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Day 7 of “I’m Giving Up Photoshop” Month (San Francisco Long Exposure)

Welcome to Day 7 in my self-project-ish, month-long postings of images I’m only using Lightroom to edit. If you’re just coming in to reading this and haven’t read the original post where I wrote why I’m doing this, then make sure you check that out too. Okay, here goes:

The Photo: The Bay Bridge in San Francisco
Okay, I’m kinda cheating today because this one is really easy. I was torn though. I just arrived in San Francisco and I’m beat from a long day of travel and a late dinner. So, I could just not post anything for the day. Or… I could post a quick edit of a photo I just took this evening. I’ll go with choice B okay? 🙂

I took this photo at sunset yesterday evening. I’m in San Francisco for the week, and decided to walk down to the Embarcadero and shoot the Bay Bridge from a popular spot. It was an absolutely cloudless sunset, but it was a great view nonetheless, with nearly a full moon.

(click to see the image larger)
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Photo Details:
Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
Lens: Canon 24-105mm (quickly becoming my favorite lens!)
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 30 seconds
ISO: 100
Filter: Tiffen 3-stop ND filter

Basic Processing
Overall I had to brighten the photo because it was underexposed. I mostly used the Exposure and Shadows adjustments for it. I also pulled back on the Highlights to tone down the sky a little. And since it was just after sunset, I adjusted the white balance sliders to give me that twilight/blue-hour-ish look. A little more blue under Temp, and a little magenta under Tint go a long way.

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Sharpening
Not too much new here. I’m finding the 5D3 files really sharp out of camera. I increased the Amount, Radius, and Detail settings until the pilings in the foreground looked nice and sharp.

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Finishing it Off With a Vignette
As you probably know by now, I finish everything off with a vignette. I used the Effects panel for this photo and added a vignette, as well as adjusting the Midpoint and Feather settings so it looks more natural.

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What Else?
So what’s missing? Nuttin’ There’s really not much more I’d do for this photo. There’s not much to retouch that the Spot Removal tool Brush couldn’t get rid of. So overall, Lightroom was all I used for this photo. Here’s the Before/After.

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Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

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