Curves @ South Wharf

[Grumpy John]

It was such a beautiful day in Melbourne I traveled into the city to do some photography at the South Wharf area. I found a lot of interesting curves.

#1 Selective Black & White treatment.


The sky was pretty boring so I decided to add some drama. Too much????????


#2

[Grumpy John]

Lamont Bridge, AKA 7^th Bridge Of Love.

Another Black & White treatment, went for a bleached out sky to give some negative space.


I think it looks better with a border.

[Grumpy John]

Is the action on your download page?

[Isac]

Here you go.
www.isacimages.com/Free/Stroke_and_Shadow.zip
Just select the layer you want to add the shadow and stroke to and play the action.
I assume the layer you run the action on is smaller than the image dimensions.

[Grumpy John]

I'll send you a PM with my workflow.

[Isac]

Love the POV! You've got some great captures there John. I'd love to see some more punch in you B&W conversions though. There's a local guy on Perth Photography that does phenomenal conversions of buildings just like yours and he gets the effects similar to below by replacing the sky (if needed) and then using a BW adjustment layer to darken the sky (which highlights the clouds) and then adds a Brightness/Contrast adjustment to the original image layer to give it a slight grunge look. It's maybe not for everyone but I personally love the effect because it really separates the sky from the building and adds some detail as well. The sky I used was just one of many in my collection - a nice bright blue with some puffy white clouds.

[Isac]

Also what do you mean by "Selective" black and white?

[Grumpy John]

Image #1 is a colour image, I selected the building and converted it to B & W, leaving the sky blue.

[Isac]

Gotcha!

[Grumpy John]

Paying homage to Alan .

[Isac]

That red brolly really stands out and you have great tones in the BW conversion.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

Hi John

Some nice ones there mate - I'm okay with the blue sky + a light clouds if needed
and the red umbrella goes well too ... well done
Phil

[Alan]

Thanks for the mention GJ - Cheers Nice work.

Living on a small coast beach, I get very few chances to photography tall city buildings

[Grumpy John]

Thanks for the kind words Alan. You may not have the tall buildings but you make up for it with your wonderful seascapes.

[Grumpy John]

One more with a different border treatment.

[Isac]

Cool! did you create an action for that? You can also save those effects as a STYLE and just apply it using an action OR just a one-click on the style. Did you try the style I sent?

[Grumpy John]

The action you sent works a treat, thank you. The second border was done separately, I would like to combine it into the action you sent.
Do you think that the outer black border is a tad too thick? It is set to 5% of the height and the width is set to 7.5% to maintain an even thickness.

[Isac]

The outer black probably does look too much. Perhaps make it a thin stroke like the one on the image? It would be easier to re-write an action to include all steps. If you want I can do that using the image above or if you want to change anything, post an image with the finished border effect, so I can replicate the look in an action.