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When I begun to process this exposure bracketing, I thought that I knew what I wanted to attain. I was perfectly wrong. Indeed, these RAW files kept a few secret bits of beauty which I was not aware of when I selected them for processing – and they changed the course of the journey I had foreordained.
I was in a gloomy mood, for both personal and general concerns, and the RAWs looked rather duller than the average – taken: they appeared to accurately mirror the state of my soul. At worst, I would have wasted some hours of pointless procesing work before deciding to look for something better. Nobody would have known. However things were to contradict my expectations. I got some good news (a rarity in those tough days) about the health conditions of my brother and my “adopted brother-in-law” (i.e. my brother’s brother-in-law); on the other hand, Darktable – that wonderful software – gifted me with a few unanticipated treasures. My thoughts were growing more and more positive and the processing of this bracketing were proceeding accordingly: a hidden beauty was unfolding before me, my own persisting unawareness of it notwithstanding. At last I found myself with a picture that had apparently self-processed itself*, while I was busy exploring uncharted thoughts that kept emerging along the way
* Admittedly a bizarre phenomenon, which Maurits Cornelius Escher would have loved – think of his Drawing hands.
I would avoid to nag you about this incredibly wonderful location: you can take a look at my album Silent banks, the complete collection of the photos I have taken there; the attached narratives are rich in information about the place, if you are curious enough.
This location is especially renowned for its legendary morning mists, but only a thin layer of milky mist floated above the water that morning. On top of the hill in the distance, beyond the river, lays the sanctuary of the Madonna della Rocca ( = Madonna of the Rock), already brushed by the first light pouring from the Eastern horizon.
I have obtained this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-1.7/0/+1.7 EV] by luminosity masks in the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then, as usual, I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I tried the inverted RGB blue channel technique described by Boris Hajdukovic as a possible final contribution to the processing. While this technique (which, its imposing name notwithstanding, is pretty simple to implement) often holds interesting results in full daylight landscapes, its effects on a low-light capture (e.g. a sunrise) are utterly unpredictable, so at the end of my workflow I often give it a try to ascertain its possibilities. In this picture I have exploited this technique in a very frugal, yet effective, way – just some touches where needed.
RAW files has been processed with Darktable. Denoising with DFine 2 and the Gimp (denoised and original images blended by lightness).
UPDATE: my first 99+ favs!! Thanks guys, you're amazing! :) :)
I was in London for work a few years ago... Which means that every single one of my picture were taken at night, under less than perfect condition. I wasn't very used to that (and definitely not equipped for it), so a lot of picture from that trip ended up being overly processed. I kinda wish I could go back and take them again now that I've acquired more experience :)
Je l'ai dit : je ne résiste JAMAIS à un jeu de mots douteuxx...
Au moins le mégaphone ne peut être confondu avec celui de la CGT. x)
"Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping." --Julia Margaret Cameron
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Sitting close to home in the beginning of April, looking at the cloudless sky. Combined two pictures
The Hazard Vipers are an unfriendly bunch, that's probably because unlike Toxo Vipers these guys actually like their jobs. They ran out of subjects for turning into Zombie Vipers, so instead they grabbed up the first unsuspecting soldier for "treatment". He'll never even know that he'd wish that day had been his last!