Victoria Harbour, HK

[Technomadic]

My goal was to get this as close to what I remembered seeing as possible. I took the original photo standing against a railing on the Harbour (Tsim Sha Tsui side), trying to hold my breath long enough to get a steady shot. No tripod and a lot of Chinese people bumping into me.

I took the photo last summer but didn't do any post-process work until this month, I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm not even sure exactly how to describe what I did, it's just trial and error really. I feel like the longer I work on a photo the less I can tell when it's "done", so I'm always phobic that I'm taking the processing to far. I'd appreciate input on whether this was too much or too little, whether there were better ways to fix it than I used, and what I could do to make it better. Thanks!

Before:

After:


Photoshop work done:
-- added slight S-curve mask to bring out the midtones
-- bumped up saturation (interesting point, I used the rainbow spectrum towards the center of the photo as a guide -- too much or too little saturation and I lost a lot of the colors.)
-- Added temporary brightness adjustment layer to make it easier to see the skyline, used burn to darken the sky and get rid of the light halos around buildings.
-- Used dodge tool on light reflections in the water

[edmDusty]

I don't think you processed it too much at all. The different color relfections in the water look really cool and I think you did a great job bringing it out. The only other thing I would do is maybe try to reduce the reflection in the lower right. I'm not sure what it's from and it's a little bothersome to me.

Oh, and if you had a railing available, maybe you could have used it for a makeshift tripod. I don't know if others are as rough with their camera as I am, but I've used railing, rocks, trees, cars, benches, my bike, ect. ect. for tripods.

Thanks for posting!
Dustin

[Technomadic]

Thanks for your reply! I'm not sure which reflection you mean (in the lower right) -- the only thing I see is a tugboat... but I agree, it really doesn't belong in the shot. It was surprisingly difficult to get a "clear" view of the Harbour, lots of boat traffic.

I appreciate the encouragement, it makes me feel better about processing. Until recently I assumed processing was "cheating", so I've shied away from it for a long time.

[edmDusty]

I see the tug boat now.

I'm actually the same way with processing. Not so much that I feel it's cheating, but more that I think it's boring. I got into photography because it's an excuse to go urban exploring, and processing is not as exciting to me. I usually only adjust the levels to make the blacks blacker and the whites whiter.

However, I like the effect of the dodge tool. I've never used it before I'll have to give it a try.

Thanks!
Dustin