Posted by Jan Harrison on November 1, 2009 at 8:16 PM
Here is your chance to jump in and help me again. I have a thick skin, and I know there are obvious problems with this photograph. The lighting at Pam's is challenging for me, and I think I lean too much on brightness and saturation, not to mention not knowing how to handle the "black holes". Please give me any advice you would care to share.
Posted by Bill Dark on November 1, 2009 at 9:12 PM
You've captured some great color here, but I agree, the shadows could use a little more detail.
This is a difficult location in terms of lighting for sure, Jan. I would venture to say that it is almost impossible to create a pleasing image here without taking several shots at various exposures - one or two for the highlights and one or two for the shadows. There are a lot of different ways to blend them together in photoshop, but creating a layer mask and brushing in the areas that need adjustment gives you the most control, but is also the most time consuming. I think many of the folks that post here use photomatix to blend, so I hope some of them can also give you more advice on how to apply that tool.
The waterfall color looks just a bit blue, but can be adjusted easily with the white point dropper in Camera Raw.
The water pool looks just a little noisy, so make sure you're shooting at the optimum ISO for your camera - usually 100.
By the way, it always helps if you include some information about your camera and lens settings when seeking critiques from the nice folks here. Hope that helps - keep up the good work.
Posted by Jan Harrison on November 1, 2009 at 10:04 PM
Thank you. I certainly need to advance my PP skills. The shot was taken this morning at 7:30. I used a 5D, 17-40 with the ISO cranked up to 800. Shutter was 1 sec and aperture was 10. I also need to adjust my white balance, but I normally shoot AWB and RAW. There doesn't seem to be an in-camera solution for the dark spots. My learning curve is steep, but very interesting and loads of fun.
Posted by Larry Fischer on November 2, 2009 at 10:53 AM
I'm not an expert. I use Nikon Capture NX2; don't have PS.
First I would selectively lighten the dark part of the grotto.
I would also try to bring out some lightness in the lower left fore-ground rocks but I don't think there is much light there to work with.
Next I would darken the foliage area to increase color.
I agree waterfall is too blue. I would NX2 to selectively whiten it.
Might try to use the falls as a white point. It will probaly skews everything out of proportion but its reversible.
Lastly, saturation or color boost.
Then sharpen, etc.
Probably very amateurish but the way I think I would approach this potentially fine capture.
Discussion
4 repliesThis is a difficult location in terms of lighting for sure, Jan. I would venture to say that it is almost impossible to create a pleasing image here without taking several shots at various exposures - one or two for the highlights and one or two for the shadows. There are a lot of different ways to blend them together in photoshop, but creating a layer mask and brushing in the areas that need adjustment gives you the most control, but is also the most time consuming. I think many of the folks that post here use photomatix to blend, so I hope some of them can also give you more advice on how to apply that tool.
The waterfall color looks just a bit blue, but can be adjusted easily with the white point dropper in Camera Raw.
The water pool looks just a little noisy, so make sure you're shooting at the optimum ISO for your camera - usually 100.
By the way, it always helps if you include some information about your camera and lens settings when seeking critiques from the nice folks here.
First I would selectively lighten the dark part of the grotto.
I would also try to bring out some lightness in the lower left fore-ground rocks but I don't think there is much light there to work with.
Next I would darken the foliage area to increase color.
I agree waterfall is too blue. I would NX2 to selectively whiten it.
Might try to use the falls as a white point. It will probaly skews everything out of proportion but its reversible.
Lastly, saturation or color boost.
Then sharpen, etc.
Probably very amateurish but the way I think I would approach this potentially fine capture.
the fisch