Wellington City at Night – Image courtesy of T Osborne and edited by Lensaddiction – Click to embiggen
Thankfully my study is over for a couple of months and I now have TIME to do the fun things like One Four Challenge – Details here if it is new to you
Except, well today I managed to sucessfully sign up for the AWAKE course, the next stage in my beloved Photoshop Artistry course, but my time will be taken up with learning even more about PS so thats very exciting!
On that note, this month I have chosen to do something different, this month this is NOT an image I have taken. This is from a colleague in Wellington who is bravely stepping on the path to learn photography and she and a friend have fortnightly dates to go out and have fun with their cameras. An awesome idea, a friend to share my experiences with would have been fun 🙂
She is new to the concept of post processing, so lovely T, I hope you don’t mind but my challenge image for this month is your great night shot of Wellington waterfront.
This is so I can show you how easy and effective post processing can be, and also FUN!
Post Processing Steps:
1. Original image is straight out of camera jpg, and I believe handheld (pretty good for a night shot!)
2. Imported into LR6, applied perspective tools and straightened horizon a bit. Cropped the extra bits of the lefthand side to focus on the buildings, lights and steps.
3. Here I cheat outrageously and use a night time preset out of a set I bought ages ago but never got around to installing and it worked brilliantly!
4. Applied a subtle vignette to the edges and WALLAH!
Here is the BEFORE image for comparison
BEFORE – click to embiggen
My plan is to take this image through several stages to show T how it can look with the right software and some time spent playing 🙂
All Comments and Feedback Welcome!
Learning to See Light 
Looks good and a great idea to show your colleague just what can be done, even with a jpg. Like the crop it tightens the scene up and keeps my eye focused in the central area. Hey I signed up for the AWAKE course this morning too! See you have inspired me to leap off the edge again 🙂 Thanks
Yes it’s a nice image, I’m a big fan of a good crop 😜
Yay another person doing Awake, that’s you, me and Kirsten from Kia photography blog, she’s a bit further ahead on mod 3 than I am.
So TWO Awake buddies 😎 I did the intro and core 1 vids last night, now I have to get a journal and do the projects. And get a Facebook acct!
I did just the intro last nigh, already have the journal, have a private facebook a/c and not sure if I want to open it to the AWAKE group yet 🙂 early days. Because of my limited internet access I’m still on Module 1 on the Artistry Course, excuses! very slack of me but I couldn’t miss this opportunity to get in on AWAKE. So some serious work for me to do over these winter months. It’s great to know someone else that has a similar outlook on photography – good images plus the ability (down the track) to do something more creative with them. The focus of those first questions really points to an interesting and meaningful course.
Yes his enthusiasm can sometimes get a bit tiring but a lot of what he said resonated with me, I have started to do a lot of what he was talking about around removing distractions and getting my house in order (tho I need to sort my textures and stuff a bit better than I am already from the sounds of things).
Hopefully I can pick up a Journal today and get stuck into the exercises in the weekend, its forecast for snow today and the sunsets at 5pm here, so no sitting outside for 15 min contemplating the world today!
Snow!!!!!!! OMG I’m shivering just at the thought. Sunshine and 20 today. I’ll be seeing how much of the rest of Mod. 1 I can get through this week and also start the first part of AWAKE. And yes distractions . . . . . .
Yes its pretty bitter today, we are at sea level so dont often get snow that settles, usually once or twice a winter but we still get the cold winter storms passing over us. I have to be out visting customers today so have the best WARM clothing options plus my big fluffy jacket and gloves.
Oh geez you girls.. 😉 I’m still doing the other PS Artistry course and another online course.. and I so want to join you, but I’ll have to wait this time ’round! Only so many hours in the day..lol
Will look for lots of wonderful images from you both. enjoy!!! 😀
Well im just starting Mod 3 on the PA course, started Awake, plus I also got a years subscription to Dave Cross Photoshop tutorials (about 30 of them) that I have done a couple, and I got the Eye Voyage Natural light course.
They are all decent chunky courses, Im working on getting all my ducks in a row (LOL) and sitting down to make a big dent in them over the next couple of months.
My other study isnt over but I have a research project to do and as Im doing it at work I can do hopefully a lot of it in work time.
Of course Im single and live alone and dont have kids so I have an advantage there but I still manage to spend too much time on twitter, fluffing around generally and watching some TV!
He he I think we all manage some fluffing around. My kid is now an adult, but work is getting busier so between that and rotten internet, I have to pace myself for now.
