10/01/2021
Over the past few years, I have developed my own particular style with Photography, I call it Day to Night my wife calls it the Harry Potter Effect. This image of Elm Hill, Norwich uses this technique.
The starting point is to try to capture a low contrast image of the location be photographed, this means an overcast 'grey day' is best, generally in the middle of the day so the street lights are not on, however, I still need to find the right composure, an image with depth and if possible leading lines, I love architecture, particularly the 'old English' look. Once I have found the right location and hopefully the right conditions bright blue skies bring high contrast, so not preferred, I normally shot f8 and iso100 and a shutter speed selected to achieve 1 stop underexposed, almost always from a tripod with a 10 second delay to reduce any camera shake and always RAW. For me the taking of the photograph is only half of the journey, the post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop is just as important to achieving the right look. Once in Lightroom I start by reducing the highlights and raising the shadows, correcting the blacks and whites, and re-cropping to the preferred border position. I also generally correct any perspective issues. After this stage I transfer the image to Photoshop and start by removing any unwanted objects in the image, such as litter, cigarette butts, road signs, alarm boxes and ariels, etc, using the spot healing tool, once complete I then use the colour range tool to mask the low contrast sky and then replace it using a previously photographed sky, such as the sunrise in this images which was shot in Norwich on a previous day, with the sky replaced, I then balance the colours between fore, mid, background and sky. At this stage I will return the image to Lightroom where I will lower the overall image exposure by 2 stops and then in detail re-light the image using a combination of radial and gradient filters, plus selective brushes, this includes the lighting of the streetlights and the ambient light that would be projected but these lights. The inside of the shop and the sky are treated the same way. The reason for lighting the image in this way, is that I have control over where the light is seen, but most importantly I have control over the contrast. and colour As you know when you shoot at night or in dark conditions, street lights can be extremely difficult to manage as highlights, plus the shadow areas of your image can really struggle with noise, using my style I am able to maintain full control over all aspects of the light, contrast and colour. This is how I create these types of images.
Photo Credit: Jamie R. Mathlin from the Ipswich Photography Group
Location: Elm Hill, Norwich