Day To Night Transformation

[David1961]

This scene is somewhere along the Great Ocean Road near Port Campbell. I can't remember exactly where as I took this photo in 2006 with my first digital camera, a compact point and shoot.

It was an overcast day and to me the day shot is nothing special and flat given the lighting.

But I really like the browny reds in the cliff face and so I wanted to see if I can transform the photo into something that pops to some extent.

I decided to turn it into a night scene using various tools and adjustment layers in PSE.

I also wanted to highlight/pop the browny reds, even at the cost of realism. Most people's comments so far have been to the effect that the scene is now half realistic, half art - and I am happy with that perception.

It's certainly not a true representation of how the cliffs look at night but it does start people talking.

C&C welcome.


Original Day Shot


Transformed into night scene using PSE

 

[Graham Meale]

The red is overdone. Looks like there's been a massive spill of tomato sauce. (Ketchup, to you Americans.)

 

[David1961]

Thanks for your feedback Graham.

I am not sure to what intent you see the reds overdone. Do you mean in terms of what they actually look like at night?

 

[Major Jack Reacher]

Thanks for your feedback Graham.

I am not sure to what intent you see the reds overdone. Do you mean in terms of what they actually look like at night?

I can not speak for Graham, but in my opinion, it looks like Ketchup was poured over the top of the edge and is running down the sides sides. That is what I expect he meant. I do agree it is overdone, but I hope you do not take that as a personal attack on your work.

BTW, here is a photo of the "Razorback" along the Great Ocean Drive also.







--
Major Jack Reacher, U.S. Army
"Character and morals take years to build, but can be destroyed forever with one terrible mistake".

 

[David1961]

Thank you Major. I played around with the brightness and saturation of the reds when I was creating the image and this is what I settled on which gave me the effect I was after.

From the feedback I have received elsewhere it is about 50-50. It appears to come down to how people see the "blood red" colours.

Very few have described it as tomato sauce (ketchup) though

I have many more photos I took along the GOR on that trip. I will post some more soon.

Thanks again.

 

[mreynolds767]

My opinion:

the water looks good

the sky looks ok

the cliffs look really bad (ketchup is a good description); seems like you are having them glow like a light source but they are not one.

I think to do correctly you need to analyze and process each part and imagine how it would look at night.

 

[David1961]

My opinion:

the water looks good

the sky looks ok

the cliffs look really bad (ketchup is a good description); seems like you are having them glow like a light source but they are not one.

I think to do correctly you need to analyze and process each part and imagine how it would look at night.

Thank you for your thoughts.

If I wanted to maintain total realism then I agree 100% but in my op I made it clear total realism was not my main priority and that this image is not a true representation of reality.

 

[David1961]

It appears from the feedback here and elsewhere that I have succeeded in making the "blood reds" pop as it is by far the most popular thing people see first and then talk about.

Yep, even here people's view depends on how they perceive the reds on the cliffs.

Some like it, some don't and some just scratch their head not sure what to make of it or which way to go

 

[Krusty79]

The reds look too strong for me for a night scene. It almost looks like hot lava.

 

[mreynolds767]

My opinion:

the water looks good

the sky looks ok

the cliffs look really bad (ketchup is a good description); seems like you are having them glow like a light source but they are not one.

I think to do correctly you need to analyze and process each part and imagine how it would look at night.

Thank you for your thoughts.

If I wanted to maintain total realism then I agree 100% but in my op I made it clear total realism was not my main priority and that this image is not a true representation of reality.

I did miss that ; which you did state clearly in your post.

Think my reply and others do show no matter what you want to convey viewers will in their mind compare to reality. If something looks off ; you will need the viewer to treat it as artwork not a photograph anymore which some will and others will struggle with.

Harder to critique artwork, as it is someone's vision which the viewer either likes or dislikes with no real grey area.

I don't like journalistic type photography but prefer photography that may be altered/retouched but still stays in line with could happen / has happened ; so based on reality even if enhanced from reality. That is just me and my tastes though.

--
Online Gallery here
https://www.mattreynoldsphotography.com/

 

[David1961]

Thank you Krusty79.

Yes, if my aim was to maintain total realism I agree 100%.

