Posted by Chuck Peacock on November 30, 2008 at 5:55 PM
Howdy,
I took a little ride up to the monument early yesterday morning hoping to get some nice light in the canyons. Unfortunately it never materialized due to the huge cloud bank to the east.
Some fog drifted into the canyons a little later in the morning and provided for some interesting shooting but the contrast was quite difficult to manage.
I have several shots with potential after some PP similar to this one.
I cropped the blown out portions in the upper sky portion of this image.
Let me know what you think.
Posted by Jeff Sirota on November 30, 2008 at 8:40 PM
I think that's an excellent shot -- great composition, clouds, mood, etc. My only PP suggestion would be to try to open up the foreground shadows more if you can. It looks like there's some nice highlights on the rocks in there, but on my monitor, the foreground vegetation is too much silhouette when there's probably some detail you can pull out. But even without that change, it is a beautiful capture.
Posted by Joshua Hardin on December 1, 2008 at 10:40 AM
Wonderous clouds Chuck. There's something about this that doesn't "pop" as much as it should though. If I had to put my finger on it, I would say the sky on the upper left and top is still too bright and distracting. I think Jeff is right about the foreground too and I would also suggest lightening the canyon a little bit as well after you've darkened the sky. Despite the contrast concerns, it's a shot that's definitely worthy your time!
A nice moment, Chuck. Did you shoot any without the FG? I agree with Jeff about the need to bring out the FG detail.
Posted by Chuck Peacock on December 1, 2008 at 2:29 PM
Thanks for the comments guys.
Yeah, I'm looking at this at work and thinking to myself "Why did I Ieave the foreground so dark". The detail is there and should be fairly easy to bring out. I think I was focusing on toning down the clouds, which still need a little burning.
Might need to recalibrate the monitor too.
I do have a few shots w/o the foreground. I'll get one of those processed and do a some adjusting to this one - hopefully soon.
Posted by Chuck Peacock on December 1, 2008 at 10:28 PM
Here's a link to a reworked version.
I'm having trouble with the new CS4 - the images are looking more saturated and slightly darker on the web than they do in PS. Go figure.
If I don't convert to sRGB then it's too flat on the web (as it always has been.)
Discussion
5 repliesI took a little ride up to the monument early yesterday morning hoping to get some nice light in the canyons. Unfortunately it never materialized due to the huge cloud bank to the east.
Some fog drifted into the canyons a little later in the morning and provided for some interesting shooting but the contrast was quite difficult to manage.
I have several shots with potential after some PP similar to this one.
I cropped the blown out portions in the upper sky portion of this image.
Let me know what you think.
Yeah, I'm looking at this at work and thinking to myself "Why did I Ieave the foreground so dark". The detail is there and should be fairly easy to bring out. I think I was focusing on toning down the clouds, which still need a little burning.
Might need to recalibrate the monitor too.
I do have a few shots w/o the foreground. I'll get one of those processed and do a some adjusting to this one - hopefully soon.
I'm having trouble with the new CS4 - the images are looking more saturated and slightly darker on the web than they do in PS. Go figure.
If I don't convert to sRGB then it's too flat on the web (as it always has been.)