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I often go for a early morning walk in the beach to get my much needed coffee in a local beach bar. I sit outside for a few minutes watching the waves and deeply breathing the fresh air from the sea. This time the air brought me the sound of music playing nearby. I went to look for its origin and saw this guy sitting in the sand playing his guitar and singing some actual radio hit. He was perfectly in the center of two rows of rustic sunshades. It was about 9am and the morning was bright but the sky was covered with clouds. I took the shot and while I was reviewing it in the camera screen, I thought it would be great if it was a night scene. So, at home, with Photoshop, I tried to "convert" this daylight photo into a nighttime scene with some surreal looks. I did some experiences but this version is the one that got nearer the pretended result.
To achieve it, I selectively edited the sky, sea and foreground with curves and levels to drastically increase contrast and darken the scene. Then I decreased saturation because at night there's almost an absence of color. Only the man has a little more color and brightness to draw attention to him.
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"Balada Nocturna na Praia". Eu vou regularmente dar um passeio matinal à praia para tomar o meu indispensável café num dos bares locais. Sento-me na esplanada por alguns minutos a apreciar as ondas e a inspirar profundamente o ar fresco vindo do mar. Desta vez, o ar também me trouxe o som de música a tocar nas proximidades. Fui à procura da origem do som e vi este rapaz sentado na areia, a tocar a sua guitarra e a cantar um qualquer êxito actual. Ele estava perfeitamente centrado entre duas filas de uns rústicos chapéus de sol. Eram cerca das 9 horas de uma manhã luminosa mas o céu estava coberto de nuvens. Tirei a foto e, enquanto a revia no ecrã da máquina, pensei que aquela seria uma boa imagem se tivesse sido captada de noite. Assim, em casa com o Photoshop, tentei converter esta foto tirada de dia, numa cena nocturna com um ar algo surreal. Fiz algumas experiências mas esta versão foi a que me pareceu mais aproximada ao resultado pretendido.
Para o conseguir, editei selectivamente o céu, mar e primeiro plano com as ferramentas "curves" e "levels" para drasticamente aumentar o contraste e escurecer a cena. Depois reduzi a saturação porque de noite existe uma quase ausencia de cor. só o rapaz é que tem um pouco mais de cor e luminosidade para atrair o olhar para ele.
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Care to share how you converted the clouds and the sand Carlos ? : )
ReplyDeleteI think you're right Juriah. After all that presentation, I think it lacks the explanation about how I actually did the convertion.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to edit the post ;-)
Tks Carlos. I am interested in how you did it because just this morning, I did one too, of a photo taken by a friend. He has menacing storm clouds plus dark ocean because the storm was brewing. It lacked punch because we don't get that hurricane type of weather here... so I did just that. Isolate, Levels, saturation, curves and desaturation. Good to know we are not far off. I love the texture of the sand in yours and the clouds. That guitar guy now look as if he's suicidal now waiting for the storm to gobble him up : )
ReplyDeleteNice! I would like to peek that one of yours ;-)
ReplyDeleteAHAHAH!! I can imagine a thunderbolt hitting and smashing that guitar as if the Gods were saying SHUT UP! :-D
One of the best works so far
ReplyDeleteWonderfull!