Après Déluge, L'Arc-en-ciel!

An attempt at a little Pacific NW weather humor with the title. In our rainy season, it sure seems like we go a long time without seeing the sun. I apologize to viewers who, unlike me, actually speak or read French (I didn't know it was also a jrock group until I did the Babylon Box thing).

I hope this posting benefits others who, like me, are learning to blend multiple images to compress dynamic range. Yes, I’m considering buying a set of ND grads.

...so there I was. Seven days of rain——in which the area received more rain than in the preceding months of June through October combined——had just ended and I was driving ridgetop roads in the Coast Range foothills of Oregon’s western Washington county, searching for a vantage point from which to capture the light (end of bad prose ).

The images, from left to right: unprocessed (other than converting to sRGB) jpeg (I shoot RAW+Jpeg) frame 41, exposed at 1/50 second (left); unprocessed jpeg frame 46 exposed at 1/15 second, or 1 2/3 stops more exposure than frame 41 (center); and a rather quickly processed blend of the two RAW files, each converted in Capture, and processed in PS CS2 as 16 bit images (right). Both images were exposed at f/16 on a 24-85 at 80mm with a white balance setting of "Direct Sunlight." The images were captured about 70 seconds apart on Thursday afternoon, November 7th. The intermediate frames (42-45) were alternative exposures.

Photoshop processing included noise reduction (using Neat Image Pro+ at "reduce half the noise"), applied to each image before blending; a gradient applied to the "upper" (FG/lighter; above, center) image in the layer stack, from the shadow on the valley floor to the MG orchard; modification of tonalities using curves; a slight saturation boost using Channel Mixer, restricted to the sky via a mask; cloning of a dust spot on the sensor; and establishing black, white, and middle gray points using levels.

Comments, critiques, and feedback are appreciated. Was the blend successful? What processing changes might improve the image? I'm pretty sure I'll revisit the noise reduction.

I like the fading-in of the rainbow from the UL to the bright area of clouds and dislike the Douglas-fir tree farm at the bottom. I also like the mirroring of several rainbow colors in other parts of the image (blue clouds and land in shadow; green, yellow, and red foliage; etc.). What cropping do viewers suggest (the images above are full frame)?

Thanks for looking!

Behind the kimono:

I may be (over) anticipating, but I thought some viewers might appreciate. Above is a screen shot of my layer stack, so viewers can relate to my prior description of workflow. I use Threshold for determining black and white points and Hue/Saturation for determining color casts, with the Saturation slider dialed-up to 100% (both layers at top of stack and turned-off).

Again, anticipating someone might ask for this. Blended image sharpened 4 times (Marc's technique), with the long dimension at 2000 pixels.

Still uncropped.

BTW, this scene is of the Tualatin Valley, looking northeastly towards the Tualatin Mountains (Portland's West Hills).

Comments, critiques, and feedback on how this image might be improved are appreciated.

Thanks for looking!

Ahhh, the coast range. Anyone who wants to snap pics of elk, needs to go there. I've been all over those roads...more off of section 10 and Salmonberry Rd. Seen elk every single time I've been out there.
The technique is great, but I'm not feeling the final product.

Rick, I hear ya. I knew it was a weak image, which is probably why the full image post was like an afterthought. I had good intentions on the initial "A+B=C" post though. Tweaking the title using the Babylon Box thing on Google was fun; what a gadget! Thanks for the feedback on technique; this blend turned-out somewhat better than others I've done. Still learning and refining technique and workflow.

BTW, have you ever been down Salmonberry Road into the North Fork canyon? Every year in roughly mid-April you can see large wild steelhead jump about a 10 foot falls on the North Fork. It's less than a mile downstream towards the confluence with the main Salmonberry from where you park at the bottom of the canyon.

I haven't seen elk every time out there, but often enough. I surprised two large cows on a very windy fall day about ten years ago. They didn't hear me drive up and I got within about 30 feet before they knew I was there. Big animals.

I saw elk on the side of 84 coming back from Portland the other day!

Steve: I like your approach. I frequently do blends with major panos, much in the same way you have here. I don't think folks understand what it takes to take 9-20 images, blend and stitch them, and then render them. Comments are often restricted to, was not taken at sunrise or sunset, or too bad there was not a cloud in the sky. I for one, shoot what I am given and try to make the best of it and learn from the techniques of others. Far more valuable than any one book I have in my collection. Thanks for sharing.
Randy

I've been up the Canyon, and crawled all over those steep hillsides. So steep in places, that I thought I was actually losing ground on my steps. Haven't seen the salmon, that would be a cool shot!