This is the second in a series of articles called "Making Pictures" where I explain how I make some of my photos - from scouting the location to the final bit of editing.

My wife’s grandmother lives in northern California in a small town called Crescent City.  One claim to fame that the town has is that it was the victim of a tsunami as part of the aftermath of the Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska in 1964.  Four waves struck the town, flooding 60 blocks, completely destroying 30, and killing more than a dozen people.  Insurance adjusters estimated that the damage caused to Crescent City by the tsunami was worse than the damage in Anchorage from the original quake.

A few years ago we took a family vacation with my good friend Cody and his family to California.  We started in San Francisco and worked our way up the coast, finally ending up in Crescent City.  That was a great trip, and it typifies one of the things that I love about photography.  It’s a hobby that you can combine with family activities.

In Crescent City, an obvious subject for pictures is the Battery Point Lighthouse, which was first lit in 1856.  Cody and I drove up and down the coast looking for a good vantage point.  The best one we found was actually a lookout point complete with a convenient parking lot.

This shot, taken at 56mm on my old Digital Rebel, gives you an idea of what the area looks like.

56mm is already short telephoto on an APS-C camera, so it was obvious that this was going to be a telephoto or long telephoto shot.

We started taking pictures before the sun went down.  My first hope was to get one in the golden sunlight.  I got a couple that were pretty good that you can see in my California Coast gallery.  While we were there, several other tourists gathered to take some pictures.  After the sun set, everybody else vacated, but Cody and I stuck around.

The lighthouse, obviously, has the beacon that we thought might add interest to a picture.  Also, luckily for us, they have installed lights all around the house.  So, as the day fades, the lighthouse is very nicely accented.

My first attempt was still way too early in the evening.  You can barely see the lights.

Second try was still a bit too early and I decided that my focal length was too short (110mm).

I waited a bit longer and switched to a longer focal length (200mm).

Then, I noticed the reflection in the water and decided to try to find a different position that allowed for more reflection.

That’s the one.  I took a few more after it, including a couple with a horizontal framing, but this is the best of the bunch.

So, now, the editing starts.

First thing I want is to add some contrast (it was a bit misty that day) and fix the overall color.  In my RAW editing software, I increase exposure by about 1/3 of a stop, change to a warmer color temperature, bring the contrast WAY up, and desaturate just a bit.

That’s my first conversion from RAW to TIFF.  Pretty good.  But, the next thing I notice is that the reflection is a bit blown out and could be a bit warmer.  Still in the RAW editor, I decrease exposure just a bit (back to about 1/4 over original), change to an even warmer color temperature, decrease the contrast, and increase saturation.

In Photoshop, I need to combine these two pictures.  I always do that with layers and masks.  Just copy the conversion for the reflection onto the first conversion in a new layer.  To make the mask, especially when the intention of the overlay is to reduce contrast, I usually look at one of the color channels of the original picture.  In this case, the red channel provides a good starting point.

Copy the channel and paste it into the mask.  Apply a curves adjustment to turn most of the sea black, and most of the reflection white.

Now, it’s easy to use the paintbrush to turn any other areas black that we don’t want to show through.  This gives us our final mask.

And that yields this combination.

Notice that the end result is that we’ve added a bit more color definition back into the reflection (eliminating the blown out areas), and warmed it up a bit.

Everything below the house is pretty much how I want it.  So, I turn my attention to the house.  Back in the RAW editing software, I bring the color temperature back down a bit (the lights are already pretty warm), reduce the exposure, bring up the contrast, and increase the saturation of only the reds (for the roof of the house).  Convert this to tiff.

Now we’re done with the RAW editor, so I close it.

Back in Photoshop, I copy this new version, in its own layer, onto what I have already finished.  I actually like this version not just for the house, but for everything above the house.  So, I just use a simple gradient mask to keep the old sea, but use the new version of the top 1/3 of the picture (including the house).

Almost done.

Flatten the image because we’re done with the layers that we have.

One of the last things I usually do with my pictures is look for edges that need to be darkened.  This helps keep the viewer’s eyes from wandering out of the picture.  In this case, because the focal point of the picture is so close to the edge, I think it will add a lot to SIGNIFICANTLY darken things above the house.  In a lot of pictures, you can’t get away with too much.  You don’t want it to be obvious or look fake.  But in this case, the viewer will almost definitely see it as a natural phenomenon – caused by cloud cover.

Copy the picture and paste it back into a new layer (giving two layers each with the same picture).  I adjust the curves of the top layer (both a liner reduction in brightness and pushing down the mid-tones) to get the following.

The mask for this new layer is made with a large soft brush – painting the top of the mask white and keeping the rest black.  I use a smaller brush to go over the areas of the house in the mask with black to make sure it stays bright in the final picture.  (By painting the mask black where the house is, I hide the darker layer and keep the brighter layer that is underneath.)

Flatten the layers, clone out the little light to the left of the house, a bit of sharpening, and presto!

Once again, in this article, I explain all the editing concepts, but I haven't gone into any detail about how to implement them in Photoshop.  If you have any questions (or comments, for that matter), send me an email.  My address is in the Contact section. 

If you compare the original and the final version, I don’t think you’ll see a dramatic difference.  Hopefully, though, you like the final better.  Often, even when it doesn’t look like you’ve done much to a picture, it still takes quite a bit of editing to get it exactly how you like it.  And, this is exactly how I like it.  It’s one of my favorite pictures.

For more pictures from this series, go to my California Coast gallery.