The Long Iron Bridge Revisited

Hi All,

For those of you with a good memory, I have posted this picture of the "Long Iron Bridge" a long while back. Earlier last year, I went back for a reshoot while testing my then new toy (i.e. the TS-E 24mm f/3.5 Mk II). Here is the result. Technical details: it is a shifted vertical stitch of 3 tiles which are exposure bracketed and tone mapped individually first. C&C is more than welcome.




Cheers,

Cem_Usakligil said:

Here is the result. Technical details: it is a shifted vertical stitch of 3 tiles which are exposure bracketed and tone mapped individually first. C&C is more than welcome.

Click to expand...

Hi Cem,

The light is beautiful. Perhaps the top tile with the clouds could do with slightly less mid tone contrast, the clouds look almost unnaturally detailed (although the were there). Just my impression, I'm always scouting for light.

Cheers,
Bart

Hi Bart,

Bart_van_der_Wolf said:

...The light is beautiful. Perhaps the top tile with the clouds could do with slightly less mid tone contrast, the clouds look almost unnaturally detailed (although the were there). Just my impression, I'm always scouting for light.

Click to expand...

You are right, as usual.
I have been too enthusiastic with the beautiful crepuscular rays. To my mind, they were as intensive as I had shown in the 1st version. Nevermind, I have re-done the tone mapping and replaced the picture with the new version. Does this look better to you?

Cheers,

Cem_Usakligil said:

Hi Bart,

You are right, as usual.
I have been too enthusiastic with the beautiful crepuscular rays. To my mind, they were as intensive as I had shown in the 1st version. Nevermind, I have re-done the tone mapping and replaced the picture with the new version. Does this look better to you?

Click to expand...

Hi Cem,

Yes, very dramatic, but not overly so (although that always remains a matter of taste, and intent). Skies like that can produce the beautiful light that is showing in the lower parts of the image.

Isn't stitching fun? One can even edit parts of the image differently, and blend the tiles seamlessly back together, all in super-resolution without manual masking.

Cheers,
Bart

Cem, I remember the previous one from some while back; by looking at this one!

This one is dramatic indeed.

I have never stitched or tone mapped. Your result is there for me to see.

Regards.

Hi Cem

The comparison is interesting. I liked the original and still do, very much in fact, although there are a couple of details I might slightly reappraise.

I'm less happy with this treatment (a matter of personal taste), but tend to agree with the idea that the sky is too 'impressive'. If you cut off the top part of the frame by scrolling up the screen, the lower half actually looks quite 'natural' in isolation, but including the sky unsettles that as it confilcts with the lower parts feel.

Did you use tilt here as well? The background appears sharp in the small version and I wonder if a lot of detail throughout the frame would help make a print work well?

Mike

Hi Fahim,

fahim mohammed said:

Cem, I remember the previous one from some while back; by looking at this one!

This one is dramatic indeed.

I have never stitched or tone mapped. Your result is there for me to see.

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking.

Hi Mike,

Mike Shimwell said:

...The comparison is interesting. I liked the original and still do, very much in fact, although there are a couple of details I might slightly reappraise.

I'm less happy with this treatment (a matter of personal taste), but tend to agree with the idea that the sky is too 'impressive'. If you cut off the top part of the frame by scrolling up the screen, the lower half actually looks quite 'natural' in isolation, but including the sky unsettles that as it confilcts with the lower parts feel.

Did you use tilt here as well? The background appears sharp in the small version and I wonder if a lot of detail throughout the frame would help make a print work well?

Click to expand...

I have used tilt indeed so the focal plane is almost parallel to the surface of the bridge, the f9 aperture I've used was then enough to have the buildings on the horizon tack sharp as well. In other words, this super high resolution picture (39 MB ~ 5611x6924) will print easily up to A1 size if I want to. I think it will work well because the interesting details will draw the looker into the image.

Cheers,

It's certainly our gain you chose to revisit!
You're gaining a mastery of stitching & HDR that brings so much life to the images.
If I could get the clowns on the street to stand still long enough, I'd love to try this!

Cem_Usakligil said:

Hi All,

For those of you with a good memory, I have posted this picture of the "Long Iron Bridge" a long while back. Earlier last year, I went back for a reshoot while testing my then new toy (i.e. the TS-E 24mm f/3.5 Mk II). Here is the result. Technical details: it is a shifted vertical stitch of 3 tiles which are exposure bracketed and tone mapped individually first. C&C is more than welcome.

The Long Iron Bridge - Revisited​

Cheers,

Click to expand...

Cem_Usakligil said:

Hi All,

For those of you with a good memory, I have posted this picture of the "Long Iron Bridge" a long while back. Earlier last year, I went back for a reshoot while testing my then new toy (i.e. the TS-E 24mm f/3.5 Mk II).

Click to expand...

Cem,

I have spent countless hours on the first image. It was a very hard and difficult challenge for me. Everyone like's Bambi in the woods, caught by rays of light breaking through the canopy. Who doesn't enjoy stellar landscapes from Scotland or of children playing in the street? You however chose a dark bridge, with the center risen so one couldn't proceed. Now I understand it all much better and your latest picture, below,(one of many more of this bridge, I would hope), adds a new dimension of time and a motif of opportunity.




It's an important historical and cultural monument but also part of a fun street and district. Your first picture showed the bridge blocked, so to speak, so our travel forward had to be put off.



The HDR tone mapping is impressive. With that success, as Bart points out, the sky steals the show. But what is the most important feature? It's the wonderful place to visit on the other side of the bridge. So now we know that we need to be thrust forward in the center. That means that anything but cursory attention to the sides will under-power the thrust forward. Right now, we get distracted. Also, if we start from dark and proceed to light, we help the force driving us into the picture and across the bridge.

We really want to see what's there, over the bridge and explore. So, Cem, in looking at this brightly made version, it's not sufficient to be so well lit with gorgeously rich colors. Beautifully done and commendable, BTW!

Still, we also want, if we can, to continue our journey to where it's so magic and even "touristy" beautiful.



To me it's about using a myriad of ways to rank elements in importance. So, there are now many nuanced changes introduced to get the top of the clouds to be less important, maintain the crepuscular rays, enhance the pretty buildings on the far side of the bridge, sharpen and increase the contrast of the rails to lead us upwards across the bridge, darken the foreground with also increase the specular lights on the "gate" and the name and so forth. The net result is a transition from our memory of darkness to a brighter journey ahead of us.

I do hope that this presentation meets well with what you had imagined all along. Still, it's another way of thinking about this interesting bridge.

Thanks for sharing,

Asher

Hi Asher,

I was about to call it a day but I really want to give you a short feedback before I retire.

Asher Kelman said:

..I do hope that this presentation meets well with what you had imagined all along. Still, it's another way of thinking about this interesting bridge.

Click to expand...

It does indeed my friend. I appreciate the time you spend on my pictures and the incredible C&C you give more than you can imagine. Thank you! I'll rejoin the fun tomorrow.

Cheers,