Saturday, March 13, 2010

Transformation

Shot at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, the barber shop is an iconic image. However, in the first HDR image, the place kinda looks nice, bright and colorful. But, being an old penitentiary, with very small and clammy cells, it really is not a nice place. I wanted a darker interpretation of this scene, so began by converting to a high contrast black and white image in Silver Efex Pro to add grit and a darker feel to the place. But the barber shop was still the main subject. To draw attention to the chair, I painted the color back in on a mask, then applied the bleach/bypass filter from Color Efex Pro. These last two applications greatly increased the visual pull to the chair as the entering point of the eye, followed by the pull of the hallway.

4 comments:

  1. I've been hoping that someone would start blogging Nik software! Will read faithfully to help me to utilize them to their potential and to create wonderful images. This HDR image, finalized with Silver Efex and Color Efex is wonderful.

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  2. Great blog with very good information. Thank you for taking the time to help some of us new guys along.

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  3. Thanks to you both! I'm glad that you find this blog helpful to you!

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  4. How did you create the mask with Nik software only?

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