Silent Sunday: Moving the Seafarers Bridge

seafarers-composite-1

For quite some time I’ve been wanting to do some new work. There is always some apprehension when you start something new and a lot of procrastination can occur before hand. That has certainly been the case for me.

When I was up at my mother’s recently I took some images of a salt pan. I took them with the intention of putting the Seafarers Bridge from the city over it. This is one of the images.

seafarers-composite-1

It isn’t a special image, but I knew it would work for what I wanted. It is a long exposure.

Next to find an appropriate image of the Seafarers Bridge. I had thought I would have to go into the city to get what I wanted. Get the right light and all that. I was procrastinating about that as well. Then the other day I realised that I probably had enough images of the bridge already and should look through them.

seafarers-composite-2

I found this one. It seemed perfect for what I needed. I was unsure about the light, but it seemed to be coming from the right direction.

What I really needed to do was just try.

I put them together and after about 5 hours of work I finally had my answer. The final image.

salt-pans-seafarers-bridge-compositing

It worked well for what I was hoping for. I know that a lot of people on Social Media didn’t realise what I had done. Perhaps that was because they don’t know the bridge and the context of where it sits.

Compositing images is something I really want to get into now. I am finding that I am bored with a lot of what I’m photographing now, and I need a new challenge. I am hoping you will see a lot more of these sorts of images. I don’t know if they will be very imaginative, or even good, but I hope, with time, that they will become more so.

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26 Comments

  1. This is a very, very good composite. So much so, I think there’s probably someone who’s ready to argue why it can’t be composite. 🙂

    1. Thank you so much David. that would be interesting. Though, interestingly enough, I didn’t get many people from Melbourne questioning it.

    1. Will add, photography is an art form not limited to a single captured image. This composite is well within bounds of the descriptor.

  2. Great piece of work. I’ve been thinking about composite images for years but have been too slack to develop the skills the skills to carry it out.

    1. Thank you Ted, you should know the original image, perhaps. Yes, I think my skill lever is good for compositing, I believe now. So I am excited to see what else I can do.

  3. Very well conceived and very well done. Perhaps it would have been better to take a shot of the bridge with the same exposure as the salt pan because the shadows don’t really correspond with the sky. Not many would notice that but it might not do well in a competition for that reason.

    I’m too busy with processing my plethora of often exotic images to get much into compositing. Perhaps one day. Did you ever get the time and drive to master luminosity masking?

    1. Thank you Murray. You are never going to be able to do the same exposure. I did get the light coming from the same direction for both, so was very careful with that.
      I really want to do compositing and have many ideas, so I’m looking forward to seeing what I come up with.

  4. Haunting and mysterious. You already possess an advanced facility with PhotoShop. Look forward to more of your composites!

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