As I posted in my op, total realism was not my main aim.

Lighter and less saturated shades unfortunately did not give me the look I wanted.

 

[David1961]

My opinion:

the water looks good

the sky looks ok

the cliffs look really bad (ketchup is a good description); seems like you are having them glow like a light source but they are not one.

I think to do correctly you need to analyze and process each part and imagine how it would look at night.

Thank you for your thoughts.

If I wanted to maintain total realism then I agree 100% but in my op I made it clear total realism was not my main priority and that this image is not a true representation of reality.

I did miss that ; which you did state clearly in your post.

Think my reply and others do show no matter what you want to convey viewers will in their mind compare to reality. If something looks off ; you will need the viewer to treat it as artwork not a photograph anymore which some will and others will struggle with.

Yes, that is what I am seeing from the feedback here and elsewhere.

Harder to critique artwork, as it is someone's vision which the viewer either likes or dislikes with no real grey area.

Yes, it's about 50-50 so far.

I don't like journalistic type photography but prefer photography that may be altered/retouched but still stays in line with could happen / has happened ; so based on reality even if enhanced from reality. That is just me and my tastes though.

I'm pretty much the same except for events I tend to steer towards journalistic/documentary photos.

On the few occasions I attempt art then anything goes

--
Online Gallery here
https://www.mattreynoldsphotography.com/

 

[Donald B]

;-)

Don

 

[David1961]

Thank you

 

[kaphinga]

Kudos to you for thinking out of the box and doing something different.

I usually don't like to mess around with other folks' images, but I got kind of intrigued by the idea of turning day into night, and I couldn't resist the temptation to tinker in LR.

Of course, it's totally unrealistic. It would be close to impossible to light a cliff like that. Still, it was a fun exercise.

For whatever it's worth, I basically brought down the exposure and cooled the white balance for everything but the cliff. Maybe I should have boosted the saturation a bit more -- I dunno.

It's not any better or worse than what you did, just different.





--
Marie

 

[Just Tim 4]

I'm not trying to contradict or deter any artistic spirit here. I'm only going to explain why people are having a problem with perception here.

Our cones are not good in low light, so our colour vision fails in low light. This happens in the lower energy reds first.

Even in bright moonlight reds appear almost pure black because there's not enough energy to trigger the cones in our eyes. This also leads to a distinct shift in the peak sensitivity from yellow/green to green/cyan.

What this basically means is that there isn't a single person on this planet who sees a bright saturated red object lit by reflected light at night. So our perceptual understanding is always *daylight* because our experience is never night.

I think this is what Matt was trying to explain.


Moonlight or sunlight?



--

https://timtuckerphoto.smugmug.com/Scotland-1/

 

[David1961]

Kudos to you for thinking out of the box and doing something different.

I usually don't like to mess around with other folks' images, but I got kind of intrigued by the idea of turning day into night, and I couldn't resist the temptation to tinker in LR.

Of course, it's totally unrealistic. It would be close to impossible to light a cliff like that. Still, it was a fun exercise.

For whatever it's worth, I basically brought down the exposure and cooled the white balance for everything but the cliff. Maybe I should have boosted the saturation a bit more -- I dunno.

It's not any better or worse than what you did, just different.



--
Marie

Thank you Kaphinga,

Yes I like your version as well and it is much closer to reality than my version.

I had similar colours and tones when I was creating the image, but unfortunately they just weren't the effect I was after.

I was looking for something that, to me at least, was more "dramatic" and popped more.

As I mentioned in my op, maintaining total reality was not my main aim.

The feedback from here and elsewhere is about 50/50 and I am happy with that

Thank you again and your version certainly gives me food for thought for another version to experiment with.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

The red is overdone. Looks like there's been a massive spill of tomato sauce. (Ketchup, to you Americans.)

To us Americans tomato sauce is thinner than ketchup.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Since you asked, it looks to me like fluorescent paint by numbers, but I'm not sure if any of our opinions really matters.

 

[David1961]

Thank you for your thoughts

The overall feedback I am getting from here and elsewhere is split fairly evenly.

I am happy with that as I have been successful in getting people to talk about it