TAKING ANOTHER LOOK AT THREE OLDER IMAGES

JULY 4, 2025

                                       TODAY'S NEW "FINAL" BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE.

This week I would like to take another look at three of my older images. Every once in a while I explore my archives to see if I can reinterpret an image to find an alternative view to both the original snapshot and my older “final image” after I finished with Lightroom. I find that I can try a new route towards a new “final image” based on a new vision. This new vision is often supported by improvements in post processing software, both the software itself or my skills in using it. 

                                      THE ORIGINAL "FINAL" COLOR IMAGE.

I would emphasize that I was not disappointed with my original “final images”. The act of re-editing an image is an exploration, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a viewer like the original or really didn’t see what all the fuss was about. To each his own, but these are my images, and you should be able to stand up for you interpretation of your images despite what anyone else might think of your efforts.

                                      ORIGINAL BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSION

                                       SUBDIVIDING THE IMAGE TO ISOLATE THE BRIDGE.

The first image is one of an amazing number of shots I have taken of the Hawthorne Bridge over my last thirty two years living in Portland. I was pleased that I had finally captured an absolutely symmetrical image, for all that was worth. I was little disappointed that the image seemed a little washed out despite my efforts to correct what I viewed as overexposure. I decided to try a black and white conversion so that I could manipulate the exposure beyond what would be acceptable in a color rendition. I darkened the sky much more - if you can accept a black and white sky, what’s the problem with a darker and moodier one? I then lightened the river in the foreground. These moves achieved a better separation of the bridge overall - which of course was the original subject.

                                                                   ORIGINAL WOODLAND SNAPSHOT.

The second image is one of a series of woodland images from one of my walks in the woods from several years back. I had originally completely overlooked it as nothing special, but I decided to see if I could achieve a clear separation of the foreground trees from the surrounding woodland.

                                                                  GLOBAL ADJUSTMENTS DIDN'T WORK TO SEPARATE THE TREES.

My usual corrective measures of “global” processing of the entire image actually made things a lot worse, since all of my efforts brought out the background that I was trying to ignore. 

                                                                  DARKEN AND SHARPEN THE TREE TRUNKS.

I realized that it was time to use some of Lightroom’s tools in what was for me an unconventional manner. I first concentrated on the tree trunks, selecting them alone and reducing their exposure and sharpening them to focus the viewer’s attention on my subject

                                                                  NOW YOU CAN FINALLY SEE THE TREES FROM THE FOREST.

I Inverted this selection, and actually lightened the background exposure and moved Lightroom’s new “Dehaze” slider in a negative direction. I then reduced the sharpness in the background and my separation efforts were complete. While I am not pretending that there was some kind of sudden fog bank in the woods, The two foreground trunks certainly are now the subject of the image.

                                                                  THE ORIGINAL COFFEE AND CROISSANT SNAPSHOT.

The last image was a snapshot I had take in the midst of a coffee and croissant a few years ago in one of my ultra-cool neighborhood’s French outposts. I was intrigued by the series of reflections in the coffee house storefront. Like the Impressionists, I understand the power of print in literally forcing the viewer to at least pay some attention to an image. It really doesn’t matter if the words are incomplete, backwards, or in a foreign language - the left side of our brains will try to make some sense out of the word fragments, and you are halfway there to drawing them into your image

                                      CROP TO A SQUARE TO EMPHASIZE THE REFLECTED PRINT.

The original exposure was all wrong, and the image was far from straight. After I cropped and straightened the image to emphasize the printed matter, I converted to black and white. the colors were doing me no favors, and I thought that monochrome would further emphasize the print in the window.

                                       ORIGINAL MONOCHROME WITH MULTIPLE FLAWS.

The only problem in an image that focuses on reflections is the reflections that you don’t want to include. I’m not pretending that this is an easy procedure, but Lightroom has improved and added several tools in the years since I captured this image, and I took full advantage of several that I had not really explored. Once you get started, it’s not really easy to stop, sort of like weeding in the garden. But you can divide the job into several segments to prevent post-processing madness, and lo and behold, you will eventually eliminate all of the reflections you do not want to see. Whether anyone else would have seen them in the first place is not that important. 

                                      ANOTHER FEW MINUTES TO GET RID OF THE REFLECTED REAL ESTATE SIGN AT LOWER RIGHT.

                                       THE "FINAL" IMAGE, AS CLEAN AS I CAN MAKE IT RIGHT NOW.

I would encourage you to renew your acquaintance with some of your older images to see how your post-processing skills have changed and improved over the years. It’s fun to discover new gems in forgotten places.