This low stone structure is one of two surviving storehouses attached to an abandoned mill complex along the Pawcutuck River in southern Rhode Island. The current complex was built in the early 20th century after the original 19th century complex was destroyed by fire.
For post processing, I took quite a scenic route to end up with a slightly off-tone black and white. The true black and white shot was a bit too harsh for my likings, so I went through an interesting sequence to soften it quite a bit. This started in Topaz Adjust where I applied a dramatic pop HDR filter. From there, a black and white gradient map was applied in color blend mode. I adjusted the levels for contrast, and then applied a dark pink to light purple gradient map in soft light blend mode. Again the levels were adjusted, followed by a deep emerald photo filter. Brightness and Contrast were adjusted, and then a yellow photo filter was applied. Finally, the hue and saturation were adjusted to produce the image you see here.
You are meticulous to keep track of all the processing steps. In Photoshop? I have found nothing I can do manually with Lightroom or Photoshop that I like nearly as well as HDR with Photomatix Pro. Have you tried doing AEB with your C 40D? Even using PP for pseudo HDR with just one image usually gives me a better result than manual adjustment. I can almost always find one of the dozen preset choices that I like better than the original. But using AEB gives the best result (using 3 images) IMO. See the explanation under my profile if interested.
@karens68@tobi Thanks, Karen, and Santina! Appreciate the comments.
@morrisroos Don, I really appreciate the detailed comment regarding HDR. I use PSE 10 with a bunch of plug-ins for processing. I haven't played around yet with AEB, so all of my HDR is really pseudo using one shot. Topaz Adjust has some HDR-like settings, but for the closest effect I prefer Redynamix. I'll check out Photomatix Pro. I'd really like to do some true HDR work. Now, in about a month I'll be upgrading the camera to a Canon 5D Mk III, which allegedly does HDR natively. I'm a bit skeptical, though, since I really don't want to sacrifice RAW mode, and I suspect I'll have to in order to use the built in HDR function. I'll definitely check out the explanation in your profile since I'm very interested in the topic.
@kannafoot Well, I am sure you have researched it thoroughly, but I saw no significant advantage in paying waaaay up for the M3 vs the M2 although I already have the latter. I would put the money saved into an L lens. Are your present lenses compatible? I doubt you would ever use an in the camera HDR. You want to have the chance to chose the best preset. That will continually vary and just choosing one for all photos would be very unsatisfactory.
@melissapike Thanks, Melissa! @morrisroos Don, It's definitely a huge price leap. My lenses are all L series - I finished that upgrade recently. (I wanted to concentrate on upgrading the glass before upgrading the body.) There's some functionality I'd like in the M3 over the M2, although I'm hoping to see some practical hands-on reviews before I make the leap. The HD Video is getting some mixed feedback already. Now, I've no interest in video, but watching that play out has me a tad concerned about other aspects of the M3. Focus is one area I'm concerned about since there were issues with the 7D, and the M3 uses a similar algorithm. You raise a good point about in-camera HDR. I shoot in RAW now since I don't want to surrender control to the camera's software, so you're right - I'd not likely do that with HDR either.
@morrisroos Don, I really appreciate the detailed comment regarding HDR. I use PSE 10 with a bunch of plug-ins for processing. I haven't played around yet with AEB, so all of my HDR is really pseudo using one shot. Topaz Adjust has some HDR-like settings, but for the closest effect I prefer Redynamix. I'll check out Photomatix Pro. I'd really like to do some true HDR work. Now, in about a month I'll be upgrading the camera to a Canon 5D Mk III, which allegedly does HDR natively. I'm a bit skeptical, though, since I really don't want to sacrifice RAW mode, and I suspect I'll have to in order to use the built in HDR function. I'll definitely check out the explanation in your profile since I'm very interested in the topic.
@morrisroos Don, It's definitely a huge price leap. My lenses are all L series - I finished that upgrade recently. (I wanted to concentrate on upgrading the glass before upgrading the body.) There's some functionality I'd like in the M3 over the M2, although I'm hoping to see some practical hands-on reviews before I make the leap. The HD Video is getting some mixed feedback already. Now, I've no interest in video, but watching that play out has me a tad concerned about other aspects of the M3. Focus is one area I'm concerned about since there were issues with the 7D, and the M3 uses a similar algorithm. You raise a good point about in-camera HDR. I shoot in RAW now since I don't want to surrender control to the camera's software, so you're right - I'd not likely do that with HDR either.