I don’t think I could find this again if I tried. Just part of the fun of tooling down back roads in Wisconsin. I remember having to climb onto a snowbank to get the separation I needed between the barn and the … I believe it’s a manure spreader. What a job, huh? Better than the chemicals we put on the land these days, but probably not as widely available anymore.
Specific Feedback Requested
Processing ideas welcome
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Handheld in snowbank
Processed in Lr for b&w conversion and a little crop and work managing tonalities, lens correction and work with the new select sky mask tool to adjust sky - if you intersect with a luminance range you can get the trees removed pretty nicely. Texture & clarity added for some crunch. Ps to remove some stalks that were on the edges of the frame.
A neat old […?…]! I like the barn out there…good on you for thinking of getting some separation with it. Not only with the barn, but also with the tree line…you got a nice line of white snow just above the tree for good contrast. I love the snowy scene, and I kinda like the fact that you might not be able to find this scene again! Makes it all the more special!
Thanks for describing your workflow. You did your masks in LR, none in PS. Do you think you’d have addressed the sky in PS instead of LR, if you had edited this before the LR update came out?
I really like this, Kris. B&W is the right choice and the texture visible in the snow makes this work quite well. If it were mine, I might crop half of the sky out to get a shallow pano feel. Great processing and excellent eye.
Yeah sometimes I wish I’d marked stuff like this on google maps or something, @Mark_Muller, but I forget. I can’t even remember what county this is in, lol.
I did process it in an earlier version of Lr, but with only a brush tool which was less precise than the new masks in Lr so I deleted it and started over. Yes, I could have done it in Ps, but didn’t bother because I like the result.
True, @David_Bostock, the sky isn’t adding much here. Maybe a crop is in order.
Nice look and feel to the image. I think you could coax a whole lot more drama out of the sky as long as it does not noisy on you. To me, that would add a lot to the image in terms of mood and feel.
Kris, this is a twofer for me. First, any old farming equipment is always a wonderful subject. I have numerous barns, windmills, etc. photos.
Secondly, the title of the image. The original movie based upon the H.G. Wells novel with Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot is a true classic to this day. Considering the movie was released in 1960 it still holds some relevance to this era.
Thanks @Harley_Goldman & @Paul_Breitkreuz - there isn’t a shortage of farm equipment up this way, but not many this old. I’m glad I caught it when I did. Have watched that version of the movie several times and read the book once. Great stuff.
I’ve cropped and pulled up detail in the sky using a combination of texture, clarity & dehaze. New shot in the OP. I went easy on the adjustments so it wouldn’t overwhelm the subject. Does it work?
I really like the new crop and sky texture, Kris. It works quite well. You might have introduced a touch of halo around that left tree’s upper branches…might just be visible in the smaller image…It’s been my experience that Clarity can do that…so can Highlight and Shadows…especially on subjects against a sky.
I saw that, too, or at least I thought I did so managed the mask really carefully - the area includes quite a bit of the branches in terms of luminance value - and also behind the branches is quite bright so the adjustment applied there as much as the rest of the sky. Should I take a brush to it and bring it down further? I thought about it and then just let it stand for other opinions.
You might try creating a new layer and then using the burn tool/brush to bring it down a bit. The layer allows you to adjust the opacity to blend in with the rest of the sky…there are probably other ways to do that too…or, reduce clarity…
I like the changes. I would be inclined to take the sky much further if the file allowed it, but as usual, very much a personal taste thing. Good improvements.
Well seen and photographed! Lucky to have the snow, otherwise the wagon might be really camouflaged. Nice positioning of it, and its swayback lines point right to the barn. I love the solvery trees against the evergreens. This is a print and hang!
Thanks again @David_Bostock & @Harley_Goldman - I like the sky and think it’s far enough although I may still tinker with the masking around the tree. I used Lightroom for it so no layers, but it’s sort of an experiment to see when and where I need to use it versus Photoshop for certain things.
Funny you should say that about printing @Diane_Miller, there’s a copy of my parents’ wall somewhere. I should replace it with one with that enhanced sky.
Definitely would have been a tough shot without the snow. The tonalities were so similar and so were the colors, not to mention the weeds that would have been grown up higher around the old machine. I have a similar shot taken in Paso Robles and it’s not nearly so dramatic without the snow.
