This is the Highland or Cape Cod Light in Truro on the Cape, at night. The town glow and the lighthouse light itself was a serious challenge - not to mention the glow from Na lamps
What technical feedback would you like if any?
How to neutralize the lights on 3 parts of the fence and the bright town light above the middle fence glow ?
*Thanks @Ed_McGuirk for your technical suggestions. I used a L3 Lights mask and with a black brush kept the Curves > Multiply effect to the fence and glow above the fence only. Repeated x 1. * I was still not happy Then using the TK Color tone, I brushed in some darker colors from the sky
And whilst in PS - corrected the perspective of the bottom Left and Right areas via Transform> Warp
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Shot for the night - 15 seconds, F 2.8 Iso 4500
Lt Hs light was exposed for a much shorter time and blended in
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Canāt help with the processing but I really like the shot. Especially how youāve managed to blend the lighthouse light in. Iāll have to try that the next time I shoot at night.
Pretty darn sweet image Karl. The processing of the house and dark sky look great. And the composition works really well too, the fence and tree line add a nice framing element to the Milky Way. This image is very crisp and clean looking.
Regarding the light glow above the fence. I did a rework, using a TK L3 mask, added a curves adjustment layer, set the blend mode of that layer to multiply at 100%, and then I duplicated that AL (ending up with two of the same for double strength). This dropped highlights everywhere, including in the stars, which I didnātt want. I then put the 2 ALās in a group with a black mask, which hid the adjustment. I then used a white brush to paint in the highlight darkening along the fence at 100% opacity, and around the light at 50% opacity. you can play with the AL opacities if this drop in luminosity looks to be too much.
IInstead of what you did, I would suggest just following my technique, and just playing with the opacity of the multiply blend layers if you want it slightly brighter than my rework.
I think this is a āwicked goodā shot as they say in New England. I would not change a thing. I wish I had such interesting foreground subject matter around here for shooting the milky way. Well done.
This is a superb shot, Karl. I agree with everything Ed first mentioned regarding composition, etc. and I also prefer his revision, but he kinda lost me with technique as he is much better at it than I. As for your three images, I prefer # 1 best.
Bill, Karl and I are friends that live about an hour apart, and we shoot together from time to time. Since last summer, I have been helping Karl to learn about using TK luminosity masks in his processing. My detailed reply to him might appear cryptic to folks who do not use TK, but I knew it would benefit Karl. Bill, if you do use TK, and want a more reader friendly explanation of the technique discussed, let me know and Iāll happily oblige. If you donāt use TK, then this is too complicated to simply explain to non-users, other than to say TK is a powerful way to select very specific tonalities for adjustment, that goes beyond what is possible in Lightroom.
Karl, for other readers, it might help to edit your post and add a label in front of each image, so they can easily follow the evolution of it thru reworks.
Ed, yes, I do use TK masks and what was throwing me the most was your term AL. Yes, I would love a more reader friendly explanation! I can always use a little more education. Thanks!
Karl wanted to tone down the highlights near the fence. I made a TK Lights 3 (L3) selection to target those tones, then applied the L3 mask mask to a curves adjustment layer. i did not do anything to the curves, but changed the blending mode of the layer to multiply, which darkened the lights selection. I then duplicated that adjustment layer to get even more darkening. This toned down the highlights near the fence, but it also darkened the stars which I did not want. So I placed both curves layers in a group with a black mask on it, this group mask hid all the adjustments. Then using a white brush, I painted onto the black group mask to reveal the highlight darkening, but painted only over the fence area to localize it (and keep the stars intact). I hope this helps.