This is it! Another month of editing has gone by. Our wonderful One Four Challenge is in its final week for June. Hosted by Robyn Gosby at Captivate Me, it encourages us to explore four different ways of editing a single photo over four weeks. This month has been interesting for me. I explored the different moods and colours we witnessed one evening at the Gippsland Lakes. It all happened in the space of half an hour, and yet the glorious sunset colours were stunning and varied. But eventually, night fell, taking away all the colours, and just leaving us with shadows and reflections in diminishing light.
Week Four Process : Night Fall
And this is what I am capturing this week. I struggled with different versions, including monochrome, but the result wasn’t how I remembered the scene. I also struggled with letting go of the rich colours. This last image isn’t my favourite, and probably won’t be yours either, but I wanted to complete the ‘story’ in my mind’s eye.
So working from my week 2 image I cloned the sun out and toned down the bright sunbeam radiating in the sky and reflected on the water. I then desaturated the image, lowered the highlights, deepened the shadows. I also decreased the contrast to bring a kind of slight blur to the image. At that stage, the whole thing felt rather flat and I struggled to get the vision I had in my head. I worked further with the temperature (to bring out the blues) and tone (to keep just a little bit of purple and a slight hint of afterglow where the sun was), until I achieved the look I remembered once the sun had set and the darkness set in. Here is the result:
Week Four – Night Fall
As always, your feedback is welcome. Here is a slide show of all four interpretations plus the original image.
Vote for your favourite
In fact, since this is the last week for this series, it would be helpful if you would take a few seconds to review the series and vote for your favourite interpretation.
Thank you for your feedback along the way. Your comments and encouragement are really appreciated. Be sure to also check out other participants’ work by following the One Four Challenge tag or clicking here. See you next month for another instalment of our digital darkroom creations!
Sv-Anui 
You have made the eeriness of dusk on the water reality. Good job. So different to no2 which is my favourite
Hi Sue, yes the warm sunset is what we need right now, it’s so freezing!
They are all beautiful, but I had to go with 2 as my all time favorite.
Thank you Cee!
Gorgeous shots, guys!! As always 🙂
Thanks you two 🙂
I voted for week 3 I loved the purple hues, always purple.
Thanks Leanne. My favourite too!
Oh, well done! Dusk on the water, nicely realised.
Oh thanks Sue – it’s a bit doom and gloom but I enjoyed working on the image.
I voted for week 3! Although, I really like how you closed out this month’s edits. You captured that moment of faded light, perfectly. I feel like this month I got to see the sunset with you. You shared each metamorphosis of it’s light with us. And you captured it wonderfully. Thanks for sharing your sunset photo with us!!
Oh this is such a nice comment! Thanks Kirsten. I think sunsets mesmerise us all, do it was nice to work with this image.
great night effect!! But I think I will still go for the gold!! 🙂
Yes I didn’t expect any vote for the night shot, but it is good to experiment and manage to produce the effect I wanted.
oh I agree. I wish I had saved the Bobby postcard for last!! lol. It was a huge like for people!
Hi Chris – another wonderful edition completing this story.
I can really understand about struggling to let go of the colour, but I do think this is another successful edit.
I have enjoyed them all – hard to choose a favourite and even though I’m not a purple lover, I’m going with week 3, because of the dynamics created with the purple and oranges. Fabulous!
Thanks Robyn – my favourite too. I wanted to complete the story on this one, so even though the last one is sombre, it was satisfying working on it.
Awesome Chris – a story well told 🙂
PS Love the new look on your site 🙂
I’m glad! 🙂
The nightfall is a really interesting take on the image. I quite like the purple sky version it really brings out the feelings and emotions of sunset.
Thanks Ben – the purple seems to be winning!
Week 2 is my favourite edit – I love the gold! Great edits all month. 🙂
Thank you for your feedback:)
My vote is for purple too! This is a great series, especially when viewed in succession like in the slideshow, I really get the sense of the sun setting in it’s different forms. The last one is inevitable though, you sit through the light show and then the sun is gone and there you are staring into the dusk. Great execution of this story. 😀
Oh that’s kind of you Nic! Yes the last one wasn’t expected to be liked much but completed the progression. Thank fir your feedback.
I actually like the last one best – they are all stunning but in the dusk scene the subtle colours and light are perfect…
Well I am surprised but pleased! 🙂