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Thread: George Washington Bridge

  1. #1
    Rhoads238's Avatar
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    George Washington Bridge

    Hey all,

    I went out shooting again after work last night. This time I went to take some photos of the George Washington Bridge. However i have been frustrated with the results. The sodium vapor lighting threw so much yellow light into the seen that I am left with a rather unnatural looking shot. I ended up doing a black and white conversion because I felt that was the only way to correct the problem. I am going to try going back to the location soon to have a reshoot. Does anyone know what wb to use for sodium vapor lighting?

    George Washington Bridge

    George Washington Bridge

    So after I shot these images I hiked closer to the bridge to get another panorama. It was from the woods, more or less. But from for some reason photoshop wont stitch the images together so i had to manually align the far right quarter of the image.

    Again the same problem with wb so I decided to do a black and white conversion as well.

    George Washington Bridge

    Let me know what you guys think. Comments and feedback are always appreciated.

    -Jason

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    Moderator Donald's Avatar
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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    I like the composition of the closer up shot (the last one). As to WB, did you shoot in RAW and then work with teh WB slider in your RAW processor? If so, what effects were you getting at different settings?

    I would have thought that the 'right' WB was going to be whatever 'feels' right when you begin processing.

    I wonder if it's a case of not the wrong kind of light as there just being so much of it.

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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    Difficult to advise on colour balance without knowing what 'natural' looks like at that scene. But very basically, if it is a little too yellow add some blue. Which, unless working with a Raw file, I would do with Curves so the variation can be applied very carefully.

    It becomes a fraction more complicated if the red also needs a little tweak.

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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    Jason I had trouble with sodium vapour lights some time ago. I tried changing WB and other colour adjustments but try as I might, I couldn't get the colour looking good. So sorry, but can't help. They should be banned !!

    The B&W conversions look good, nice and sharp.

    Dave

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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    Jason

    I like the images especially the 2 B&Ws. I have been trying to get up there for some time to take shot at the bridge. Did shoot these from the Palisades Parkway? I believe there is a park in Englewood also that might provide good access to the bridge. Also there is a tiny lighthouse under the bridge on the NY side. Not sure if you are aware of that. Great job!!

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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    When shooting RAW, my software has a white balance setting for sodium vapor lights. The default temperature value is 2700.

    I used RGB sliders that alter the color balance. Each channel provides values of -100 to 0 to +100. I changed the G channel to +25 and the B channel to +75. I don't know the look that you are hoping to achieve but the results were pleasing to me.

  7. #7
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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    I like the first version in color and the third black and white image, the third mainly because of the dynamic lines created by your positioning.

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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    Hi Jason,

    Really like your work and since I'm new to PP don't want to be presumptuous but took it as a challenge. Here's my result using Lightroom 4.2. I took the first color version then set it to B&W then applied split tones. The pinkish gray highlights in the sky are about right for around here. Couldn't do too much with the river.

    George

    George Washington Bridge

  9. #9
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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    Quote Originally Posted by Donald View Post
    I like the composition of the closer up shot (the last one). As to WB, did you shoot in RAW and then work with teh WB slider in your RAW processor? If so, what effects were you getting at different settings?

    I would have thought that the 'right' WB was going to be whatever 'feels' right when you begin processing.

    I wonder if it's a case of not the wrong kind of light as there just being so much of it.
    Donald,

    I think I like that shot the best too. Although the first one was more exciting to take. The cliff is about 230 to 240 ft high and is a shier drop. Unfortunately I am unable to do raw processing. I have a trial version of CS6 that cant be updated. My camera's raw format isn't recognized in the trial version. So I am going to have to go back. I plan to get the full version one day but right now the cost is just too much.

    Quote Originally Posted by Geoff F View Post
    Difficult to advise on colour balance without knowing what 'natural' looks like at that scene. But very basically, if it is a little too yellow add some blue. Which, unless working with a Raw file, I would do with Curves so the variation can be applied very carefully.

    It becomes a fraction more complicated if the red also needs a little tweak.
    Geoff,

    From what I remember of the scene. Everything was a bit yellow. I tried adding some blue in color balance but the amount of blue that was needed to cut the amount of yellow made it look worse. I also tried using curves but that didn't help much.

