Work in Progress

Here's an image that I've worked on a bit, comments welcome, I'm still beginning to learn PS and will next learn what I would have to do to tone down the highlight on the left tree trunk.

This high contrast image works! The highlight on the left tree trunk is the primary eye reference for white and creates the dynamic range. There is a lot of black which could block up in printing. If there is any more detail in the blacks you might try to bring it up a bit. The highlight on the left tree trunk has a slight magenta cast in the brightest areas. This is an artifact caused by the camera sensor not converting the RGB lights equally when at high energy levels. Go to the magenta channel in levels and drop the slider down from 255 until the area is neutral. I don't think you will see any global change in color balance because I don't see much magenta elsewhere but it could influence the complementary greens. If so, mask it.

My only nitpick is the blue spot on the right edge. It may be a reflection of the sky but has the appearance of an artifact.

Good work.

Doyle

I like the high contrast and colors, but the shaddows are too lacking in detail for my taste. I think Doyle did a pretty thorough job in his critique and has given some great advice.

Thanks both Doyle & Shawn, this is very much valued. Doyle---actually this is a scan of a slide, I'm not (yet) doing digital capture. Good and very perceptive call on the magenta, I'm actually working with different levels of saturation for each color channel, so this tells me to ratchet down the magenta saturation.

I don't know what the blue thing is. Yes, one lesson I'll specifically request is "removing mysterious blue objects at the edge of the image."

Thanks again & I hope you brought back good images from this weekend.

I thought that it may be a slide, same issue with the CCD scanner or camera. I thought it may be a slide because of the blue mark, I have seen it before. I will bet that if you look at the slide you will find that the emulsion is damaged.

Doyle