One Four Challenge: Lamp Post II – damaged

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I’d originally decided to go vintage for this week’s One Four Challenge hosted by Robyn. Vintage, for me, translates to sepia or black and white images, so I decided to shake things up. I thought I’d retain the colors while introducing some damage to the picture. (Now that’d make it not so vintage, wouldn’t it? 😉 )

I first thought of creating something like heat damage, but none of the stuff I tried came out satisfactory. The different dark and light areas cause something that looks good in one region look, well, not so good in another. I was beginning to think that I should abandon my attempts and try something else, but decided to give it a chance when I got this result — a faded, damaged (though not overly) photograph that looks like it used to be a high-contrast one with some over-saturated colors in it…

Lamp post, damaged

Lamp post, damaged

For this version, I started out by adding a copied layer in Burn mode to get a darker, more saturated version of the image. Then came two vignette layers with 50% opacity, one with black to darken the over-exposed looking ground and sky, and one with blue in Color mode to augment the next layer. And the next layer is the ‘damage’ — a red-on-black lava effect (that one’s available as a render-filter in GIMP), which I added in Grain Extract mode at 60% opacity to make the effect subtle. This layer also lightens the image, which compensates for the earlier darkening from the Burn mode and gives a faded look.

Though it was not what I originally intended, I think it doesn’t look so bad either… What say you?

Earlier images this month in this series

Lamp Post - radiating

24 thoughts on “One Four Challenge: Lamp Post II – damaged”

  4. I love everything about this new version except for how washed out the street gets. The coloring and effect is gorgeous! Really well done. I wonder if there is a way to bring back a bit of color back to the street. Not sure what would look good, really, maybe even cropping it out a bit so it isn’t the whole bottom 1/3 of the image? Just some ideas, I really do love the top 2/3 rds though 🙂

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    • Yeah I agree Carrie, some cropping would have helped. I guess I was tired after all those experiments to give it much thought. I’m happy the damaged effect is fine, though!

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      • I am really not trying to be critical. I honestly love the coloring you were able to manifest. Really great. It’s too bad it stripped the street like it did. And I totally understand, tired is a great way of saying it. Sometimes it is just time to stop messing with it and move on 🙂 You did great.

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        • Of course Carrie! There’s no need for explanations, I understand that you weren’t being critical, and I’m sorry if my reply made you feel otherwise. I actually do feel the same as you do about the lightening of the street, but yeah, I was happy to achieve *some* good damage, and just stopped afterward. Maybe some day, I’ll pick it up again and work on it. 😉

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  9. Anita, great job and love the fading and colour tones in the image for that vintage feel, I think you did an excellent job there. Personally I am not a fan of the bright blue tones of the damaged bit, found it a bit distracting. But I really got the concept that you were trying for and thats the important thing, the learning and the experimenting:)

    Will note that I agree with Carrie on the crop of the street off the bottom. Look forward to your next reveal 🙂

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    • I appreciate your compliments and feedback, Stacey. I didn’t think much of the blue but I see why you think it’s distracting. I’ll add that to the list of things to work on if I pick up this edit again! 🙂

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  10. Hi Anita – apologies again for my lateness. Still being having issues with commenting.
    Hope this works 😃
    I think you achieved your result, very well. It definitely looks old and damaged.
    Very much enjoyed reading the commentary too. I do see what others are saying about the street, but I must say I like the composition as it is. Perhaps a gradient if you ever revisit it?
    Im enjoying playing around with different blend modes too presently. Gives such different results!
    Looking forward to the next one – Im catching up 😃

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    • Don’t worry too much about the comments, Robyn. (But it looks like both your comments have made it this time, so hurrah! 🙂 ) I very much appreciate your checking back if your comments have shown up.

      Yes, the comments are very insightful, indeed — one of the reasons this challenge is helpful! 🙂

      I did try a gradient but it looked forced and not very pleasing. Maybe I’ll get inspired by some image somewhere. (Worst case, a crop will do just fine, but I, like you, want to retain as much of the composition as possible.)

      And blend modes are great fun, I agree! They surprise you sometimes.

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