    Quote Originally Posted by dje View Post
    Jason I had trouble with sodium vapour lights some time ago. I tried changing WB and other colour adjustments but try as I might, I couldn't get the colour looking good. So sorry, but can't help. They should be banned !!

    The B&W conversions look good, nice and sharp.

    Dave
    Yes they should and thank you

    Quote Originally Posted by Stinky View Post
    Jason

    I like the images especially the 2 B&Ws. I have been trying to get up there for some time to take shot at the bridge. Did shoot these from the Palisades Parkway? I believe there is a park in Englewood also that might provide good access to the bridge. Also there is a tiny lighthouse under the bridge on the NY side. Not sure if you are aware of that. Great job!!
    Steve, Thank you. I shot them from near the Palisades Parkway. My friend that grew up in the area showed me the spot. I'm not sure which town I parked in though. Although I am sure that we walked over a small footbridge that crosses the PIP. Honestly i had no idea about the lighthouse.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Buckley View Post
    When shooting RAW, my software has a white balance setting for sodium vapor lights. The default temperature value is 2700.

    I used RGB sliders that alter the color balance. Each channel provides values of -100 to 0 to +100. I changed the G channel to +25 and the B channel to +75. I don't know the look that you are hoping to achieve but the results were pleasing to me.
    This is great advice. I'm hoping to head up there sometime next week and will set a custom wb.

    Quote Originally Posted by geoz View Post
    Hi Jason,

    Really like your work and since I'm new to PP don't want to be presumptuous but took it as a challenge. Here's my result using Lightroom 4.2. I took the first color version then set it to B&W then applied split tones. The pinkish gray highlights in the sky are about right for around here. Couldn't do too much with the river.

    George

    George Washington Bridge
    George looks good. Its always good to practice pp, even on other people images. This one was challenging to process I had to start over on both images several times before I was somewhat satisfied.


    Thanks everyone for the responses, helpful advice, and kind words. I'm looking forward to shooting these locations again as an attempt to improve as long as they aren't washed away in the coming hurricane

    -Jason

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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    When it comes to colour adjustments, Jason, apart from WB correction while Raw converting, I have never had much success using any of the Colour Balance adjustment tools. Which is why I do any adjustment with Curves and work on individual colour channels.

    This takes a bit more fiddling about but usually gives me better results.

    But when doing particularly difficult colour tweaks I sometimes use Curves Adjustment Layers but do one adjustment with the layer Blend Mode set to Colour (occasionally Saturation) then any brightness adjustments on a separate layer with Luminosity Blend Mode.

    This allows you to work on just one element at a time without accidentally making wrong adjustments with the other options.

    I often use this where I get excessive blue in a seascape.

  11. #11
    Rhoads238's Avatar
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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    Quote Originally Posted by Geoff F View Post
    When it comes to colour adjustments, Jason, apart from WB correction while Raw converting, I have never had much success using any of the Colour Balance adjustment tools. Which is why I do any adjustment with Curves and work on individual colour channels.

    This takes a bit more fiddling about but usually gives me better results.

    But when doing particularly difficult colour tweaks I sometimes use Curves Adjustment Layers but do one adjustment with the layer Blend Mode set to Colour (occasionally Saturation) then any brightness adjustments on a separate layer with Luminosity Blend Mode.

    This allows you to work on just one element at a time without accidentally making wrong adjustments with the other options.

    I often use this where I get excessive blue in a seascape.
    I'm really glad you told me about this. I still think the lights may be a bit too much to correct but it was worth a try.

    I think this might be better but I'm not in love with it. I will be using that technique in the future. It works so much better than color balance.

    George Washington Bridge

    this one is proving to be quite the challenge

  12. #12

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    Re: George Washington Bridge

    That is much nicer. For what it's worth, I wasn't able to achieve anything that nice just globally adjusting the color balance. Now that I know the basic look you are trying to achieve, it took me a few minutes to get the following look adjusting the color balance selectively.

    George Washington Bridge
    Last edited by Mike Buckley; 27th October 2012 at 09:30 PM.

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