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Nald


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Water III (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.0G IF-ED
Location: SLC, UT
Date: Apr 14, 2008
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO: 640
Shutter: 1/8000 sec.
Galleries: Black and White
Date Uploaded: Apr 13, 2008

 WOOT!! Awesome, THANK YOU all for the great votes and comments; this made my week!

I shot this photo in between the Salt Lake City LDS Temple and the reflection pool which is behind it. The woman in the photo is my wife’s cousin who is getting married in May and asked me to do some bridals for her because the photographer she hired to shoot her wedding and bridals wasn’t able to make it up from Las Vegas to do the sitting in time. I was honored she asked me to take on such an important task to document this huge step in her life.

The title is a bit lame and I’m sorry for that but by the time I sat down to edit something for the challenge I was way short on time (like 15 minutes before roll over) so I had to make it quick and an inspiring title was the last thing on the list.

Not much in the way of “Advanced” editing as I mentioned before I didn’t really have a lot of time to go nuts on the shot but I really feel that if I had, the shot wouldn’t be as nice.

Thank you for all the great comments and votes during the challenge; I appreciate everyone’s feedback.

Editing steps are as follows.

Ingested into Lightroom 1.4 and performed the following steps:
Cropped
Exposure: +0.38
Highlight Recovery +6
Fill Light: +2
Black Clipping +2
Contrast +9
White Balance: Custom
Straightened image using Crop Angle
Cropped down a bit more
Vibrance:+5
Saturation: +2
From here I imported the shot into Photoshop CS3 and continued with the following editing steps.
Created a background copy and performed curves adjustment to the layer using liner contrast then changed the blending mode to lighten and lowered the opacity to 30%.
Hue/Saturation:
Master Hue: 0 Saturation: 20 Lightness: 0
Yellows: Hue: 0 Saturation: -31 Lightness: 0
Blues: Hue: 0 Saturation: 23 Lightness: 0
Magentas: Hue: 0 Saturation: 12 Lightness: 0
I then applied a Black and White adjustment layer with the preset set to Green Filter and left it at the defaults.
Brightness / Contrast: 10/20
Dodge and burn
Applied a black and white gradient map and adjusted it until it looked good then lowered the opacity to 40% to dial it in just right.
Dodge and burn some more.
Border
Resize
Smart sharpen: Amount: 120% Radius: 0.5 Remove: Gaussian Blur
Save for web
Uploaded


Statistics
Place: 1 out of 207
Avg (all users): 7.3086
Avg (commenters): 8.5000
Avg (participants): 7.0714
Avg (non-participants): 7.4667
Views since voting: 8301
Views during voting: 357
Votes: 175
Comments: 52
Favorites: 26 (view)

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AuthorThread
 10/08/2008 05:59:34 PM
WOW! I can't believe I missed this because this is the bomb!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/27/2008 04:46:34 PM
Way to go Steve! Excellent image with the finish it deserves. New PB and a BLUE!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/26/2008 01:25:08 AM
Congrats. It's fascinating.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/24/2008 11:26:41 PM
Beautiful Congrats on your Blue
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/22/2008 11:09:08 PM
wow. this is such a cool pic. have you looked at it upsidedown yet???? you probably have, but say if you haven't...check it out hahahahah.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/22/2008 09:59:24 AM
Brad said it, Absolutely Stunning!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/22/2008 08:41:21 AM
Stunning shot here and wow - the black & white choice here was perfect!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/22/2008 04:32:26 AM
Wow! Wow! Wow!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 07:13:44 PM
Wow!! Stunning image Steve! Congratulations. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 05:06:08 PM
Beautiful shot. I bet she was very happy with it. Congrats.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 03:17:52 PM
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 11:13:01 AM
Congrats! This is so beautiful!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 09:30:40 AM
Very nice work Steve. Had this in my top row in voting. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 06:26:25 AM
Whoa! How spectacular! Congratulations! I love it when photography wins that didn't require alot of advanced editing effects.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 04:00:04 AM
Incredible job here, really awesome tones, love the composition, very nice work here, added to faves.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 03:11:50 AM
Excellent Wedding Portrait! This goes into Favorites for I must remember THIS ONE! Great Work! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 02:42:04 AM
Love it! She must be so happy with her decision to ask you to do her photos. Congrats! A clear winner.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 02:04:35 AM
If i could vote i would give this a 10, great photo, congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 01:23:29 AM
Great BW and great blue ribbon. Congrats for this amazing shot. Ciao.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/21/2008 12:12:55 AM
This is just perfect. Congrats with a well deserved blue ribbon and a fantastic image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 11:02:31 PM
Congrats dude, excellent shot (though I'd never expected to be beaten by a wedding pic)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 10:34:43 PM
congrats nald
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 10:13:58 PM
stunning...well done/congratulations
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 08:58:44 PM
again... WOW :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 08:57:34 PM
Wonderful photograph, made all the more meaningful to me because I was there, at this pool, in Temple Square, over Easter. I longed to have my wide angle lens with me, but just had the 50mm. Your ideas and creativity, though, have made a stunning picture.......mood, tone, composition, etc. well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 08:35:39 PM
WOOHOO!!!! What a gorgeous gorgeous shot! Nice composition, reflection, and black & white treatment. CONGRATS...

