Hong Kong at night

[Rose]

I'd welcome critique on this please. It hasn't quite worked as I hoped and doesn't have the impact I thought it would have somehow. Also not sure about the cloud in the upper left corner. I'd post the original for reference... but I'm not getting an option to upload a file attachment ?


Night harbour 1 by Rose Atkinson, on Flickr

[Mike Farley]

Hi Rose

Instructions for posting images - http://forums.croydoncameraclub.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21&p=61#p61. You need to look for the "Upload attachment" tab which is next to "Options" immediately below the the area for writing messages.

I suspect that at least part of the problem is the differemce in dynamic range between the bright lights and the rest of the scene. With night shots it is best to shoot immediately after the sun has set whilst there is still some light in the sky and has not gone completely dark, a period which normally lasts 15 - 20 minutes so some planning is normally necessary. Alternatively, you could try combining multiple exposures, with one exposed for the lights and the other for the darker areas. HDR might be an option as well, provided that you avoid opting for the over saturated effect.

[Rose]

Thanks Mike - as often happens I didn't get the opportunity to shoot at the optimum time. I'll have another go at processing and see what I come up with. I've several other shots, some of which I think have come out better than this one.
I did read the instructions carefully, and I've checked again, but there's only one tab below the message area and I don't have an "upload attachment" tab next to Options...

[Mike Farley]

Rose - If you shot in Raw format, you could have options to adjust the exposure settings to create two or more files that you can subsequently merge, either in Photoshop or as HDR. The same might be true if the file is JPEG, but a lot of the information from the original capture will have been discarded as part of creating the JPEG and you will not have the same amount of flexibility. Lightroom and the later versions of Photoshop and Elements all have the capability to process JPEG files in their Raw editors, so this would still be the best way to go even if you do not have a Raw file to work with.

Good luck. It will be interesting to see the result and how you got there if you manage to make any improvements. That way others can learn from your experience.

It is strange that you do not have the "Upload attachment" function as I would have thought this would would be displayed regardless of which browser you are using. That's the theory, at least! I have uploaded a screenshot showing where you should be seeing it. If not, can you provide details of the operating system and browser so that this can be investigated further.

[Peter Boughton]

The upload option is available only to those in the "Club Member" group.

Rose, I've just added you to that group, so the relevant tab should be available now.

[Rose]

The upload option is available only to those in the "Club Member" group.

Rose, I've just added you to that group, so the relevant tab should be available now.

Ah, that's better - I thought I was going mad ! Many thanks Peter

[Rose]

Mike - I do indeed shoot in RAW. I used to use a HDR application to merge different exposures (subtly) but don't have that now on my Mac. Not sure how to do it in Photoshop (I have PS9). I use Lightroom 4 for most of my processing. Original version also now attached...

[Peter Boughton]

You can merge exposures with layers - it's a bit more effort than using a HDR appliction (and doesn't solve any alignment/ghosting issues), but it does allow recovering detail without losing contrast.

I don't know precisely how it would work in Photoshop/PS9, and it's not a perfect solution, but basically what I do is:

1) get things ok in Lightroom, then export three files with different exposures (e.g. -3.5 +0.5 +4.5)
2) create an image with three layers, the middle exposure being the base.
3) for the two extremes create a layer mask with opacity based on brightness (inverted for the overexposed one)
4) adjust the layer merge modes and layer opacity until it looks reasonable.
5) save results and import back to Lightroom for any further tweaks.

Not sure how well that makes sense? Again, I don't have PS so can't easily check terminology/etc.

[Mike Farley]

Mike - I do indeed shoot in RAW. I used to use a HDR aplciation to merge different exposures (subtly) but don't have that now on my Mac. Not sure how to do it in Photoshop (I have PS9). I use Lightroom 4 for most of my processing. Original version also now attached...

Rose, there is good news and bad news in respect of using HDR in Lightroom. The good news is that the latest version, 4.1, supports 32 bit HDR files, the bad news being that there is no actual HDR processing in Lightroom itself and it has to be done in Photoshop or another application such as Photomatix. You say that you have PS9, by which I presume you mean Photoshop Elements 9. Unfortunately, only full versions of Photoshop from CS5 onwards have HDR capability and Adobe has yet to implement it in Elements. A number of functions which were once the sole preserve of the main application have made it across, so perhaps one day?

I'll have a play with your image to see what I can do, but in the meantime Adobe has released a video demonstrating how Lightroom handles HDR files - http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2012/06/creating-32-bit-hdr-images-in-lightroom-4-1.html

[Mike Farley]

Rose

Using ACR processing, I created two copies of the image, one exposed for the bright lights and the other for the rest of the scene. I copied the latter as a separate layer above the first image (holding the shift key to make sure that they were aligned) and then created a layer mask for the top layer. Setting the default foreground and background colours to black and white respectively by pressing the D key, I used a soft brush to paint out the burnt out lights so that the correctly exposed ones from the lower layer came through. If you erase too much, pressing X to switch the foreground colour to white allows you to paint back the original layer. I then used a brush set at around 50% opacity to blend the sky from the two images. Allowing that I was working with a low resolution JPEG and have done it quite quickly, it does give an idea of what can be achieved even if the result is not perfect.

Now for the $64k question - is this what you had in mind?