Posted by Doug Koepsel on February 22, 2011 at 9:48 AM
This past weekend's winter storm dropped 18" of snow in Flagstaff, and also some down in Sedona. I met Monday morning with Shane McDermott to catch the moon setting over Coffee Pot Rock from the Seven Sacred Pools. The thin clouds scuttled that thought, and this was all the color we got in the clouds for sunrise. I left a tiny piece of the moon peeking around the rock.
Since the histogram showed that both highs and lows were captured, this is processed from one image rather than a blend. Your thoughts?
Nice image in challenging light. You could lighten the FG rocks and add some contrast in the sky to balance it out a bit and enhance all of the detail in the rocks.
Posted by Lance Burch on February 22, 2011 at 12:55 PM
Doug thanks for the memories. I remember this trail. I remember a cool sinkhole on the way to this area (and pink jeeps everywhere around the perimeter fence).
I could barely tell that was the moon. The rocks in the distance look a little silhoutted on my monitor here at work. Agree on the detail in the rocks, but that could be a function of my cheap monitor.
Posted by Morris McClung on February 22, 2011 at 6:09 PM
It's about time for John Mumaw to chime in about how to make this pop a little more, if you weren't going for subtle that is. Nice comp, light, and color, and it just needs a little oomph imo. But that's always a matter of taste.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on February 22, 2011 at 6:36 PM
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.
Tried a blend using Manual Photomerge Exposure in PSE9 od 2 images.
Image for the sky was darkened, saturated and contrasted.
Image for rock was brightened, added local contrast and midtone contrast, lightened shadows, and a little more saturation, then sharpened before blending.
Posted by Jack Garrett on February 22, 2011 at 7:00 PM
That second one pops!! Looks like they made some major changes to PSE.
Posted by John Mumaw on February 22, 2011 at 7:01 PM
Nice composition and scene here, Doug. Ol' Morris is right...I think that it needs a bit more 'pop'
The histogram is indeed almost perfect, but if you delve into the individual color channels in the Levels dialog, you'll note that the highlights that are correctly exposed are in the Blue channel (skies). I would mask off that sky and then adjust the Green and Red levels for the land...,vive la différence, eh?
*EDIT* I was typing this out when you posted the repost.
Posted by Kurt Bowman on February 22, 2011 at 7:10 PM
Very nice work again Doug and the repost looks great to me!
Discussion
12 repliesSince the histogram showed that both highs and lows were captured, this is processed from one image rather than a blend. Your thoughts?
I could barely tell that was the moon. The rocks in the distance look a little silhoutted on my monitor here at work. Agree on the detail in the rocks, but that could be a function of my cheap monitor.
Tried a blend using Manual Photomerge Exposure in PSE9 od 2 images.
Image for the sky was darkened, saturated and contrasted.
Image for rock was brightened, added local contrast and midtone contrast, lightened shadows, and a little more saturation, then sharpened before blending.
The histogram is indeed almost perfect, but if you delve into the individual color channels in the Levels dialog, you'll note that the highlights that are correctly exposed are in the Blue channel (skies). I would mask off that sky and then adjust the Green and Red levels for the land...,vive la différence, eh?
*EDIT* I was typing this out when you posted the repost.