Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

A number of the Photo Fora to which I belong have a genre called "Industrial" for submission of photos in that category. It's not my favorite thing to photograph - I generally like Animals, Nature, Landscapes, and Architecture. But every once in a while, I like to go against type and experiment with images, just to see if I can do it.

These snow removal trucks were all lined up in an appealing composition. I positioned myself so I could get a wide angle of them, being sure to catch as many of the snowblades as I could. This image was well-received in the Photo Gallery and one of the members requested to know how it had been processed. This is a broad outline of the steps I used:

1. Original Photo. I had imported this to PS CC 2020 from Lightroom where I had done some universal edits for light, color and sharpness. Notice on the right border that there is a utility pole and some lines, which I removed using the lasso tool and Content-Aware Fill before moving to step 2. And the blah sky needed some urgent remediation.......

2. Used Luminar 4's AI Sky Replacement [Dramatic Sky 3 preset] and AI Structure tool.

3. Opened image in DxO's NIK Collection, Silver Efex Pro, and applied a Copper tone (as opposed to Sepia which has a more yellowish cast)

4. Created a stamped layer, then opened Anthropic's Smart Photo Editor and applied the [Sketch] and [Softblur] presets. I backed off the hatching effects in the Sketch tool so that they were not overly prominent, yet could still be perceived.

5. Opened AKVIS Draw [Comic + Canvas preset] to counteract portions of the Softblur effect from step 4.
This placed some black edges around the main subject. Created finishing touches in PS CC 2020. I dodged the trucks so they stood out from the background, then used the Camera Raw filter to balance out the black and white levels. Published in the Photo Gallery at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-629457-1.html

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1. Original Photo

(Download)

2. Luminar 4 - AI Sky Replacement

(Download)

3. NIK Color Efex Pro - Copper Tone

(Download)

4. Smart Photo Editor - Sketch

(Download)

5. AKVIS Draw [Comics + Canvas] - PS CC 2020 , Dodge Trucks, Balance Light

(Download)

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

Hi Bob:

Really want to thank you for the tutorial you posted on the snowplow trucks grunge effect. I have tried to get this type of effect a number of times but mostly end up with a dark and featureless mess! I will try your workflow on a couple of images I have in mind and hopefully will have some good results to enjoy. Again, I appreciate your effort and always enjoy your work. Take care,

Tommy

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Tommy, if you'd like, you can post one of your images to this thread (be sure to click Store Original), and I can download it from here, work my magic and post it back here, just to show you what kind of results you can get. You will retain the copyright.

Bpb

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Telling a story... photo #1 shows expensive at the moment useless machinery. In contrast photo #2 tells us that there is a storm on the way and that equipment may be put to good use clearing a big snow. Bob has added flavor to a bland soup with the ominous clouds.

Being a Croppaholic I always say trim to a short statement story. Different strokes for different folks, but for me, I would bring up the bottom and use the first three snowplows to make a statement. Three Amigos ready to fight the snow.

I am a big fan of sepia in many cases, but here the trucks do not have the same impact as sepia in the nude section of UHH... wonder why?

Bob has had a history of sharing techniques for modification of images; one on Low Key and another on Splintered Glass come to mind. More of us in UHH should be doing the same sharing techniques.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Don,

The trucks don"t have boobs?

Please download the image, crop it where you would like, then upload the revision. You've piqued my interest.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Very interesting Bob. Had to look up AKVIS software. It has a lot of variations to work with.