Galata Tower Composite

[rpcrowe]

I replaced the blank, bare sky in back of the tower with these clouds.



Original



I used OnOne Perfect Mask

[Shadowman]

Nice set.

[Mike Buckley]

Nice masking job!

Maybe it's just me, but the cityscape gives me the impression that the depth of field included focus to infinity. So, it's jarring to me that the clouds are out of focus.

[rachel]

Oooh, I'd like to see more from here if you have them. I have very fond memories of Galata bridge, watching the fishermen by day and the coloured lights by night.

[Dave Humphries]

Replacing skies with ones containing clouds is a very tricky thing to pull off successfully.

I dabbled with the concept when I first started digital and determined that to succeed, you needed to have a library of suitable 'sky donor' pictures which needed to be:

taken at the same focal length as final image (to ensure correct cloud perspective)
taken with camera pointing in same compass direction and same time of day and time of year (to ensure correct sun angles and any background haze)
taken at the same latitude and same time of day and time of year (to ensure correct sun elevation angle)
be sharp throughout (can always be blurred in PP when used to match aperture used)

But perhaps I over analyse things
(you can see why I gave up)


That said - this had me fooled when I saw both shots (small) at a distance (e.g. I thought the plain blue sky was the replacement), but examination at full size revealed a few things.

As Mike says, compared to the foreground; it jars that the clouds are too soft.
Also, I think the focal length/cloud perspective and sun angle don't look quite right.

It is better than many I have seen though.


My only other thought is that it is a shame the local authorities have let everyone put up satellite dishes, really spoils the view to my mind - but if I lived there and wanted sat TV, I'm sure I'd have a different opinion on that

Cheers, Dave

[Manfred M]

Richard - I'll have to go along with Mike and Dave on this one. While the technical side of getting the clouds into the shot was cleanly executed, the clouds just don't look like they belong in the shot.

[DanK]

Richard - I'll have to go along with Mike and Dave on this one. While the technical side of getting the clouds into the shot was cleanly executed, the clouds just don't look like they belong in the shot.

I agree, although I have a hard time specifying why.

Also, the left edge of the roof is not clean--there are splotches of blue. A problem with the edge of the selection, I would guess.

[rpcrowe]

Hi Rachel,

Here is a selection of my Istanbul images. Istanbul is one of my favorite cities to visit...

https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Istanbul/

Hong Kong was once my absolute favorite city in the world to visit but, that was when it was British Crown Colony. Here are some images from my last visit to Hong Kong after it had been returned to the People's republic...

https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Travel/C...our-2010-Hong/

Since being annexed by the People's Republic of China, IMO, Hong Kong has lost some of its allure for me! One of the star attractions for me, during British rule, was the Royal Navy's China Fleet Club. The Royal Navy refitted many of its ships in Hong Kong dockyards due to the cheaper labor involved. The China Fleet Club served several purposes for the crews of those ships, a place of recreation with several pubs and restaurants with great drinks and food at minimal prices and an arcade with vendors of local and imported goods at very low prices. An added benefit was that you could be sure that the items, such as diamond jewelry were genuine and not fakes. The prices of photo equipment in the late 1970's from the China Fleet Club vendors were less expensive than in Japan itself. Another facet of the China Fleet Club was a hotel with very clean, although somewhat Spartan, rooms for the families of Royal Navy Sailors who traveled from the U.K. to visit their husbands and fathers while the ships were undergoing refitting. As an active duty U.S. Navy sailor I was eligible to rent a room in this hotel. My wife visited me when my ship, U.S.S. Constellation, was making a port-call in Hong Kong. She loved the accommodations and the location of the China Fleet Club. If I remember correctly, the price per night was somewhere around ten U.S. Dollars per night. Even by the general prices of 1977, this was a bargain!

Another thing that has hurt Hong Kong in my estimation is the smog and pollution drifting in from Mainland China...

[rachel]

Thank you! These are great, I'm only up to p2 so far but I think another trip to istanbul has to be on the cards. I went in 2011, but that year I lost 3 months worth of photos in a techie disaster so only have the holiday snap type ones I had already shared on facebook. So far I especially like the ones in this area https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Other/Is...sphorus-XL.jpg - I was staying near there and used to sit there sometimes watching the fisherman. There are some cracking ones of people and place though and I'll make time over the next few days to have a good look through them all.

I've never been to HK - yet

[bnnrcn]

Emotionally , with or without the clouds , it is Galata Bridge and I like it ! Technically , yes the clouds look a bit fake

[rachel]

That view up from the water at Galata reminds me of Lisbon, the pretty coloured buildings going up the hill. It's beautiful. And someone mentioned the satellite dishes. Years back I used to feel the same, that they spoiled otherwise pretty views, but now I just take them to be part of the charm of a place.

I can get to Istanbul direct from here.......

[MrB]

I haven't studied the technicalities of how good is the substitution, but my instant and now considered reaction is a preference for the original. I find those clouds to be rather distracting (probably for the reasons given by others) and the sky around them to be an odd shade of blue, a sort of partly desaturated look. The cloudless sky serves to focus attention on the colours, structure and details of the lovely buildings, and the people on the tower. Having said that, you presumably process to your liking, but the original seems rather dark to me for the apparently very bright sunlit day. If it were mine I would try raising the mid-tones and balance that with local contrast.

Cheers.
Philip

[PhilT]

My only other thought is that it is a shame the local authorities have let everyone put up satellite dishes, really spoils the view to my mind - but if I lived there and wanted sat TV, I'm sure I'd have a different opinion on that

Cheers, Dave

This problem is now common to most of the cities in the world It could be considered as a fake, but you always can use the eraser tool to remove them It's the question of choosing between reality and aesthetic.