• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Offers
  • How tos
  • Listicles
  • Explainers
  • A-Z
  • Downloads
    • Adobe
    • DxO software
    • Capture One
    • Exposure X
    • ON1 software
    • Skylum
  • About

Life after Photoshop

  • Lightroom
  • Capture One
  • DxO PhotoLab
  • Nik Collection
  • Exposure X
  • ON1 Photo RAW
  • Aurora HDR

Budapest parliament

November 19, 2016 by Rod Lawton

It’s all very well giving advice about how to achieve certain effects using this software or that software, but it always strikes me that no-one ever talks about WHY you should use a particular effect with a particular subject. Books and magazines are very tied up with the mechanics of photography but rarely stray into the stuff that really matters – what we’re trying to capture or evoke, and how to do it. So I thought it might be interesting to dissect a few pictures, explain the thinking behind the effects I’ve used and try to make this connection between what we feel about a picture, and the tools we can use to bring this out.

Of course, it’s a very personal thing. The pictures I take and the feelings and ideas I try to bring out will be different to yours. But you may get some ideas along the way, or see how certain tools capture a certain kind of atmosphere, and be encouraged to go off and try some new stuff for yourself.

duplex-before

So I thought I’d start this off with a photograph I took in Budapest. The parliament buildings by the river are a well-known landmark, and while I did find just the right time of day and angle to capture them in the late afternoon sun, I still thought this picture was a pretty straightforward record shot. What I really wanted to do was try and capture some of the fairytale drama of this city and this scene.

I used Color Efex Pro for this because of its large range of powerful photo effects and its ability to stack them to produce an infinite variety of combinations. It might be interesting to try this in Skylum Luminar, too.

So here’s my finished shot, with annotations to explain what I did and why:

duplex-anno

Google Color Efex Pro Duplex filter

1: Color Efex Pro Duplex filter: This is at the heart of this particular shot. In the past I’ve not found much of a use for this filter, but it does a great job here. Essentially, it’s a soft-focus effect, but with the ability to add a colour tint and adjust its saturation. So I chose it here to give a dreamy atmosphere and a strong amber tint to the light.

2: Graduated filter: I wanted to darken the top of the sky and the base of the picture to concentrate the composition on the buildings in the centre of the picture – it’s a technique I use quite a lot because it gives the base of a picture a little depth and solidity to. A regular vignette was no good because this would have darkened the sides too. I used a blue grad for both the top and the bottom – the bottom one was simply rotated through 180 degrees.

3: Brilliance/Warmth: This is a general-purpose filter for making photos cooler or warmer in tone and for adjusting the saturation. It seems to give a nicer look than regular white balance adjustments. I used it here just to do some final overall tweaks to the colour.

duplex-after

So here’s the finished picture. It might be too intense and dramatic for some, but it captures a mood and a ‘look’ I really like. You can click on the picture above to see a larger version.

Related

Filed Under: Featured, TutorialsTagged With: Graduated filters, Soft focus, Warmth

Life after Photoshop is owned and run by photographer and journalist Rod Lawton. Rod has been a photography journalist for nearly 40 years, starting out in film (obviously) but then migrating to digital. He has worked as a freelance journalist, technique editor and channel editor, and is now Group Reviews Editor on Digital Camera World. Life after Photoshop is a personal project started in 2013.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to this site

Enter your email address to subscribe to Life after Photoshop and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

Adobe Lightroom is not one program but three. You could … [Read More...] about Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Choosing the best image editing software used to be easy. … [Read More...] about The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Layers explained

Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

Layers are a central part of many photo editing processes, … [Read More...] about Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

Photo editing software does two quite different jobs. It can … [Read More...] about BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

More Posts from this Category

Mission statement

Life after Photoshop is not anti-Photoshop or anti-subscriptions. It exists to showcase the many Photoshop alternatives that do more, go further, or offer more creative inspiration to photographers.

Affiliate links

Life after Photoshop is funded by affiliate links and may be paid a commission for downloads. This does not affect the price you pay, the ratings in reviews or the software selected for review.

Contact

Email lifeafterphotoshop@gmail.com

Copyright © 2023 Life after Photoshop · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in