Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Griffith Observatory - above LA
X-Pro1 and 23mm Lens @ f/8
Critique Welcomed Observing The Storm
- Thread starter Chris Dodkin
- Start date
Griffith Observatory - above LA
X-Pro1 and 23mm Lens @ f/8
Glenn Clabo
Well-Known Member
Man...that's really an atmospheric shot. Love the moody feeling. You are rolling high on the sky thing Chris.
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Yes, superb, and what a wonderful building. Have you been inside, Chris? Looked through their telescopes? I have a friend who, though now retired, used to run the observatory in Dundee. I saw Patrick Moore there when I was a kid...a few other stars too 
Pete Askew
Admin
Nice, nice, nice. I might be tempted to open the shadows on the two outer domes a touch though. What do you think?
Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Thanks Glenn - we get so little 'weather' here that I tend to go crazy when some rolls in!
Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
I didn't have time yesterday Rob, was on my way to a meeting and just had 20 min to spare, but I do plan to return and have a proper look.Yes, superb, and what a wonderful building. Have you been inside, Chris? Looked through their telescopes? I have a friend who, though now retired, used to run the observatory in Dundee. I saw Patrick Moore there when I was a kid...a few other stars too
Patrick Moore - now that brings back memories - is he still on TV in Blighty?
Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Thanks Pete - I had the same thought, but my initial play with structure to see if that opened them up caused too many artifacts - maybe a straight brightness lift in NIK....
Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Here you go - lighter domes and a few other tweaks!
Glen Roberts
Well-Known Member
Sadly not, he died Dec 2012
Pete Askew
Admin
And Brian May has just bought his house in Selsey!
I find that much more balanced Chris. What do you think?
I find that much more balanced Chris. What do you think?
Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Keith Hollister
Well-Known Member
Cool location and photo Chris. This was used in the final scene in the movie The Rocketeer.
Not to nitpick (well actually that's exactly what I'm about to do), but ...
Not to nitpick (well actually that's exactly what I'm about to do), but ...
- There is something slightly odd about the perspective. the building looks a little tilted, but the lamppost on the left and the building on the right are clearly parallel to the sides of the frame. And if you moved your position to the right to keep the obelisk from obscuring the front door, I would have expected the tilt to be the other direction. What am I missing?
- Did you add grain via SEFP? Or was there noise buildup from the post processing? Looks noisy for a Fuji file
- I see what appears to be sharpening halos on the outside domes and maybe the gizmo on the top of the obelisk?
- Probably the easiest way to dodge the domes without being really careful on the masking is with a Color Control Point in the Nik tools (or just use Vivezia). This might be related to #3, although I see some of the haloing in the original as well.
Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Thanks Keith
I think the building being on a slight rise and my angle of view is generating an optical illusion - the camera was all squared up using the artificial horizon, and then the perspective keystone was taken out using the perspective tool in ACR.
The grain was added with a film SIM in NIK silver FX - Ilford PanF if I remember correctly
I think the halo effect is from NIK's HDR software - the image is actually 5 exposures (-2 to +2 EV) combined in color, then modified into B&W using Silver FX - I looked at trying to get a cleaner edge on the domes, but in two attempts I essentially got back to the same place, and decided I'd leave it at that for now, as I like the overall look and feel.
SilverFX provided the same level of point control for dome dodging, I just had to insert additional control points in the surrounding clouds to ensure there was no overspill - probbaly would have been easier to do it first in color!
I think the building being on a slight rise and my angle of view is generating an optical illusion - the camera was all squared up using the artificial horizon, and then the perspective keystone was taken out using the perspective tool in ACR.
The grain was added with a film SIM in NIK silver FX - Ilford PanF if I remember correctly
I think the halo effect is from NIK's HDR software - the image is actually 5 exposures (-2 to +2 EV) combined in color, then modified into B&W using Silver FX - I looked at trying to get a cleaner edge on the domes, but in two attempts I essentially got back to the same place, and decided I'd leave it at that for now, as I like the overall look and feel.
