Hot Springs is one of those places that I like to visit from time to time. Not too far from home, lots of cool stuff to do, and the water really does taste pretty damned good.
Last time I was there I took a lot of photos that I am still sorting through and looking at and thinking about. I try to sell my fine art prints on DeviantArt, though most of my images are not all that deviant. DeviantART is a fun place to post images and I almost always get some kind of response. Good for the old ego to have people tell you they like what you are doing.
This image is of one of the Bath Houses on the main drag in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I did a little work on it in Photoshop. I removed a gas meter that didn’t seem to fit in with the whole old world feel of the building and filled in a few bare spots in the lawn. Simple Photoshop stuff with the clone tool, but always fun to make things disappear.
I’ve found a Photoshop plugin that I am very fond of called Tone Mapping. This plugin allows you to get a more balanced range of colors in your standard everyday images. The idea with Photoshop’s HDRI process is that it takes several exposures and merges them into one that has all the values of light and shadow.
Tone Mapping does it with just a single image. I have been using it mostly on darker images, but this image of the Bath House was a pretty normal exposure. I was really happy with how much punch the color has and I like the bit of haloing around some of the edges. There are a number of sliders to play with and make the image look as real or as surreal as you like.
The effect here is almost like an old style postcard with the colors hand tinted into place. Hot Springs Bath House is just one of many images I have on DeviantART. I tend to go through phases with my fine art prints-I would do more if I could figure out how to sell them. Until such time, I will have to settle for the occasional comment.
Cool !
thanks