London Window Cleaners HQ

[Vic Shaw]

Well guides used to say this on the River Boats on the Thames many moons ago before buildings like these became the norm around London.

Vic

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice one Vic. Always had a thing about reflections. Border is a bit heavy for me though.

Might be nice in monochome with a blue tone. What do you think? Although I do quite like the contrast.

 

[Vic Shaw]

I never thought of this as a monochrome shot, I think I will get on that right away and you right about the border I might tone it down a bit. I do like a simple black border round a photo though, I like the way it stops the photo spreading across the page.

 

[Pete Askew]

I agree and often use one as well both for digital and darkroom prints (I especially like using frame edge from 6x6). Sometimes though, especially when there are some near blacks at the edge, I will sample that colour and use that for the border rather than black. Somehow it seems to contain the print better. It might work nicely here using the tone from the building upper right.

 

[Vic Shaw]

thats an interesting idea I will try that. Just working on the conversion now. It's not a true stand out B&W it's tough to get some nice blacks in there and the flower at the base are proving troublesome I'm wishing I hadn't used them to hide some people milling about

 

[Barry Keavney]

I agree about the border, but I like the colours...
The reflection in the glass is great, and am I the only one that can make a "face" out of the left side ot the building?

 

[Pete Askew]

What, the one behind the tank?

 

[Barry Keavney]

What, the one behind the tank?

WHAT TANK????? ;-)

 

[Pete Askew]

It gets about!!

 

[Barry Keavney]

LOL, Im sure it does!
...but I still dont see it....lol

 

[Vic Shaw]

the tanks there as clear as day, cant make out the face though

 

[Vic Shaw]

not sure if I like it, I may not have converted it to how you had it in mind though Pete.

 

[Pete Askew]

You're right, it hasn't worked. It needs to be lighter and with more contrast. I was thinking of the effect that chemical blue tone has. Maybe a cyanotype-like effect with higher contrast might work. How did you do the conversion?

 

[Vic Shaw]

I did a slight HDR/tone mapping in Topaz Adjust, then a basic B&W conversion using the colour sliders to darken/lighter certain colours. Then a level and curves layer added when I was as happy as I was going to get I flattened the layers, dodge and burn next. Flatten again the added 2 new fill layers one green one blue change them to soft light and adjusted opacity. the softlight fill layers is something new I found the other week as I don't RTFM it's a long process for me to learn these things

 

[Pete Askew]

How about this as idea. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Vic Shaw]

thats much better then mine, although the plants at the bottom throw it all out somewhat which is a shame because the building looks good.

I think I tend to go a little to dark at times, almost like I'm scared of the light!

I have no problems with people playing with my shots.

 

[Barry Keavney]

Pete, I really like the light and colour in yours, but... the only thing I would adjust is the highlight detail n the cloud texture. Almost like, Vics sky texture with your foreground. Just a suggestion.
Apart from that, the photo and editing look great!

 

[Pete Askew]

HI Both,

The foreground has a slight green cast which could be got rid of easily in the original file. Due to limitations from teh small JPEG, I did some corrections with channels (mono) but then had to bring a bit of the blue back from the original as I couldn't get the correct shade using colour balance after alone. It woudl be easier to handle on the full-size file. The same is true for the texture. SilverFX from Nik Software would make this a breeze I would think but you could get there with PS alone I would think.

Don't be afraid Vic, the worst that could happen is that you could go blind!!