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I couldn’t believe the way the clouds were arrayed across the sky on Saturday. The morning began as a cloudless day but by early afternoon these cloud formations were spreading into the east. I processed the image in Aperture 3 and NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 before cropping it slightly. I also took it into Photoshop CS% where I manually corrected the vertical perspective.
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The point where the three Interstate Highways intersect in Louisville is known locally as Spaghetti Junction. The weather was changing yesterday from a cloudless sky in the morning to this winter sky around mid afternoon. This image overlooks the Spaghetti Junction intersection and southeast Louisville. It appeared that there was a grid that had been overlaid on the city sky that extended into infinity. The perspective of the clouds intrigued me and I decided to capture it.
I first processed this image in Aperture 3 where I made a few adjustments to the RAW file before taking it into NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I worked on enhancing the texture and tonality of the image. I then returned it to Aperture 3 where I applied some exposure, saturation and vibrancy changes. I lowered the saturation slightly and increased the vibrancy in order to achieve the overall feeling I felt when I shot the scene. I had a couple of dust spots that needed attention so I used the Spot and Patch tool in Aperture 3 to clean them up. I then took the image into Photoshop CS5 where I manually adjusted the vertical perspective to compensate for the distortion my 12mm lens had created. Back in Aperture 3 I applied a very slight vignette before saving the image for the web.
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Another crop from Thomas and Perry shows how different an image can be made through thoughtful cropping. I am not suggesting that photographers should not attempt to frame the final image in camera; I’m only showing that one needs to be open to the possibilities that thoughtful cropping offers.
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Last month I read an interesting book, The Photographer’s Eye by Michael Freeman , which is a fantastic book on the subject of composition. In one chapter Freeman discusses the many possibilities that often lie within a single frame. He points out how by selectively cropping the image the photograph can be used to tell several different stories.
I decided to take the image I posted this morning, Perry and Thomas, and see what other ways I could use it. By cropping the figures from the left side of the frame I was able to create an entirely different image that speaks to texture, color and composition without any visible human involvement.
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I wanted to capture the beauty of the November sunset and include the access ramp architecture as well as the pattern of the parking lot. I used a single frame which I processed in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3 to create this image.
