Paxtons Tower

V

vulkan75

Guest
Firstly,let me say that this is a well picked theme this month and a particularly hard one to enter.
Personally it has been a nightmare, as there is realy nothing ,architecturally inspiring near where I live.:(

Seeing the standard of a certain picture in this months comp,has made me throw caution to the wind and have a go at my first edited picture.(as I cant see the afore mentioned being beaten)

The following picture is about the nearest I could find to something worthy of a shot near me.

This will be my first effort using photoshop elements 5,and I would like to give thanks to Senu and Tontoshorse for all the help they gave me trying to get the result I wanted.:smashin:

I have spent absolutley ages doing this(dosnt time fly editing stuff:eek: ),which is probably laughable to you guys who could have done it in minutes........hopefully my hard work has paid off and Ive done it some justice.:)

I saw the end result in my mind before I even took the shot,it was just a case of being able to edit it effectivley.
Ive tried to use the naturaly occuring rainbow(it wasnt added) to lead the eye to the subject.

I kept the rainbow in colour and slightly saturated it, then layered it with a greyscaled version of the same shot,and cropped it

Hope you like it.



Exif:-

Nikon D80

Aperture priorty mode

Aperture F11

ISO 100

Shutter 1/50s

Focal length 34mm

towerrain_edited-4.jpg
[/IMG]

Some info about the tower for those intrested.:)



Paxtons Tower.

William Paxton, who was a native of Edinburgh, came to Wales in 1785, after thirty years of travelling the world.

He had made a fortune in India where he was the Master of the Calcutta Mint. On retiring, like many others who had made riches, to invest in a country estate and enter politics. It was necessary, of course, to have a house and estate which reflected his wealth and this he acquired in 1787, Middleton Hall - the site of the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

The estate was in poor repair at the time of purchase but it suited to Paxton's needs, being, according to the sale catalogue of 1824, "seven miles from Carmarthen and the high Mail Coach Road to Haverfordwest".

Paxton invested large sums of money in the run down estate and the restoration work undertaken included the building of a new Middleton Hall. The architect chosen to design and build the new hall was Samuel Pepys Cockerel of London, who completed the job between 1793 and 1795.

William Paxton was knighted in 1802. Paxton was Mayor of Carmarthen when Nelson and Lady Hamilton stayed in the town in 1802. He would certainly have met and entertained them during their visit. It would appear that the naval hero greatly impressed Sir William. A few years later, Paxton commissioned Cockerel to design a tower to be erected in honour of the of Lord Nelson. It is not possible to give a precise date for the project, but the tower was probably under construction when Lord Nelson was killed.

The project was completed before the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The tower was sited 500 feet above the Towy valley on a wooded hill known locally as Bryn y Bigwrn. The tower is constructed of Bala stone, limestone and stones from the quarry close to the tower. The first two storeys are triangular in shape tower at each corner. The walls are topped with a parapet. The rounded towers are raised several feet above the parapets. The third storey is hexagonal in shape, rising from the triangular part to give the tower an impressive appearance. On the top is a flat roof from which it is claimed seven counties can be seen on a clear day.


:hiya:
 
Excellent photo i like it a lot, but i think it would have a better picture without the rainbow, it tends to take your eye away from what is essentially the heart of the picture, the building itself.
Its only an opinion and not meant as a criticism as its a great photo all the same.:smashin:

dont know if i shall be entering this month, busy with Xmas etc and there is not a lot of buildings with architectual merit in Welwyn Garden City.
 
your efforts have been rewarded - handsomley!

Get it framed.

Wow....realy.:eek:

Im so glad you think it turned out ok.That makes me breathe a huge sigh of relief.

cheers:thumbsup:
 
Excellent photo i like it a lot, but i think it would have a better picture without the rainbow, it tends to take your eye away from what is essentially the heart of the picture, the building itself.

MMMmmmmm,Thats exactly the opposite to what I was trying to acheive.I was hoping to lead too, rather than distract.Oh well:rolleyes:


there is not a lot of buildings with architectual merit in Welwyn Garden City.

I know what you mean mate,I had the same trouble.:rolleyes:
 
Well done:smashin:

It is certainly eyecatching:)

I think the time spent was well worth it as the blend is "invisible":rotfl:

Competition entry aside, try and see if a little more contrast and sharpening on the tower only will accentuate it as the main subject
 
That’s very nice. Are you saying that the original photo had the rainbow in it, if so wow, talk about being in the right place at the right time.

Think your editing patience has paid off. I’m looking to get Elements 5 very soon, so am looking forward to playing around with it. How are you finding it?

Ian.
 
I think this is a very striking photo, and the PP caught my attention. I can also agree with Bodoman in that the desaturated image of the tower against the sky is strong enough to stand on its own merits, so good job on both counts, well done.
:smashin:
 
I think you have done a good job on the processing. My only comment would be that the rainbow looks 'false' toward the bottom as the lines are too well defined for it to look completely natural.

Good effort
 
That’s very nice. Are you saying that the original photo had the rainbow in it, if so wow, talk about being in the right place at the right time.

Think your editing patience has paid off. I’m looking to get Elements 5 very soon, so am looking forward to playing around with it. How are you finding it?


Yes mate, the rainbow was there at the time.Some of the unedited ones can be seen on my flickr,which im just started to upload to.http://www.flickr.com/photos/vulkan75/


elements 5 is great especialy for beginers like me(not to complex,but complex enough if you get my meaning),The lads on here are great at helping out too.


I think you have done a good job on the processing. My only comment would be that the rainbow looks 'false' toward the bottom as the lines are too well defined for it to look completely natural.

Yeah I think it might be as a result of over saturating it,although one or to of the originals look sharp there too.

Its really just a learning curve for me at the mo.I realy enjoyed the comp last month(my first) and just wanted to enter something/anything this time round, just to be involved ,I follow all the comp threads religously and its proving very educational.

Thanks for the comments guys:thumbsup:
 
My only comment would be that the rainbow looks 'false' toward the bottom as the lines are too well defined for it to look completely natural.

Good effort

I agree with Steve's comments, the rainbow needs a bit of blurring to make it blend in.
Very good effort and very eye catching.
 
Another thing to try would be to reduce the opacity in the layer ( and as such increase the transparency) with the rainbow

Perhaps ,in addition to slightly adjusting contrast sharpness on the tower
But as stated before, it is by all accounts, a worthy effort
 
Yeah, ive actually done that, but obiviously cant ammend the original entry.

The hard edge is actually found in the orginal raw file but it doent stand out so much in colour.In fact ive had a print done (10x8) and it dosn't seem so hard edged in that.
By all accounts it was a bit of an experiment,so I'm quite pleased overall.

I wanted to try something out of the norm for the theme and as mentioned theres nothing really photographable:) where I live.

thanks or the constructive crit though:smashin:
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom