Drain Clouds II
I have been experimenting with combining multiple long exposures through HDR software. I am curious about how this will affect the quality of the water and other aspects of the shot. Naturally, this brought me back to the Ross Bay storm drain which I have featured many times over the past year.
This photo is processed within Photomatix from 6 brackets. I was going to end a series with this one, and give more of an explanation of what I have been up to with some other versions. But, that can wait because this one follows nicely from the chair photo of a couple of days ago which was processed with nearly the same settings. This is the view if you were to take that chair and move it about 10 m from where it had been abandoned (if you peer closely at that picture, right above the waste-bin, you can see the end of the drain).
I processed this photo for black and white with an emphasis on the sky, but then decided it needed a bit of colour put back in. This upload also is a bit darker than I thought I had produced, perhaps it is a WP artifact, or maybe it is just the way I am looking at things.
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Canon EOS 5Dii, Canon 50/1.4 lens, ISO100, f-22, 6 brackets at 3.2, 6.0, 8.0, 13.0, 15.0, and 30.0 seconds
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burnt embers 
This is COOL! I love the rich skies that the HDR processing has brought to life, and that silky smooth water there is just awesome. Toadally top drawer!!
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Toadally is the catchword, knowing your love of HDR. A am glad you like this one.
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I remember the Drain, and from memory this is one of the most satisfying images of the Drain that you’ve posted. A wonderful sky, the water is rendered very well and that little touch of colour adds something extra. Nice work, indeed.
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Hi Andy – thanks for the comment! I could see the sky had loads of potential, and the HDR brought it out really nicely.
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I think this is perhaps one of my favourite versions of the storm drain. As a few others mentioned, there’s just something about that storm drain…mystical if you will!
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Thank you David. I guess I had better do more pictures of it on my blog, it sparks lots of comment.
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Wow. Just gorgeous.
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Thanks so much!
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The dimensionality of the clouds is extraordinary – what an interesting approach, ehpem! I look forward to seeing more of this 🙂
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Hi Karen. I am glad you noticed that. I think that is partly the combined long exposures. The nearest clouds at the top of the shot were moving enough to be blurred, the more distant ones it is not so noticeable. I think that must contribute quite a lot to the three dimensionality of the sky, in a way not usually possible since it is all so far away and either in focus as a unit, or out of focus as a unit. There must be some possibilities for future playing in this observation.
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Ephem, this is a beautiful composition – I like the way my eye travels through the image, and the touch of colour.
The HDR is striking. It seems icy somehow, which makes a statement in itself.
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Thank you so much Karen, what a great comment 🙂 I like the zig-zag nature of the angle, I think I even called one of my past storm drain shots zig zag or something similar. It is kind of icy, and while we don’t do much ice around here, especially not on the ocean, that water is at all times of the year only for the brave of heart that lack a nervous system within a cm of the skin. Icy cold is what I always think of with this water. I have some pictures coming up from this same time, with the same treatment, of boys playing on this structure, in bare feet. Makes my ankles ache just thinking about it.
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One word …. Beautiful
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Hi Carl – thank you, and welcome to my blog, nice to have you commenting here. I had a quick look at yours and see that I have to have a good poke around as you have lots of very nice images there.
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I love all the shades of grey in this, from the sky to the water to the concrete (?) of the drain. Beautiful.
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Thank you Journey. It did look pretty good in black and white, though I did not even export a copy at that stage. Probably should have.
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And yes, it is concrete.
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This works well in color so i’m glad you retained it. It probably would work very well in B&W as well, since there is not much color except in the foreground. The other thing you could do is to reduce the blue saturation to get the B&W in the upper portion of the photo and still retain the color in the foreground. But i probably would have stopped here as well.
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Hi Ken – I did pull down the blue quite a bit, it was a very blue scene and the HDR processing emphasized that. There is also a fair bit of yellow in the clouds which I would have had to mask out if I wanted it really black and white except the beach. I have some other versions where I have done more or less of different things, and they will be showing up later this week, I expect. I have just been reading a guide to LR4 and I have learned there are things I could be doing that I have not yet tried, other ways to get effects that I have worked out for myself. But those experiments may have to wait until next weekend.
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I agree with the comment from Photobooth Journal. There’s just something about this drain…
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Thanks Melinda – there is isn’t there? I am glad you all don’t mind me putting so many pictures up of it. I have a few more from this visit 🙂
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One of my favourite locations in your photos. Very mystical and draws you in. You are very talented.
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Thank you Katherine! It has been quite a while since I was down here with my camera. I should have got some height of summer shots, but….
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