Chureito pagoda - two workflows

Inspired by how different images Carmen and I came up with after shooting together at Chureito pagoda in Fujiyoshida, I decided to write this post to show our workflow and how we achieved those results.


For my image I chose a horizontal frame (I was wider with my 16-35mm lens) and very close to sunset, when the sun was down behind the hills on the right of mount Fuji. We were not lucky with tremendous amount of colour that evening so the purpose was to accentuate that orange that you can see close to the horizon.


I am a big fan of Sleeklens Photoshop actions for landscape and I am using them quite a lot recently in my workflow. So I started with an “BASE expanded Dynamic Range” combined with “ALLINONE Subtle sunset” (both of them turned down to 20 and respectively 25%). The colours where suddenly begin to pop, especially the oranges in the foliage and on the sky).
After that I decided I want to correct the perspective a bit (I know, I am quite a mess regarding the order of my steps) and I enhanced the highlights to be warmer (another Sleekslens action – ENHANCE Warm Highlights).


I applied a bit of Orton effect to give a more dreamy look to the image and I did an extra overall colour pop (Tone colour Pop action). In the end I did some Details enhancer (I was using an action from Jimmy McIntyre), I decreased the midtones a bit using a levels layer and I corrected the sensor spots. That’s pretty much it. I got a colorful vivid image, showing Fuji-san surrounded by tints of orange complementing nicely  the red-orange from the foliage and the dark red tints of the pagoda.



Carmen on the other hand had a portrait composition due to shooting with a 20mm Nikon prime. She also chose an earlier moment of the day, when the sun was higher up in the sky, producing beautiful star (the 20mm prime is extremely good at handling direct light in the frame, transforming it into beautiful star shapes).


She started with a Pro contrast in Color Efex Pro 4 (it used to be my every image tool as well before I got into Sleekness) and then she straightened the image.
Carmen, on the other hand, is a big fan of VSCO presets in camera raw, so she used Kodak Gold 100 Vibrant to pop up the image.


After that, it followed a very tedious work of correcting small details, cloning out unwanted elements and fine tuning various parts of the image: cloning out the wire that was hanging from the pagoda’s top, removing some flares, correcting the white balance of the snow on the top of Fuji, doing various colour adjustments using curves or hue /saturation layers in Photoshop. In the end, she removed the noise the sky (using Topaz Denoise and sharpened the image with an overall high pass filter.


The final result is a powerful image putting the focus on the beautiful sun star that balance well the pagoda and the majestic mount Fuji.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Great Wall of China - the modern wonder against the mongol hordes

Image
  The Great Wall of China is one of the most impressive defensive architecture in the world. A bit of History: The Great Wall of China is one of the modern wonders of the world. It consists of a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials. It is built along the east-to-west line across the northern borders of China, from Dandong in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, roughly along the southern border of Inner Mongolia region. The main purpose was to protect the empire against the raids and invasions of the mongols and other nomadic groups that inhabited the Eurasian Steppe. The construction started as early as the 7th century BC with few walls. Later, the isolated pieces are linked together, making it stronger into what now we know and call the Great Wall. Important enhancement of the wall happened during the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, but little of his construction work is still visible. The wall have been enhanced, r
Read more

The Bund - Iconic Waterfront of Shanghai

Image
What is Bund? The Bund or Waitan is a waterfront in central Shanghai and the one of the most famous touristic area of the city. Bund runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River in the eastern part of Huangpu District, from Yan’an Road (formerly Edward VII Avenue) in the south to Waibaidu Bridge (formerly Garden Bridge). Facts: The area along the river faces the modern architecture of Lujiazui in the Pudong District; making it one the most photographed vistas in China. The word “Bund” means an embankment or an embanked quay. The word originated from Persian word band, through Hindustani, having the meaning of embankment, levee or dam. There are various “bunds” in east Asia, probably named after the bunds/levees in Baghdad along the Tigris; the Baghdadi Jews, like the famous Sassoon family, might have given the name. This family immigrated and settled their businesses in Shanghai  and other port cities in east Asia in the 19th century. Lujiazui skyscrapers are the hi
Read more

The giant' path - Northern Ireland

Image
In September we had another interesting photographic trip, that went a bit in the shadow of the long planned trip to China. We spent a week on the coast in Northern Ireland: the Giant’s path.Was it enough? Not really. Northern Ireland is that kind of place that you can visit many times and get totally different feeling and images due to highly volatile weather conditions. Did we follow the Game of Thrones route? Not at all. We are not fans of the famous TV show. Therefore, we were not aware that many of the locations are on the bucket list of die hard GOT fans. Northern Ireland is special due to its glorious history. But we haven’t focused on the history, but more on the landscape in Antrim coast. Antrim is one of the most photogenic area in Northern Ireland and there is a lot for every taste. Rugged coastline, old castle ruins, charming harbors and above all, Giant Causeway, the UNESCO World Heritage site that is making the Irish people so proud. And a weather that
Read more