Before and After

Here is one of my very first images taken with a digital compact camera back in 2003. At that time I was given a film SLR camera but I alos bought a digital camera so I could experiment and practice composition, and not have to worry about film development costs. Once I found a good composition, I would then switch to the SLR to capture that high quality shot. However after a few months using the digital camera, I abandoned using the SLR. I seldom found good compositions so I stopped carrying it around and focused solely on improving my composition and technique.

For a long time I've looked at this image, wondering how I could have made it better and for a long time, I couldn't think of anything. However 8 years later, I've come to a point in my development as a photographer where I can now look at this image and see faults I couldn't before. Here is the unadjusted image straight from the camera. A lucky shot for a beginner.

Original Capture
Canon PowerShot S30 at 40mm EFL, tripod mounted.
1/15s at f/4.5

 When I look at this image these days, I get an overwhelming sense of red, especially in the shadows and the sky just above the buildings. To fix this using Lightroom, I used the white balance tool and looked for an area in the image where it should be almost black but there's a little red, and made a selection. I chose a place just above the buildings on the right hand side. The software makes a calculation and adjusts the colours in the image so that my selection is neutral grey. In this case Lightroom adjusted temp by -44 (it was a .jpg file) and tint by -5. Now my blacks actually look black and the colours in the water separate more, making them stronger too.

I also straightened the horizon, cloned out a few stars (noise or dust) in the sky and gave it a little extra saturation (+10). However they are minor adjustments. Removing the colour cast had the biggest impact on the final image.

After Post Processing
The colour cast is gone allowing the other colours to separate and become stronger.



Some people have also commented to me that they would like to see a more panoramic crop to remove the foreground. So here is a 2:1 crop. I'm quite partial to panoramic images but I kind of like the foreground as an anchor for the viewer. If I was to shoot this again, I would use a much wider lens and keep the foreground but add some more of the city on the left and right.



Alternative 2:1 Panoramic Crop
It's a nice city shot but I'm not sure I like loosing the foreground.