Hey guys, been a while since I've posted... but getting back into the swing of things... been off the road for about a year now, and took a while to get settled back into a regular job, etc.
Would like honest oppinions on this image, It's my first major attempt at a blend... I just read an article about blending in a different way, and gave it a shot... I usually don't like blends, or manipulating images much beyond what the minimum requirement is.
The image was captured with a 2stop Grad ND filter, I then processed the RAW file at -2, 0 and +.66 combined in photoshop, and used layer masks to bring the brighter images through the darker one. Levels, and a bit of added saturation to the master, green, blue, and cyan.
I know I have some halos in the sky from not getting tight enough on a couple branches, but other oppinions, and thoughts welcomed... as well as comments on the single exposure, minimal processed image.
Normally processed single image can be seen here for comparisson
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2074/2272561893_30964e7459_b.jpg
Posted by Paul DeCesare on February 23, 2008 at 12:36 AM
William, I used to live 10 miles from Silver Creek Falls and now am in the midwest, so already this is a huge sight for sore eyes. I think what you did to the original is nice work, a great color punch. The original looks good too! The low golden sun really lights up the evergreens nicely.
Many shots encompass the whole falls from that well-photographed spot, so for me I really like the water source smack-dab in the middle of the shot. Leaves the viewer wondering just how deep it all goes, very nice. The branches in the front add a nice perspective too... maybe they're a touch too low, maybe.
If there's anything that needs fixing, I'd say just clone out that small section of the metal fence rail in the lower left. Other than that, thanks for posting this! My wife will be overjoyed to see home again.
Paul
Posted by Larry Gloth on February 23, 2008 at 12:43 AM
Nice light and powerful colors. Interesting composition that works. Good stuff.
Posted by Darren White on February 23, 2008 at 1:00 AM
Welcome back,
This image is not doing to much for me...
1. you have the railing in the lower left corner
2. you have the sign behind the falls (little white dot)
3. the branches in the upper portion of the shot do not add to the shot in my opinion.
The sun rays look like you may have been there the same day as I was...
I personally think that only showing half the falls makes the viewer wonder what else there is down there
Posted by William Abbott on February 23, 2008 at 9:43 AM
Thanks for all the comments and input.
Darren, I was actually there on Sunday, right after you... wish we would have run into each other... I remember seeing that image the night or morning of going, and knew we should at least likely get something decent.
I was a bit worried about it, being middle of winter, but thought we might get some cool light, like you did... I didn't realize that was you though, didn't know anyone was on Flickr I actually knew from somewhere ;)
Upon some of the comments here, I tried to clone the fence out, and did clone the sign behind the falls out... not very good at this kind of editing, so under 100-200% mag you can see my attempt at the fence, and what I tried to do...
Heres the link, since replacing it with the newest version on Flickr broke the link :(
Posted by John Williams on February 23, 2008 at 6:54 PM
I know I have some halos in the sky from not getting tight enough on a couple branches...
I used to spend huge amounts of time trying to build tight masks for this type of editing. With experimentation, I've actually gone the other way with rare exceptions. Forgive me if this is yesterday's news, but a very quick and dirty (but very useful) mask for this type of problem is to use the Select/Color Range/Highlights that Photoshop offers, and then to blur the selection aggressively. If this doesn't make sense, I can post an example with more detail using the original that you link to above.
With that aside, I like a lot of where you were headed here but do agree that Darren's points are well considered.
Discussion
5 repliesLarger Size: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2284542525_a026b1e4c8_b.jpg
Hey guys, been a while since I've posted... but getting back into the swing of things... been off the road for about a year now, and took a while to get settled back into a regular job, etc.
Would like honest oppinions on this image, It's my first major attempt at a blend... I just read an article about blending in a different way, and gave it a shot... I usually don't like blends, or manipulating images much beyond what the minimum requirement is.
The image was captured with a 2stop Grad ND filter, I then processed the RAW file at -2, 0 and +.66 combined in photoshop, and used layer masks to bring the brighter images through the darker one. Levels, and a bit of added saturation to the master, green, blue, and cyan.
I know I have some halos in the sky from not getting tight enough on a couple branches, but other oppinions, and thoughts welcomed... as well as comments on the single exposure, minimal processed image.
Normally processed single image can be seen here for comparisson
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2074/2272561893_30964e7459_b.jpg
Many shots encompass the whole falls from that well-photographed spot, so for me I really like the water source smack-dab in the middle of the shot. Leaves the viewer wondering just how deep it all goes, very nice. The branches in the front add a nice perspective too... maybe they're a touch too low, maybe.
If there's anything that needs fixing, I'd say just clone out that small section of the metal fence rail in the lower left. Other than that, thanks for posting this! My wife will be overjoyed to see home again.
Paul
This image is not doing to much for me...
1. you have the railing in the lower left corner
2. you have the sign behind the falls (little white dot)
3. the branches in the upper portion of the shot do not add to the shot in my opinion.
The sun rays look like you may have been there the same day as I was...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drwhite75/2270168905/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drwhite75/2269991431/
I personally think that only showing half the falls makes the viewer wonder what else there is down there
Darren, I was actually there on Sunday, right after you... wish we would have run into each other... I remember seeing that image the night or morning of going, and knew we should at least likely get something decent.
I was a bit worried about it, being middle of winter, but thought we might get some cool light, like you did... I didn't realize that was you though, didn't know anyone was on Flickr I actually knew from somewhere ;)
Upon some of the comments here, I tried to clone the fence out, and did clone the sign behind the falls out... not very good at this kind of editing, so under 100-200% mag you can see my attempt at the fence, and what I tried to do...
Heres the link, since replacing it with the newest version on Flickr broke the link :(
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2284542525_a026b1e4c8.jpg
I used to spend huge amounts of time trying to build tight masks for this type of editing. With experimentation, I've actually gone the other way with rare exceptions. Forgive me if this is yesterday's news, but a very quick and dirty (but very useful) mask for this type of problem is to use the Select/Color Range/Highlights that Photoshop offers, and then to blur the selection aggressively. If this doesn't make sense, I can post an example with more detail using the original that you link to above.
With that aside, I like a lot of where you were headed here but do agree that Darren's points are well considered.