Earlier in the a.m. the light was more even. Trying to capture the lush green dense biomass of this amazing forest.
d200, 24-120/3.5-5.6 VR, on tripod; polarizer; focal length 90mm; f20, 7.0sec.; ISO 100.
Cropped from 16x10 to about 11" square; selected areas of highlights adjusted; some burning; usm.
Appreciate your comments. Thanks.
Posted by Marc Adamus on July 19, 2007 at 10:09 AM
Too much highlight and/or shadow adjustment has caused a little bit of a flat look, without the expected contrasts. Needs to be darker, a little more contrasty and perhaps a reduction of the yellows in favor of green/blue IMO. All minor points. Overall a good image with some more potential to be brought out. A hard area to photograph well.
Catherine, these kinds of shots are really hard to do successfully, this one is real nice. It is a bit flat, I grabbed it and using a Selective Color layer added black to the yellow and green colors. It popped right out.
Posted by Curtis Knight on July 19, 2007 at 12:59 PM
*repeat previous comments here* but I really like the comp. You have a diagonal in the upper third that creates a nice graphic.
I love shots like this, even without the extra processing suggested by others. The reason is because it does, in such a pure way, show just the mass of green here, as you intended. Great composition amongst all the visual candy and chaos.
This is the original shot before selected area color adjustments. Dang, I still can't get these to post as jpegs as they look on my monitor...
At this stage the image was edited in ACR for capture sharpen, recovery, luminance and contrast; then in CS3 for curves and usm. Then I put it through Ned's web posting workflow, that he showed me. So! I hope this looks more like it should!
Thanks for all the comments. Your help is so greatly appreciated. Feel like a "dumbhead," but I'll get it sooner or later.
Posted by Zack Schnepf on July 19, 2007 at 9:22 PM
The second image looks much more natural, lovely forest scene.
You've made subtle changes to the photo and have made it a lot nicer. Good job. I would have gone a bit further with it, Catherine, but that's me, not you.
Catherine - It sounds like you're opening the pictures using the embedded color profile, and then editing in a different profile (this is all passive, so you wouldn't know if you're doing it until its too late). When you're editing, turn on Proof Colors (View > Proof Colors) and you'll see what it'll look like when you save for the web. If you find there is a dramatic difference between having the proof turned off and on, then convert the image to sRGB before you do any editing (Edit > Convert to Profile) and that should clear it up.
Discussion
10 repliesd200, 24-120/3.5-5.6 VR, on tripod; polarizer; focal length 90mm; f20, 7.0sec.; ISO 100.
Cropped from 16x10 to about 11" square; selected areas of highlights adjusted; some burning; usm.
Appreciate your comments. Thanks.
At this stage the image was edited in ACR for capture sharpen, recovery, luminance and contrast; then in CS3 for curves and usm. Then I put it through Ned's web posting workflow, that he showed me. So! I hope this looks more like it should!
Thanks for all the comments. Your help is so greatly appreciated. Feel like a "dumbhead," but I'll get it sooner or later.