggs' on the SHT, but someone might find it helpful one day.

[NorthernFocus]

This is really an excellent image. The haze/fog produced a great effect. Nicely done.

[Rebel]

Nice image Sam!

[tao2]

Really like the avenue of trees (sans the sapling mentioned by others).

For my tastes, it's too "manufactured". Too much contrast and sharpening. Not enough tones tae balance the photo. Looks like the shadows have been brought up too much, e.g. the wood on the left (next tae the house roof) and the small part of the garden, have lost almost all detail and texture.

Ah'd be looking at f13 tae do the avenue justice, though given the light mebbe needing a tripod since there is evidence of camera shake.

[Sam W]

Really like the avenue of trees (sans the sapling mentioned by others).

For my tastes, it's too "manufactured". Too much contrast and sharpening. Not enough tones tae balance the photo. Looks like the shadows have been brought up too much, e.g. the wood on the left (next tae the house roof) and the small part of the garden, have lost almost all detail and texture.

Ah'd be looking at f13 tae do the avenue justice, though given the light mebbe needing a tripod since there is evidence of camera shake.

Thanks Boab, I appreciate your detailed comments and critique.