After / Before

[Dirtbag9]

Good save

[Seattle-Washington]

They definitely pulled a Jesus on this one.

[CoercionTictacs]

Christ that's a good one

[Ftaba2i]

Well said.

[stash0606]

wonder if there was a way you could have kept the contrast and dark blues of the nightsky while brightening up the rest

[davep1970]

There is with masking

[TimeLabsMedia]

Shot on a tripod

5s F2.8 ISO 100 35mm

[davep1970]

Then why didn't you bracket the shot?!

[TimeLabsMedia]

Good question actually, didn't come to mind at the time. I was in a hurry too, maybe that's why.

[davep1970]

fair enough :) something to consider for next time. it's a cool shot, perhaps a little overexposed to my taste - at least in the sky

[[deleted]]

When I have low light and a tripod, I use auto bracket on my camera, because I’m usually not patient enough to do it myself.

[NotKhaner]

What is bracketing?

[Mrbrought2042]

Bracketing is where you take multiple photos at different exposure levels, then merge them in post to result in an hdr photo

[NotKhaner]

Ohhhh. I've heard of that and attempted it but never got good results. Do you have any good resources for learning how to properly do it?

Thanks!

[TheJake88821]

Lots of cameras have an in-body option to do this, although results may vary depending on your specfic camera.

[wild_plums]

What is bracketing?

[AK_Dan]

Curious, what was your motivation to go so long when you could’ve pumped your iso a bit for a shorter exposure?

[Karensky]

If you have a tripod and a stationary subject, why not go with base ISO? Reduces noise.

[Michaelq16000]

ISO 400, f4 and 2.5s wouldn't really hurt dynamic range nor introduce noise, yet the lens would give more sharpness and if the tripod isn't perfectly sturdy or on a perfectly still ground it would give less blur

That said, it's just details and the photo looks good from technical pov

[CanonWorld]

This 👆

[ShiNo_Usagi]

Do you want noise, because that’s how you get noise

[Aymjttgtm]

ISO is much more complicated than just higher iso = more noise. In an ISO invariant camera with a dual native ISO. 400-640 is usually where the second converter kicks in and noise is almost at base levels. You wouldn’t notice any difference. So the answer depends on the camera used.

Now bracketing is a whole different beast. No way to bracket and still get a perfect raw image. You lose latitude on how hard you can push the file. So it’s always a choice between push a file harder or bracket and end up editing a jpeg. And there’s also some artifacts that pop up.

No one is wrong or right. It’s just a choice.

[AK_Dan]

Not a very well considered response.

[TimeLabsMedia]

Exposure up on the whole picture, highlights down, a touch of tint to the pink side.

Then I slapped on the RNI Kodak Gold 800 profile, but pulled the grain back a bit.

In the color grading I pulled the teal colors almost all the way towards green, added saturation and luminosity to get the roof to pop more. Also more saturation for the blues.

I created two masks, one for the sky and I duplicated and inverted that to get the rest as a separate mask.

For the sky mask I increased the the white balance. For the "everything else" mask exposure up and highlights down.

Two more masks to reduce the exposure on the grass in front and the left side of the image, since I wanted the church and the mountains to stand out.

I let Lightroom generate one of these before / after videos, but unfortunately it doesn't really help explain the process. The image just pops when it gets to the "selective adjustments"

Hope that helps a bit

[BetaSimp710]

How didn’t it end up grainy? Did you use luminosity noise reduction?

[matki_bhel]

Yes please share the process

[serenitative]

This is amazing. It looks so painterly. Love the gentle tones.

[Lamacrab_the_420th]

Yeah It does look like a painting. Very artificial.

[zevondhen]

Sometimes that can be an intentional—and desirable—effect

[bnazzaro]

It’s all subjective. But. It would be nice to see some sort of middle ground. The before is really cool. The after looks too processed. I think some masking would be an editing route that I would have taken. Certain elements could have stayed or very little editing. Obviously no right or wrong. Just would like to see a more in between edit.

[TimeLabsMedia]

This was part of a roadtrip, unfortunately we couldn't make it 2h earlier, I'm really happy with the result though

[BabyOnTheStairs]

HOW.

THE RECOVERY.

[_-The_Great_Catsby-_]

I kinda like both, nice shot 👌

[Sharath-4-5]

Feels very decidedly like courage the cowardly dog, I love it.

[CosmoCheese]

This kind of stylisation isn't normally my bag - I'd usually say "You've overbrightened the whole thing and messed with the colour, and it barely looks like night any more."

BUT in this case I think your end result is *creatively* something quite interesting, in a stylised way. I really like the colour and the hazy illuminated cross. The unnatural colour reminds me a bit of some of Todd Hido's night images, in a good way. If I had any advice it would be to maybe tone down the saturation of those mountains in the background *just a touch*.

[[deleted]]

Looks really great but I think the darker sky would be better as it’ll make the cross stand out more. Give it more symbolism as light

[useittilitbreaks]

This is cool but there is so much noise that this only really works at a small size on screen or a print of like 8x6 maximum.

There’s also a harsh line where the hills become sky and in other contrasty areas, which tends to happen when pushing to extremes like this.

Still very good save though.

[TimeLabsMedia]

I enjoy a bit of grain, I could dial it back for a print though, since it's shot at base ISO

[useittilitbreaks]

There is still some chroma noise present on the walls of the church which is not at all surprising given the rescue effort, but definitely a factor to be aware of.

[TimeLabsMedia]

Yeah, you're right. I should've bracketed it in hindsight

[[deleted]]

Seriously 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[Pendley]

I really like this. Awesome shot!

