I've been working on making some extravagant lighthouse pictures from some of the photos I have combined with other landscapes and such.

Here are the first 2 that I've done...

Tybee...



And Bald Head Island..



There will be more soon. What do you think?

Cool! Love the sunsets with the lighthouses. Particularly Tybee with the lens lit. Great work!

On another note, I have lighthouse photos from a trip I just took to upstate NY. Is there somewhere on the website that tells me how to post those?

Great pictures. Were these taken at sunset or sunrise. What type of camera did you use?

Doc, Thanks! Cant wait to see yours. go to Flickr or Photobucket and follow the directions to upload, then copy the IMG code and paste it in a post. Its quite easy.

Bodie, Those are both sunsets which were added to the photo with Photoshop. The lights were photographed in the middle of the day. The Tybee light was also added from another photo of it. It took a long time to do these, but I'm hoping to get a storm with lightning to add to maybe the Hillsboro light. All the photos, sunset and lights were taken with a Nikon D70s, and both have been heavily processed.

I can't wait to do this with the OBX lighthouses as well. I hope to go there in January.

Excellent work Tybee !!!

Can't wait to see more !!!

Tybee... One word says it all, AWSOME!!!

Sorry, Tybee, but I have disagree with the others. They are no longer photographs but are artwork. I love Photoshop for repairing old photographs and making a photograph capture the moment as is was, but this is more what the commercial industry does.

It's just my opinion, I just can't do it myself as I like realism, after working in the news business for 37 years.

Ok, I edited the title. I was a little hesitant about calling them 'photos' as well, but I did it anyway. Better now?

Gives it a 2 D image. Perhaps if you add a person in the foreground (not blocking the lighthouse of course), you could get a 3 D image.

Anyway it looks interesting.

Sorry, Tybee, I have the same opinion as Paul Brady...
I like realism. With the gorgeous real sunsets and sunrises on the Outer Banks, and at Tybee, why play with Photoshop?

Just my opinion, and preference.

Judy

Photograph or Photo Art, I think they are beautiful!

I'm in a different camp then the others.

They are nice- but they just don't look real - or right- to me. I'm not sure if that's colored by the fact that I know they aren't real or not.

Sorry it's just how I "see" them.

Dennis

Yes, I would say more art than photo. I still like them, however.

The problem in using the sunset/sunrise photo is that the lighting on the subject buildings should be from the back. But your eye can clearly see from which direction the light is coming in the 'foreground' photo -- and it is not from the back.

In the Tybee photo, the side of the building towards the left should 'reflect' the sky color -- and the windows would have an even more pronounced reflection.

In the Bald Head shot, the coloration of the foreground photo doesn't match the sunset sky colors. That is, it there were an orange cast to the sky, everything illuminated by that sky would have a warm coloration. Instead, we see a 'daylight' look.

See Greg's photo of Marshal Point at the top of the page. Sunrise/sunset sky affects all the colors. We may know the rails are white, but they are the same 'color' as the water and highest part of the sky with highlights of orange.

Try taking the Bald Head and change the color balance on the foreground photo to a warmer color.


I don't have any problem changing the sky in a gray cloud cover day into a blue sky w/clouds one. Or even enhancing a sunset/sunrise photo with greater saturation or skewing the colors towards purple or orange.

You've done a very good job of outlining the foreground photos in preparation for the layering.

The eye is so hard to fool because we have a lifetime of knowing what things look like. The difference in the tones between the sky and foregrounds in these examples is 'jarring' to us because we know it looks unnatural, although we may not be conscious of why it looks unnatural.

Keep at it.

I used Picassa 3 (free from Google) and chose "Warmify".


For this one, I used the perspective control in PhotoShop to adjust for the wide-angle distortion. Notice the difference in the porch uprights, flag pole and pickets. It's a very easy tool to use.

I understand that the pictures are heavily modified, but I think they are great looking. I especially like the Tybee image. To me it almost has a surreal look, but it is very pleasing.