The Black Mill

by | Blog, Uncategorized

How do you make a famous much photographed landmark look fresh?
Simple – take a back shot! This huge black Beacon Mill in Rottingdean overlooks the English Channel, when it was built back in 1802, it defiantly faced France, the great Napoleonic foe!
Here these black sentinels are still facing the wind some 200 years later, though now in genteel retirement, their flour grinding days are sadly long gone. This one stands in the rough, on the edge of a charming hilltop golf course. Its funny, but after 100 years of decline windmills are now very much back in fashion!
There used to be many such windmills, now all but a handful survive.
These mills were made famous in a classic Michael Cain Movie;
The Black Mill. The two windmills in that movie are in nearby Brighton.

This image is a composite, a Vertorama made up of 4 landscape format images stacked, overlapping and stitched together using Auto Panopro.
Though the free Autostitch is just as good.
In very high winds its always a good idea to shoot fast as those clouds were whipping by! Shot with a rotating polarizing lens filter.
You’ll notice the history plaque has been cloned out on the textured version, as ever, I always try to remove modern day additions from antique structures.

B/W base image copy – Hue @ 35% with added contrast
Apple Blush – Overlay @ 54%
Raw Linen – Soft Light @ 100% Desaturated
Matmos Lake – Soft Light @ 100% Desaturated and flipped vertically
Rose Blush – Soft Light @ 100% slightly Desaturated

Both this and similar images can be seen on my Photoshelter.

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