Rust Belt

I had an overnight in Allentown, PA a few days ago. It was my first time ever staying there and I took my camera out for a walk. I found these photos along the river.

Dave, I think #2 is very nice use of selective coloring. Good job.

Excellent job on the second shot!

Great shots...how did you do #2. I sort of know how to do that in CS2 but I think my approach is a backend type of thing that won't come out nearly as good as yours did. If you could post some steps or a link to a tutorial that would be great. Thanks.

Nice pics. Like your Wisconsin gallery too!

I think I am going to edit my origianl post and place current pic #2 as pic #1. It will give this thread more curb appeal.

Sageone,

I did a quick and dirty BW conversion on both pics. For #2 I selected the tracks using the magnetic lasso. I then did a "select inverse" to select the area outside the tracks. I converted that area to black and white simply by sliding the saturation slider very negative. I then reselected the tracks and cranked up the saturation in that area. I wanted the tracks to look extra red. After that, I did some selective sharpening and added some contrast. That's it. I actually edited that photo in about 10 minutes. The most time consuming part was getting the magnetic lasso to select out the tracks propperly.

Cool, thanks...the laso iz the key then. That's what I figured. Thanks.

-Don

I can see that in the 2nd photo (looks good) but miss to see it in the 1st one.

Do you usualy walk within the lines?

Dimitri,

I only switched the area outside the bridge to B and W on the first photo. It is hard to notice, unless compared to the original. In the original the colors were pretty washed out and the sky had an ugly tint. The B and W treatment took care of that.

Not sure what you mean by "walk within the lines". I was listening to my ipod while taking these photos. Not the smartest thing to do. One train snuck up on me. I didn't hear it coming until after it was too late. Lucky I wasn't on the tracks. Lesson to others: don't wear headphones when photographing train tracks.

I love both of these shots.. they really show the age of the tracks and have a real industrial feel to them.
P.S., when using the magnetic lasso, is there some sort of trick to using it that make it easier? Or does it just take patience and a steady hand on the mouse.

Dave, I love both of these with their gritty and strong compositions. #1 would make a great 3D or stereo subject!

Thanks guys. i had fun taking these pictures. Sometimes I get my favorite photos in strange locations.

Bullitman,

I hate using the magnetic lasso. It can be very frustrating. Here are three tricks. 1) Use the delete key if your lasso catches in the wrong spot. Sometimes my lasso goes nuts and I simply backtrack with the delete key to the last correct point. 2) Change the lasso tool's sensitivity. I am not sure what it's called, but there is a box where you can change the lasso tool's sense of where to put a point. Move that up and down and see what works best. I find the defalt setting is too sensitive. The lasso likes to grab any edge rather than the strongest edge. Change the level and you can get your lasso under control. 3) Switch between magnetic and polygonal lasso. I switch to polygon when there is a straight line like the edge of a railroad bridge. Lastly, use the magic wand and feather to fix any mistakes. I always have a couple left over unselcted spots. The magic wand tool works great for that. I then do a very small feather (5px) to even things out.

Oh right,i see what you mean.

Thats exactly what i mean,,it looks a bit dangerous from where i`m sitting my friend.
I do dum things myself for photography but i think you took it a bit further.

Like them both, especially #2. Have started doing the same thing, to pass time on rainy damp days. Now I want to go out and get shots of more rusty stuff LOL.