Weekly Photo Challenge: Names

There are some times when a name just doesn’t seem to fit.  This pub is in York:

ISO 400 50mm f/11 1/125

The name struck me as ironic, since it looked like an inviting place, hardly a hole in the wall.  Here is the original photo:

ISO 400 50mm f/11 1/125

When I went to edit it, I was thinking more of accenting the sepia tones including the golden tones that were in the sign, as opposed to an actual representation of the building.  My edits here include a crop.  That is where I started; I used the straighten feature in Photoshop. It’s a subtle straighten in that I just did it by looking and deciding what was straight enough rather than using a grid.  I’ve used the Nik analog pro plug-in to help achieve the photographic look.  Once I had applied that filter, I switched to Lightroom.  From there I increased the saturation and luminance of the oranges and yellows.  I added a vignette and a bit of a haze.

What do you think of my interpretation of the building? It was a bit of a cold day, so the warm tones caught my attention.  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Relax

When I stumble across a scene like this, I get pretty excited:

ISO 800 50mm f/11 1/250

This is one of the scenes that await visitors of Fountains Abbey in York.  It’s a beautiful place.  There is something about a view like this that I find very relaxing.  I spent the day here, looking around. I took the walking tour to get a better feel for the history of the place. But really I was just there for the beauty.

The photo above started like this:

ISO 800 50mm f/11 1/250

I had my camera set to take a bracketed exposure because I was pretty sure I was going to want to make an HDR version in Photoshop.  HDR in this case because I knew it would give detail and a bit of pop to the ruins.  I then used my Analog Pro plug in as a starting point to make the photo look more like a photograph and less digital. I chose to keep the cool tones of the original since it was shot in December.  I’ve also cropped this photo a bit with the thought of keeping the focus on the ruins.

I’ve added this to my Picfair portfolio, because I was pleased with the outcome.  How do you like this edit, does it seem relaxing and peaceful to you?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!