SilverFX provided the same level of point control for dome dodging, I just had to insert additional control points in the surrounding clouds to ensure there was no overspill - probbaly would have been easier to do it first in color!
Pete Askew
Admin
Chris, try clone darken from a sample of the sky adjacent to the domes etc. That will darken out the while boundary but of course it won't affect the darker domes themselves.
Keith Hollister
Well-Known Member
I figured it was some sort of optical illusion - I certainly wasn't trying to suggest you had omitted something in post. I was just curious.
I didn't realize you HDR'd this (a good thing), but that would explain the halos. I have had some success with using the HDR method strength slider (or whatever they call it) in the HDR Efex Pro control points to manage those, but it is not easy nor always successful.
I brought up the control points thinking you might have brushed in a dodge adjustment and had a little bleed over from the mask.
I crank in just a smidgen more NR on images before sending them to HDR Efex Pro to keep the noise buildup down that seems to be inevitable with HDR (Photomatix is worse IMHO). This is really useful if you plan to add grain eventually as the SEP grain on top of noise can be a bit problematic. I also make sure that all of my adjustments are done prior to sending it through SEP if I'm adding grain - any contrast of sharpening changes afterwards tend to make the grain look more like noise instead of grain in my experience.
The alternative vintage look for a photo like this is to scale back the grain and get that smooth long tonal scale with steeper midrange contrast look that a lot of the 4x5 SpeedGraphic stuff had back then. The 35mm guys were always trying to push the film to handhold it - the sheet film guys had no hope of not using a tripod without flashbulbs, so they tended to shoot the film at true ASA or even pull it to stretch the tonal range out more. A lot of the f/64 crew's stuff has that look. It's the one thing I don't like about SEP's film emulations, particularly the faster films - they appear to emulate the look of the films as they were commonly shot in 35mm, not how we shot them on sheet film or 120. Tri-X is the particular offender for me - I shot a ton of that stuff in all formats and the SEP version looks like push processing at ASA 400-600. I shot it at 320 - different look. The PanX, PlusX and Agfa presets aren't bad, though.
Anyway, it is a dramatic shot of a cool building. If I lived on that side of the country, I'd be all over it as a subject.
I didn't realize you HDR'd this (a good thing), but that would explain the halos. I have had some success with using the HDR method strength slider (or whatever they call it) in the HDR Efex Pro control points to manage those, but it is not easy nor always successful.
I brought up the control points thinking you might have brushed in a dodge adjustment and had a little bleed over from the mask.
I crank in just a smidgen more NR on images before sending them to HDR Efex Pro to keep the noise buildup down that seems to be inevitable with HDR (Photomatix is worse IMHO). This is really useful if you plan to add grain eventually as the SEP grain on top of noise can be a bit problematic. I also make sure that all of my adjustments are done prior to sending it through SEP if I'm adding grain - any contrast of sharpening changes afterwards tend to make the grain look more like noise instead of grain in my experience.
The alternative vintage look for a photo like this is to scale back the grain and get that smooth long tonal scale with steeper midrange contrast look that a lot of the 4x5 SpeedGraphic stuff had back then. The 35mm guys were always trying to push the film to handhold it - the sheet film guys had no hope of not using a tripod without flashbulbs, so they tended to shoot the film at true ASA or even pull it to stretch the tonal range out more. A lot of the f/64 crew's stuff has that look. It's the one thing I don't like about SEP's film emulations, particularly the faster films - they appear to emulate the look of the films as they were commonly shot in 35mm, not how we shot them on sheet film or 120. Tri-X is the particular offender for me - I shot a ton of that stuff in all formats and the SEP version looks like push processing at ASA 400-600. I shot it at 320 - different look. The PanX, PlusX and Agfa presets aren't bad, though.
Anyway, it is a dramatic shot of a cool building. If I lived on that side of the country, I'd be all over it as a subject.
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Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
I need to brush-up on my PS skills Pete - never used that feature!
