Make it Pop: "A Pirates Treasure"

sulev (70)in #photography • 8 years ago (edited)

Hey!

This one took a while. I found this old house beside a river. I think it was a watermill at one point, because there was a canal running underneath the house. When I poped my head in there this is what I saw. The river was pushing through the basement wall, a box right beside it and an opening right on top. Reminded me of a pirates treasure or something you'd normally see in video games like The Witcher 3.
To compensate for the darkness I used a ~5s shutter speed at ISO400. (I advise shooting at the lowest ISO if possible, but my cheap 5$ tripod was very wobbly. Didn't want more than 5s. I took 3 shots from this place and this one was the best: least signs of movement. *new tripod hasn't arrived yet.)
As you can see the original image looks nothing like a scene from a pirates tale. What matters is that you get an idea where you want to go with the picture, what feeling you want to convey.

Finished image:

Original image:

After Lightroom edit:

I started off by straightening and testing various ways to crop. Ended up choosing the original, though it looks quite good up close too. Next thing was simple. Use the brush and gradients to darken the foreground: everything that's not in the middle or in close proximity to an light source. Then I added some color, clarity, contrast, highlights to some places etc.

Added more warmth, a highlight and sharpened the image:

I used "warmth/brilliance" and "detail extractor" from Color Efex which comes with Google Nik Collection (it's free!!). Then I used the special sharpeners (RAW and Output) and let Lightroom also apply some edge sharpening + luminosity (to hide noise from sharpening).

Added artificial light reflections and more highlight to the center:

To really make the picture stand out I started painting the walls with light (a brush with increased clarity+exposure and warm temperature). I also added some more highlights to the center.
And there you have it!

Hope it reminds you of some pirate adventure :D