Warming up a shot, instant autumn

[robconnelly]

The before shot. I took this picture of the bridge on Toronto's center island in the summer.



I wanted to warm up the shot and play around with adding a reflection in the water as well, this is the finished product.



I started by opening the image in Camera Raw (even though it was taken as a .jpg) from Adobe Bridge. I then increased the temperature by sliding the temp slider towards yellow until I got it to what I thought looked good. I opened the image as a smart object in Photoshop CS3. Once I did that I created a copy of the smart object. I opened this copy of the smart object in raw by clicking on the thumbnail in the layers panel. This reopened the raw processor and I used the Auto selection in the temperature to cool the image down again. Once I did this I created a Mask on the copy of the smart object.This allows you to see the original warmed smart object. I painted over the bridge with white to bring out the cooler bridge. Once I had this completed I flattened the image. I then whent to the Mode menu and chose Lab Color, Selected Blending mode to soft light and chose which of the two channels I liked best (either A or B) in this image I chose A, I reduced the opacity to about 75% then went back to Mode and selected RGB. Now the image was warmed up and it looked like Summer had turned to Autumn. To get the reflection of the bridge I chose the Rectangle Marquee tool and made a selection from the top of the image to the bottom of the bridge. I placed this selection into its own layer (CTRL - J), brought it into free transform (CTRL - T) , Right click in the selection and choose flip vertical. holding the shift key and using the move tool I dragged the inverted selection down until the bottom of the bridge lined up with the bottom of the bridge in the background layer. I adjusted the opacity down to around 50% then flattened the layers.
I then burned in the edges of the photo by dragging the background layer into the create a new layer icon to duplicate it, I set the blend mode of this new layer to multiply, used the rectangular marquee tool and drew a slection about 2 inches inside the border of the image. Go to select / modify and choose teather. I used 200 Pixels for this image. Hit the Backspace key to punch a hole through the top layer revealing the layer beneath it in the center. Flatten image and then I Used a medium unsharp mask on the final image. This is it, the final step.

[jbm1991]

Brilliant edit. Love it

Best wishes
John

[robconnelly]

Originally Posted by jbm1991

Brilliant edit. Love it

Best wishes
John

Thank you. I enjoyed doing it. Glad you enjoy the finished work.

[blurryimage]

Wow that really is beautiful. I have that software, but nowhere near the ability (at this current point in time) to be able to do that. that is inspiring for sure.

[robconnelly]

Originally Posted by blurryimage

Wow that really is beautiful. I have that software, but nowhere near the ability (at this current point in time) to be able to do that. that is inspiring for sure.

It just takes working with the program, and lots of hours reading. Thank you for your comments.

[skoggiel]

how beautiful!!!!!! and inspring to "create" my own fall where it doesn't exist.....in Florida, US! awesome job!

[ChrisPhilip]

Very cool edit. Well done.

[Firegems]

WOw that is really a beautiful change you did with that photo. I love seeing the before and after.
TFS

[sarahj]

I love the first picture and the change to the colours in the second picture , but i'm just not so sure about the bridge reflection, sorry!

Sarah

[robconnelly]

Originally Posted by sarahj

I love the first picture and the change to the colours in the second picture , but i'm just not so sure about the bridge reflection, sorry!

Sarah

Thanks for your comments. I kind of agree about the bridge, but once I had done the work I didn't want to go back and take it out. It would have been better if the water was still with the ripples the reflection looks worked in. Thanks again for your comments.

Originally Posted by Firegems

WOw that is really a beautiful change you did with that photo. I love seeing the before and after.
TFS

Thanks for your comments I appreciate them.

Originally Posted by ChrisPhilip

Very cool edit. Well done.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by skoggiel

how beautiful!!!!!! and inspring to "create" my own fall where it doesn't exist.....in Florida, US! awesome job!

Thanks for your comments.