Bridge over River Eramosa

[joebranko]

I have photographed this before ( in winter) and posted it on this site ( Covered Bridge)

This shot was taken last weekend; it was taken close to noon so I had some problems with over exposure in some areas.

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[Wavelength]

Great...Metal or wooden? only for walkers and cyclists?

[Manfred M]

I think you posted this image twice. I removed the other copy and if it's not quite the same image, I can restore it if you would like that done.

This is a tough one; not only do you have an image with lots of shadows, but the sky is not cooperating at all and there is no significant amount of texture to work with.

I only spent a few minutes at this, but I would definitely look at replacing the sky and then doing a lot of dodging in the shadow areas to bring those up.

[Rufus]

...I would definitely look at replacing the sky...

Which technique selects the branches and leaves and retains them so well?

[Manfred M]

Which technique selects the branches and leaves and retains them so well?

The technique is called "Alpha Channel Masking" and works well when we have an even and relatively cloudless sky. It's a fairly advanced technique and requires software that supports channels and layer masks, like Photoshop. It's hard to explain but fairly straight forward once you get used to it. It's also great for photo compositing (background replacement) involving hair.

In brief, one looks at the three colour channels in Photoshop to see which of the channels has the highest contrast. That channel is then selected and duplicated. One then applies a curves adjustment to it to turn it into a pure black and white (no gray areas). Usually some manual painting of involved to get the alpha channel ready to be a mask.

In the channels pallette there is a "Load Channel as a selection" tab and this shows up as a selection in the Layers palette. I then use this to select the areas I want to keep and everything else in the image is transparent. I add the background in the layer below and one gets the effect we see in my posting.

[Rufus]

The technique is called "Alpha Channel Masking" ...

Thank you for sharing that, Manfred. Your summary of the process has encouraged me to add this to my "to learn and practice" list for it would be a very useful technique.

[joebranko]

Great...Metal or wooden? only for walkers and cyclists?

Wood. Only walkers and cyclists.

[joebranko]

I think you posted this image twice. I removed the other copy and if it's not quite the same image, I can restore it if you would like that done.

This is a tough one; not only do you have an image with lots of shadows, but the sky is not cooperating at all and there is no significant amount of texture to work with.

I only spent a few minutes at this, but I would definitely look at replacing the sky and then doing a lot of dodging in the shadow areas to bring those up.

Thanks Manfred. Do you keep a file of your own sky shots to use on these ocasions or is it down loaded from a pay fir use site like Adobe?

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred. Do you keep a file of your own sky shots to use on these ocasions or is it down loaded from a pay fir use site like Adobe?

I do have a library that I have been building for a few years and tend to use my own images. I have sunrise, sunset, overcast, "puffy clouds" etc.

[joebranko]

I do have a library that I have been building for a few years and tend to use my own images. I have sunrise, sunset, overcast, "puffy clouds" etc.

I will definitely lighten the dark areas under the roof. Not yet ready to tackle the sky 🤔

[joebranko]

Thanks John.

[joebranko]

Here is my effort at dodging inside of the covered bridge.

[Manfred M]

You've burned down the front face of the roof quite considerably and done just a bit of dodging on the interior. I'm not quite sure why you decided to do all that burning. The dodging has been done with a very light touch; I would tend to be a lot more aggressive than you were. That's were a lot of the interesting details are on a covered bridge so opening those areas up really draws the viewer into the bridge interior, where you want them to be looking.

[joebranko]

You've burned down the front face of the roof quite considerably and done just a bit of dodging on the interior. I'm not quite sure why you decided to do all that burning. The dodging has been done with a very light touch; I would tend to be a lot more aggressive than you were. That's were a lot of the interesting details are on a covered bridge so opening those areas up really draws the viewer into the bridge interior, where you want them to be looking.

I will have to review this. Not sure what happened as I had no intention of darkening the front I can see that it is darker but I had not intended it. 🤔

I may have selected the wrong version from Flicker, or I maw havw darkened the entire image while playing with it trying to get something in the sky. In any case here in my final shot.

[Manfred M]

I will have to review this. Not sure what happened as I had no intention of darkening the front I can see that it is darker but I had not intended it. 🤔

I may have selected the wrong version from Flicker, or I maw havw darkened the entire image while playing with it trying to get

You have definitely pulled the details in the bridge out very nicely; the texture of the wood shows very nicely. One small tweak you might want to try is dodging the cyclist. It's a small thing but I find it improves the overall image.

If you want to understand how to replace skies, look at this method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6I9Q-b2pQc

I haven't watched the whole video, but in my view Unmesh Dinda and his Piximperfect videos are some of the best Photoshop videos on the web. There are many self-proclaimed experts out there; I find he is "the real thing". My approach is a bit different from his, but the end result is effectively the same; I tend to use curves to do my adjustments to create black and white areas on the alpha channel mask and am less careful about the edges.

[joebranko]

One small tweak you might want to try is dodging the cyclist. Good idea. I will do that.

If you want to understand how to replace skies, look at this method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6I9Q-b2pQc
Thanks I have watched the video. It looks easy to follow and comprehensive.