Just read over your pp work. You did all that in 15 min? It would take me hours to do that.

Message edited by author 2008-04-21 00:38:08.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 08:33:01 PM
Wow! Gorgeous shot. Congrats on your ribbon and PB, Steve.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 08:13:56 PM
Well done mate, this was one of my faves.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 08:09:25 PM
W00t! Another image of the Salt Lake Temple. Talk about a calm day ... no wind in sight. And what lovely exposure!

Congrats on the blue! :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/20/2008 08:01:47 PM
Wow, gorgeous shot! Congrats on your ribbon and new personal best!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
04/20/2008 03:52:00 PM
lovely i think i would have liked it a bit closer
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/19/2008 03:59:29 PM
Lovely
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/19/2008 05:51:29 AM
WOW :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/19/2008 05:08:20 AM
Nice. what a classy setting. I love the vertical feel from the reflection and the bride looks like she's in a fairy tail.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/19/2008 02:02:07 AM
very nice
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/18/2008 10:49:45 PM
Wow! I think you put this wedding dress at its very best! Its shape is so much enhanced by the reflection and the round shapes of the architecture. It's one of those pictures where I vote 10 and feel that it deserves more :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/18/2008 09:44:22 PM
Great composition
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/18/2008 06:41:21 PM
what a beautiful and unique shot! and love it in B&W.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/18/2008 02:30:07 AM
8 - Beautiful photograph. The 'water extension' makes this image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/17/2008 06:12:19 PM
Breathtaking! 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/16/2008 08:58:40 PM
stunning
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/16/2008 03:44:05 PM
This is lovely!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/16/2008 01:42:11 PM
Energy/Range/Story: 6/6/5
Composition/perspective/manner: 7/6/6
Aesthetics/Technical:7/7
Presentation: 6
Total:6.2
Vote: 6

Remarks: While the symmetry is quite successful here, without any asymmetrical ordering by weight (progression from dark to light, bottom to top), this quiet shot would, IMO, hardly rouse an interest. The resulting overall balance and the tension between the two diverging measures, however, make a compelling case for exploring the whole image, despite its singular, centred focal point. The quality of detail in the reflection, especially in the distorted parts, is a lovely asset.

The title, although unspectacular, labels the photo aptly.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/15/2008 05:49:24 PM
Nice reflective effect
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/15/2008 04:12:34 AM
I would have cropped it a bit at the bottom still its a great photo -9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/14/2008 12:28:59 PM
perfect. The lighting, the water
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/14/2008 09:16:23 AM
awesome symmetry, and love the fade to black.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/14/2008 07:02:40 AM
this reflction is fantastic!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/13/2008 09:49:02 PM
lovely. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/13/2008 08:52:33 PM
Nice reflection.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/13/2008 08:35:30 PM
wow...it really is a mirror...lovely image 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/13/2008 08:25:18 PM
wow - - I love your perspective -- that reflection is impressive
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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