Loveland Pass

I've struggled to make this similar to what I remember. played around with the TK lumonisty tutorials. Would like some feedback. This was take at the same time as the one I asked about the other day with the rocks being too bright. Something never feels right about this, no many how many times I rework it. Might be time to scratch it.

Well, it's badly underexposed, Lance (see your histogram).
A simple Levels adjustment of the landscape itself does wonders, although a correct exposure in the field would have been optimal.

Its not underexposed--it's too dark!

I agree, this image is too dark. I would give the same feedback on your last image as well. My personal guess is that your monitor is probably set too bright.

So these are the three raw files I took. I bracketed thinking I would merge them later, but I didn't own a release and was shooting on 10 sec delay and I think I bumped the camera because they don't line up exactly and I get some ghosting. What I had been doing was trying the nd grad tool in LR, but I tried to change it up a little and use the TK actions. Trying to bring back some of the color I remember, but it might not be possible. If you guys think the comp is crap and not worth it, I wouldn't mind hearing your opinion there either. I would have preferred the trail lead toward the mountains in the distance instead of out of the frame. But to be honest, the only thing I knew of comp at the time was I needed to find a foreground element (I had owned my camera for all of a few months at this point). First is 2.5 sec @4.5, and the last is 6 sec all at f22.

#2

#3

And yes I know now that I start to lose some sharpness at smaller apertures.

Thanks for any feedback

Fyi, I am using this as a PP learning experience, I'm not married to the image.

Exposure-wise, any of the three raw files you posted are better exposures than the first one. I'm kinda curious how you went from them to the underexposed final.

You said that you were planning to merge the 3 files, but didn't say if you actually did. Reason I ask is I don't think it's necessary. Any of the three RAW shots alone would work well as the basis of a finished image. I'm on a work laptop w/o PP, so can't see histograms, but the range of light appears to be captured entirely by each individual RAW file above. Even for a learning exercise, you might want to use an image with greater dynamic range where no one file contains all the information to be incorporated into the final image for a more realistic/rigorous challenge.

A quick and meaningful fix here is to work with your initial posted image and up the exposure as already suggested (or, make it "brighter", to Stan's more sophisticated palate).

If, for learning's sake, you want to start over, keep it simple is my advice; pick one RAW file and forego blending. I'd start with #2, but any would work. The light isn't the most flattering here, but you managed to pull some color and drama out of the sky in the initial post. I'd try to duplicate that effort. If you can dodge the flowers while keeping them natural looking, that would be helpful.

I like the comp, but feel a little squeezed at the bottom where the rocks touch the frame. A little more room would be beneficial.

Looking forward to seeing a repost.

I agree with Rick--the three successive posts look much better than the top one--you could use #1 for the sky and #3 for the fg, using a luminosity mask. I agree with Rick's assessment of the comp as well--Rick's a 'bright' guy

I think that the composition is good, but the problem is that the light is poor.
Here's what I would do to fix it:

Your second exposure has the best tonal range on the histogram, so we'll work with that one.

Create a new layer, then choose your Shadows/Highlight adjustment tool and use the following settings on both the Shadows & Highlights sliders--

Amount-30
Tonal Width-30
Radius-100
Color Correction-+15
Midtone Contrast-+5
Black/White Clip-0.01

I have these set as my defaults because they work well right from the get go or at least provide a good starting point.

Open a Curves adjustment layer. See the screenshot I posted above for a start to bring back some needed contrast.

Open a Selective Color adjustment layer and move the Black slider in Reds, Yellows, Greens & Blues to the left to taste. This will cause problems with the sky, so select the layer mask in the adjustment layer and paint the sky back to it's 'normal' state using a small black brush.

Open a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and boost the Saturation to taste. Repeat the layer mask step above to rid the skies of that excess saturation.


Select the Shadows/Highlight layer and apply some 'Image Polish', which consists of the following Unsharp Mask settings--
Amount-20
Radius-50
Threshold-0

This can cause parts of the image that are on the edge of overexposure to 'blow out'. That happened here with that bright band of sky, so create a layer mask for that layer and paint over that narrow area.

Duplicate that image, flatten the layers and sharpen. The results follow...

This surely isn't to everyone's taste and was a quick 'n' dirty job, but it will give you some idea of what you can do with just one well exposed image.

No TK Luminosity Masks were harmed in this demonstration.

I hope you don't mind Lance...I tried this with the NIK Plugins in CS5.. Used the middle exposure only for simplicity sake. This is quick and dirty also, about 5 minutes. I think with some good software or TK luminosity you can pull these images up a lot.

Great feedback and suggestions everyone. I appreciate you taking the time to help. I'll go back and rework this one a little more.

Curious, Mel mentioned that my monitor may be set too bright. Is there a baseline? I am working on an iMac. Just looked and it was set to 75%. I knocked it down to closer to 50%. I have noticed in the past that might prints are always a lot darker than my computer.

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated.

"Mel mentioned that my monitor may be set too bright. Is there a baseline?"

If there is any kind of baseline, then it's if you're working with a calibrated monitor and your prints are too dark, then your monitor is too bright. Simple as that. Adjust your monitors brightness to match your prints and then adjust your editing accordingly.

Prints a "lot darker" than your monitor, are a red flag for the need to adjust the brightness.

Does John's interpretation look too bright on your monitor?

I wouldn't call it too bright, but checking in from my work monitor today i could definitely tell a difference in brightness. I am reducing it a bit and will do some test runs with cheap prints from mpix to see if I have it dialed in. Thanks agin for your help.