Lofoten, Norway #8: Fish racks

[Mike Buckley]

Cod migrate to Norway in the winter to spawn and the Lofoten area is the world's largest cod fishery. At more than 1000 years old, cod fishing remains Lofoten's largest industry though tourism is expected to surpass it in the near future. Fish racks are seen virtually everywhere in Lofoten near the shore.

Once the fish are caught, many are gutted, tied in pairs by the tail and hung to dry on outdoor racks made of wood though sometimes the infrastructure that holds the wooden poles is made of metal. In Lofoten, cod that is salted and dried is called klipfish; cod that is dried without being salted is called stockfish. Most of the dried fish is exported to Italy.

When the wooden poles the fish hang from are not in use, they are tied into small to medium bundles, though I have no idea why. As much as I would love to see and photograph fish drying on the racks, I'm not so sure I would like the smell, which is locally described as the smell of money.

Please click to view at the larger size.

EDIT: For more photos of fish racks, see this thread.

[Donald]

Wonderful images, Mike. I think your composition on that first one is superb and the processing brings out everything the composition has to offer.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, Donald. My wife actually found the opportunity pertaining to the first photo and told me about it. It is the only fish rack we saw in our ten days in Lofoten that was installed in an area that could be photographed from below the base. She and I had gone in different directions at the time and I doubt that I would have come upon the racks on my own.

[Manfred M]

Beautiful composition and great processing. Shot #2 clearly shows why tourism is expected to replace fishing as the primarly source of income. What a gorgeous place.

Having been to places that dry fish while they were on the racks drying, I would suggest your timing was quite good. The smell is not exactly pleasant...

[dje]

Captivating images Mike, with excellent composition and processing.

Dave

[terrib]

Everyone said pretty much what I was feeling so I'll just add my "Great job, Mike" !

[bnnrcn]

Great images Mike . Although it is about drying fish, I also loved the mountains in #2

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

Many people are mentioning the post-processing, so later today I'll post a working version of the first photo so you can appreciate how I got the sky to its final form. I imagine many people will be surprised about the sky in its original form.

Although it is about drying fish, I also loved the mountains in #2

Manfred also mentioned the overall scenery. For me, the image is ideal as part of a travelogue because it displays typical outdoor scenery and the ever-present icon of the fishing industry. The only thing that is missing is fishing boats on the water.

I realize that it might seem unbelievable to be told that scenes like this are almost everywhere along the small Lofoten highways (none of them are large) but it's really true. Our entire ten days in Lofoten were like a feast for the eyes.

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[Mike Buckley]

I mentioned in my previous post that I would display the image of the sky in its original form so you could see the information that the camera captured, the information that I began with.

First, a little background information. Last week Colin mentioned in a thread that we need to show the pixels who the boss is. That was his way of explaining that sometimes we need to be unusually aggressive, that sometimes we need to go far beyond the bounds of typical post-processing parameters. I believe my treatment of the sky in this image is a good example of what Colin was explaining.

The first image shown below is a working version of the image that includes all of my adjustments except the first adjustment to the sky. (The sky was equally boring in the color version before I converted to monochrome.)

The screen shot of the tone curve and black point in the levels -- notice how aggressive they are -- displays the one adjustment step that changed the uninteresting sky to the rather dramatic sky.

Once that adjustment changed the fundamental characteristics of the sky, I then fine-tuned the image in a series of subtle adjustments that slightly brightened and darkened parts of the sky to lead the viewer's eye upward toward the horizontal poles on top of the rack. I spent about an hour making all of those adjustments and can't believe I didn't have to pay to have so much fun.


Before



The aggressive, unusual curve and black point (levels) applied selectively to the sky



The final version

[ShaneS]

Beautiful images Mike and thank you so much for showing us how you 'showed the pixels who's boss'. You are obviously the boss of that sky and the changes really made the image something special.

[Donald]

I mentioned in my previous post that I would display the image of the sky in its original form so you could see the information that the camera captured, the information that I began with.

And moral of the tale is - First get a good exposure and the information will be all in there. Second, become knowledgeable and skillful in post-processing practice. And you end up with images like this.

[Brownbear]

Yes, a beautiful image once you brought out the sky. Amazing. Thank you for sharing.

[Mike Buckley]

Keeping in mind that my wife found this installation of fish racks that made it possible to shoot from so far below it and that she told me about it after she took her shot, I'm compelled to post her photo. I just love her composition, better than mine. Post-processed by me using the same style and techniques that I used to post-process my own photo.

[bnnrcn]

Thank you for explaining how you edited the sky in #1 Mike. You say you applied 'curves' and 'levels' selectively to the sky, did you select the whole rack and invert your selection to edit the sky. The image seems a bit difficult to make selections, because of the shape of the fish rack

I also like the angle in your wife's shot

[Mike Buckley]

I selected the sky and deselected the fish rack. That's easy to do using selective control points that are in my software.

The control points were developed by Nik and included in Nikon software years before Google bought Nik. Those control points are actually more sophisticated and flexible than the control points in Google/Nik's SilverEfex Pro. (I don't know about Nik's other products, as I haven't used them yet.) Unfortunately, the Nikon software has now been discontinued, probably because Nikon probably lost the right to use Nik's control points.

[bnnrcn]

Thanks for explaining Mike

I selected the sky and deselected the fish rack. That's easy to do using selective control points that are in my software.

The control points were developed by Nik and included in Nikon software years before Google bought Nik. Those control points are actually more sophisticated and flexible than the control points in Google/Nik's SilverEfex Pro. (I don't know about Nik's other products, as I haven't used them yet.) Unfortunately, the Nikon software has now been discontinued, probably because Nikon probably lost the right to use Nik's control points.