The Tay Bridge #5

[Donald]

The next in my series of the wonderful Tay Bridge that carries rail traffic across the River Tay here in little ol' Scotland. This one follows studies 1, 2, 3 and 4 that have been on here previously (I've linked to #4 and you can follow the trail back from there).

I'm always happy to read your reactions.


Canon 40D, EF 24-70 f2.8 L @ 24mm. ISO100. 0.7s @f16

[geordie01]

I like that

[JPS]

Donald,
what a fantastic shot. I love the way the lines of the road and bridge come together, leading you right into the picture.
What a great idea; but nothing less than I've come to expect from you.
Well done.

[wlou]

Hello Donald, as usual your B&W's are stunning. I followed back the "train-trail" of your pictures and I find the concept most interesting. The simplicity of the images, the fog, have a zen feel to them. Or I would say like the expression goes: it has an old world charm to it. Hey, wait a minute, you do live in the old world, as in Europe. Sorry, I just could not resist. Hehe.
There is one thing that I find disturbing about this #5. The way the road goes out, exit left of the frame, and the way the bridge seems to meet it at a higher level? The single vanishing point is out of view. Would a panoramic format show the missing junction? The perspective remains intriguing.

[Mike Buckley]

I absolutely love this image.

For me, it doesn't matter that the foreground and background are at different levels. I suppose that's because there is no need for me to understand that the two elements are actually the same; they could be entirely different structures with no weakening of the image.

[Donald]

Thankyou for your thoughts folks.

There is one thing that I find disturbing about this #5. The way the road goes out, exit left of the frame, and the way the bridge seems to meet it at a higher level? The single vanishing point is out of view. Would a panoramic format show the missing junction?

Louise - the answer to that last question is 'No', because there is no junction (ot point of meeting) of the paved area we see running away from us and top of the bridge coming in from the right. What you cannot see just out oif frame on the left is the archway of the bridge underneath which the road and pavement runs (to have included it would have unbalanced the image in my view). So, the bridge is at a higher level and remains so as it sweeps around and runs parallel to the road into the centre of the city of Dundee

[IanCD]

Hi Donald,
Like Louise, I've just followed the 'Tay Bridge' trail back.. to Monochrome mini-comp 2 (where the TinyPic image is, unfortunately, no longer available...)
The series is great, I really like it... you've been getting up very early (by my reckoning!) for misty mornings at that bridge
Ian

[Digital]

Donald, very fine photo. B/W was the perfect medium for this shot. Bruce

[Donald]

Hi Donald,
Like Louise, I've just followed the 'Tay Bridge' trail back.. to Monochrome mini-comp 2 (where the TinyPic image is, unfortunately, no longer available...)

Ian - Don't know why I moved the link from Mini Mono Comp #2.

Anyway, I also posted it here.

Yes for all those latest images I was up at 4:15am. But it was worth. Just a great time of day to be up and about at this time of year when it is daylight for 18-20 hours (or at least not dark)

[IanCD]

Ian - Don't know why I moved the link from Mini Mono Comp #2.

Anyway, I also posted it here.

Yes for all those latest images I was up at 4:15am. But it was worth. Just a great time of day to be up and about at this time of year when it is daylight for 18-20 hours (or at least not dark)

Ah, but you say that this is not the same as Mini Mono Comp #2 - so, the latter being unavailable makes it so intriguing...
I might agree re 4.15am, but can only seem to achieve that after sleepless nights...! :-)
Ian

[Donald]

The other thing about this, which those with much more technical knowledge than I might explain, is halos.

This one plagued me.

No matter how gentle I tried to be with my post-procesing procedures, the d&@$ halos kept showing up the sides of the lamp-posts. I spent a long time with the new brushes in GIMP v2.8, cloning. On the full-size version, it's fine. But when I re-size down to the version above ........ GRRRR!

Look at the left-hand side of that post nearest to us. Can you see the halo running up the side of it ......... or am I just getting neurotic? Why is it showing up on this and not on the full-sized version? Or did I not clear it from the full-sized version as well as I think?

[Dizzy]

Donald, I just caught this thread, and am glad I did! Wonderful image
at every level IMO. I like your soft use of the water texture to highlight the
bridges reflection, plus the numerous triangle elements due to the perfect
angle you choose to shoot it from.

Mike

p.s.: FWIW: stared at it till I got dizzy, and couldn't find a single halo anywhere.

[IanCD]

I don't see the halos, either..!
Ian

[Mike Buckley]

Donald,

I see very slight halos on both sides of the first two lamp poles when viewing the full size of the image that you posted here.

I don't use GIMP, but I think your approach to the issue using cloning is probably significantly more difficult and less effective than it needs to be. In this situation, I would sharpen everything except the sky using the color version. I would then convert to black-and-white. If the halos remain (which I doubt would happen), I would then go back to the sharpening step and I would apply an eraser set at 50% opacity to the lamp posts. That would automatically erase half of the sharpening on the posts. If that did not do the trick, I would continue erasing the sharpening on the posts in small, incremental amounts until the halos disappear.

If the image that you posted here is not your full-size image and if that image has no halos, the halos in this image could be explained if you added sharpening (as most people would normally do) when creating the downsized image intended for posting here. If that's the case, you can easily solve the problem by erasing the sharpening applied to the lamp poles as explained above.

If it were my image that had been downsized and had such a small amount of halos, I wouldn't bother getting rid of them. Instead, I would spend my time writing posts such as this one or moving on to make more pictures. Indeed, I batch process all of my downsizing and occasionally some of the images appear a bit over sharpened.

[wlou]

Thank you for the explanation Donald, I was certain there was a reason for the choice of "cadrage"/framing of this image. It keeps me looking for a point of firm ground. Thats ok. Its the way you see it that counts.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Wow Donald,
This is really nice! I have looked at it on both monitors and for the life of me cannot see any halo anywhere. As a matter of fact it looks much better on my 24" monitor.