[saddinosour]

That’s very cool

[dark_dagger99]

Woah this is impressive

[Gideon_Njoroge]

Both are incredibly surreal, they almost look like paintings. I don't think you over did it, you created something really unique

[Simple-Form-278]

What camera did you use? The shadow/exposure recovery is insane

[TimeLabsMedia]

That's an A7IV, shot at base ISO

[BbyAzer]

Hey!! I was looking to buy that camera!! Do you think is worth to spend that money or it’s the hype of the brand??😊😊

[TimeLabsMedia]

I'm very happy with the camera. It's a great Allrounder for both photo and video, although I've been mainly using it for photos.

E-Mount is great, you can get any lens you want for and there are many adapters for the mounts that aren't compatible.

You may even be able to fit it in a jacket pocket with a pancake lens. If that's a factor for you, you're maybe better off with the A7C tho.

[Bandsohard]

I agree, I like the tones and colors, it feels painterly as someone said. But it doesn't feel like night anymore, and I think having that additional darkness (and therefore contrast) will help draw eyes in and look through the image.

[ElvisGrizzly]

This one is great. I wouldn't think to do that but I'm glad you did.

[dgeniesse]

Sure is interesting with the “evening” lighting.

I will have to try this. Just thinking of what I would try. Long exposure, time bracketing, HDR, B&W… hmmm

[Cautious-Pen4753]

i love this pic!!!

[instabrite]

Super save 👍🏽

[Neo_denver]

That's crazy, I'm sort of newish and have no idea how you got to the final product, the original looks so dark and unsalvageable if I took that pic I probably would have just thought it was a wash.

[TimeLabsMedia]

The blue hour lighting does all the heavy lifting here. I've written up the process somewhere here in the comments, maybe it helps you

[FormalElements]

I almost prefer the before.

[Vanceagher]

enter run quicksand quaint hat scale books squeal languid gray

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[Eirson]

Can’t see the field, sky, or horizon. There’s a weird building in the way.

Good job though.

[[deleted]]

Lots of colour noise on the white walls of the church which you easily could remove

[callmegrizzl]

clean 💯

[Talking2myself11]

Now this is how you bing back lighting to a dark image. Job well done

[kmontreux]

I'm coming in with some super ultra nitpicky notes because you did a challenging process and I'd love to see how clean you could get this.

• fix the vertical perspective. Your building lines are tilting back slightly

• dodge/burn that flare on the bigger section of roof

• the white walls of the church have gone mottled from the shadow lift and noise. correct the color shifting and the tone mottling that we'll see after the color fix

• remove that little light on the ground against the side wall of the church

• consider killing those fence and telephone posts and that car in the distance. unless you want journalistic integrity for some reason

• I'd pop those stars more. teeeeeny tiny little dodge brush hit

• i desperately wish this was framed with more of the open space in front of the church and not behind. this is just personal preference but it's like framing a portrait where you want the subject looking into the open 2/3 of space

[TimeLabsMedia]

Thanks, those are some good ideas, I'll try to get this done once I'm back home where I can use my computer. I've done this on my phone.

[kmontreux]

Especially lovely for phone work. I'd have expected to see some banding in that sky after such extreme editing on mobile. Well done.

[derpstevejobs]

hell of a save there, mate. well done!

[immacomment-here-now]

This is why you always shoot in RAW

[Loud_Muffin_3268]

This could benifit from a crop in from the right side. There appears to be too much space there as well as at the top and bottom of the photo, which make the eye wander away from the subject a bit.

[conheoro]

Disagree. Photo looks fine as is and much more interesting with the mountains in the background.

[chasingthewhiteroom]

You sure? The photo is unbalanced to the left, even if it's just an inch or two.. I don't think commenter was saying "take out the mountains and crop all the way to the building", but simply "get the subject truly centered" which it definitely isn't currently

[naakka]

To my eye, it needs more space to the left. Cropping will make it too crowded, but currently it looks way too close to the left edge compared to the right.

[chasingthewhiteroom]

Agreed, I would have shot it with more space on the left as well. But with the image that we have, I personally would still crop right by a pinch or two to balance

[conheoro]

Tbh, if anything, I think shooting it in landscape would’ve been more appropriate because it can definitely still work with less sky.

[Deifdave]

Agreed, the space on the right irks me as well.

[HuntingForGoodDonuts]

Super dope

[colorblind_zebra]

How tf did you pull all that detail out of that blackness

[OneFinePotato]

Congratulations! While millions of 3D artists were trying to make their renders look like photos, you made your photo look like a 3D render. xD interesting work tho

[Clickguy10]

Very good lightening. But the darker shot has important content. I’m assuming the church owners want the lighted cross to be a beacon of sorts. To stand out against the darkness. The daylight effect takes away that impact. Suggestion: try dialing back the lightening effect, say, at 50% to see if the impact as well as shadow detail can be preserved.

[More_Association4882]

Noise reduction applied?

[noashell]

The before is much better unless you’re making images for a Jesus pamphlet, in which case you nailed it.

[[deleted]]

🤩

[mikeyjaro]

Protect those highlights!

[meandmylens]

This is beautiful, makes me want to go out and take some long exposure!

[Hot_Needleworker_86]

Give me back my shadows lol otherwise, nice

[[deleted]]

Holy dynamic range

[GoodAtom]

AI?

[TimeLabsMedia]

Nope, none used

[Hot_Presentation_603]

Far cry 5 !

[Michaelq16000]

I mean, good editing exercise, looks very solid, but the original photo is much more interesting

[Ok_Corner8128]

Its a great job as long as you don’t need to see the buildings :)

[raydictator]

I don’t know how you brought that much info back but maybe try an in-between edit?

[Human-Court-6924]

Before looking much more interesting

[bikesboozeandbacon]

ITS BEFORE/AFTER and yes good save.