Ah yes, the DC workshop looks awesome too! I’m up to Mod 2 so far myself, but my other course has a deadline.. ooh hurry up!
Making a big dent (and ducks..lol) sounds like a good plan. Enjoy!
Enjoy all your studies – I know I continue to do so 😀
I would rather have people think I’m ignorant rather than comment and remove all doubt. But comment I must. What are you women talking about? And can anyone join? What is AWAKE? Yeah, I know I could just look it up, but you guys (sorry, LADIES) sound so excited by it!
Scroll down a bit in the comments, Lore asks the same question and I answer her there, unfortunately my silly iPad won’t let me copy and paste the reply I have already made!
Gorgeous image and good for you for learning MORE. Stacy got me jumping off the cliff so to speak and I’m still leaping. LOL ❤
Keep flapping, you will be flying soon!
LOL I already do. Believe me. I’ve been notified my head is up in the clouds by some who know me. Hehehehehe
You should have some fun with this photo of this month. 😀
Yes i hope so, thanks Cee
Good idea to work with a friend’s photo and introduce her to editing! Will be interested to see what you do next. Hey, well done on signing up for AWAKE. I signed up yesterday for the Photoshop Artistry course you and Kirsten were talking about! Can’t wait to get into it. The learning continues!
Another one for the PA course, thats about 6 people I know have joined, they should give me a referral bonus LOL
I know you will love it, such an excellent course. Make sure you go to the BONUS CONTENT and download it all, there is LOADS of stuff, textures and backgrounds and brushes and all sorts. The price is worth it for that alone 🙂
Yap – did that last night. Starting module 1 tonight!
Have fun – the setting up the workspace made using PS so much easier for me.
great edit! I thought about the Awake course..have done some of the PA course so far…
Yay, so many of us doing it, all that fabulous learning going on. Yes I am quite excited about the Awake course, its definately different.
There are lots of us – how awesome is that?!!
This is a fabulous image and the 1st week’s edition brings out the details very nicely.
Looking forward to the next weeks and hoping your friend is inspired by watching your processes 😀
She was a bit horrified I shared her image with the world, but looking forward to seeing what I come up with. Its good inspiration to be doing this for someone elses benefit too 🙂
lol.. Good inspiration for both 🙂 Enjoy Stacey.
It’s my Awake buddy!! I’m so excited that so many of us are all doing the Photoshop Artistry classes. I think it’s great that you are editing someone else’s photo so they can see what can happen with processing! You did a great job with this week’s edit. The photo already pops more! I wonder what you will do next?!?
Probably a BW and then who knows!
Why am I not doing that Awake thing, seems everybody’s doing it. What a great idea to use your friends photo and show her the marvels of post processing. Tell her it is a good image, nothing to be horrified about.
Awake is the Advanced course going the next stage beyond the Photoshop Artistry course that several of us are doing. It was first released in Jan to a limited intake but I had other study commitments so didnt join it. However they announced a mid year intake this last weekend, again limited intake, and I was lucky enough to get into this round.
You could start with the PS Fine Art Grunge course and see if its your thing – there are two free 20 min tutorials you can try out here
http://www.lightstalking.com/photo-artistry-tutorials/
Its been on special recently so Im not sure what the current price is but the usual price is about $297 USD – and worth every cent even at that!
Funny, I’m on lightstalking and did look at the video just a week or so ago. Even downloaded those backgrounds he was offering and tried the technique on my next one four version of this month’s photo!
I didnt realise til we all started talking about it how many of us are doing the PA Fine Art Grunge course.
Nice work. I look forward to see what you will be doing for this image. Hope you are keeping warm. It is freezing here in Hastings.
Snow on the ground this morning and black ice on the roads, I have 4 layers of clothes on my torso and heavy pants AND bought a rug into work to wrap around me. Yes its cold 🙂
We are cold too. Fire going but hard to keep warm. Take care Stacey
T is going to love what you do, I bet. This seems like the perfect image to work on. I can see so many variations. Can’t wait!
Your friend has taken a great image and your first edit has given it a wonderful boost. I love the richness of the sky’s colour. I look forward to seeing your future edits. 🙂
I just used a night preset and it did all the magic itself, all I did was add a slight vignette on top. I dont normally do night images for the challenge so thats a new thing for me too.
beautiful clarity! I love night shots like this!
I havent done a lot of night shot work myself so editing this is going to be fun. For a beginner T did quite well I think 🙂
indeed!
I like the picture a lot and the edit has really made the image pop.
Thanks Ben, I keep telling T its a good picture so hopefully seeing the fun things that can be done in PP will help 🙂