What's to like?

This is one of the shots from my trip to Liberty, Texas a few weeks ago. I have to admit that this is a shot I suspect some (maybe most) folks will not appreciate. If I can't readily identify what I like about a shot I just don't think I can expect anyone else to like it...but I I can't help it ... I like it anyway. :-)

Title: "Long Shadow"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17/55mm f/2.8 zoom

Clearance

Another shot from the trip I took to Liberty, Texas a couple of weekends ago. This is the old Highway 146 bridge over the Trinity River.

Title: "Bridge Clearance"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Duplicate Background Layer > High Pass Sharpening > Merge Visible to New Layer > NIK Viveza plugin to locally brighten the sign and bridge elements > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette

Old Liberty Bridge

Here is another shot of the old Highway 146 bridge taken on my trip to Liberty, Texas a couple of weeks ago.

Title: "Old Liberty Bridge 2"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Duplicate Background Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Dramatic" preset + custom DeNoise to reduce noise > NIK Viveza plugin to locally increase brightness of the bridge > Duplicate Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Color Blast" with mask to block the effect to all but the warmer tones > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette

Old Liberty Bridge #2

Here is another shot taken on my trip to Liberty, Texas last weekend.

Title: "Old Liberty Bridge #2"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Black and White Conversion Layer to convert to Black and White > Merge Visible to New Layer > Topaz Adjust pluging to adjust exposure to reveal some detail of the structure under the bottom of the bridge > Merge Visible to New Layer > High Pass Sharpening > Levels Adjustment Layer to set black and white points

Old Liberty Bridge

I took this photo on a trip to Liberty, Texas last Sunday. I have always thought this old bridge, which sits next to the new bridge, has a lot of character.

Title: "Old Liberty Bridge"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Just the highlights today as my complete workflow included a lot of steps that I didn't end up using in the final image or that just didn't have much of an impact. The main points to the image are that the work was done using Photoshop CS3. I used NIK Viveza plugin to add brightness to the shrub in the foreground and the bridge in the distance. I selected the top half of the photo and copied it to a new layer and used Transform Scale to make the bridge larger which made it appear nearer to the foreground shrub (this was done to make the image appear more as I envisioned it when I took the shot). Finally I merged all the previous work into a new layer and used Virtual Photographer plugin "Reminiscing" preset to create a B&W version that was blended with 75% opacity with a mask to keep the filter from effecting the foreground shrub and bridge. The really neat part of this work was the use of the Transform Scale function of Photoshop CS3. Without being able to re-scale it, the image wouldn't have matched my vision at all. I am including the original image below so you can see where I started.