Friday, February 26, 2010

Wasteland

I guess every picture is not a "pretty picture"! I'll withhold the location in order not to tarnish the city's reputation! :-) This scene reminded me of what Hollywood movies always show us of the destruction man has wrought in some post-apocalyptic future so I went that direction with my post-processing.

Title: "Wasteland" (rollover)


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin > textures from flypapertextures.blogspot.com

6 comments:

Larry said...

Nice treatment. I think the shot is gloomy, but very thought provoking.

Cindi said...

Wow --- you nailed it! That is a great way to take a gloomy, blah image of a subject like litter or trash and make it dramatic. Was it the texture or the Topaz that brightened the building and the ground in the background? The dark vignette leads the eye right to those shopping carts and then to the building. That rollover feature is wonderful for seeing the differences in the original and the edited images.

Barry Armer said...

Thanks Larry and Cindi!

Cindi - Most of the transformation is due to the inclusion of the testures in conjunction with the Photoshop blending modes (I think I used Hard Light on the water and Linear Light on the rest) and layer masks. After giving it furhter consideration I'm not sure I actually used Topaz Adjust at all on this shot (since I use it on most images I kind of type it in the description automatically).

I'm really glad you guys like it; I know it's edgy and I was hoping I didn't push it too far.

Cheers!
Barry

David A. said...

I think you did a pretty good job of giving this photo that environmental edge. Good use of the textures. Provokes thought..... I can tell you, if I was Walmart, I would not be happy in the way you depicted my shopping carts :-)

Larry J. Patrick said...

Your post processing really transformed this one. Good work--both seeing something that most of us would not have photographed and then processing it in way that makes you want to look at it.

Stevee.green said...

There has always been something mysterious looking to me about this place. Because I have been looking at it all my life it conjures up deep rooted memories of Horror flicks of past I guess.
Good One