I know this is an iconic image for all of you RMNP guys, but it was my first time to visit this location.
All honest comments and critiques are welcome. I am particularly interested in the color but all comments are welcome. I dialed back some of the yellows because they made the greens look a little too much like army green. I still haven't mastered the battle over compression which seems to be killing all of the details in this image.
D700
100 mm
f8; 1/800 sec
ISO 200
Processing:
Curves Layer for global contrast
Color Balance layer to pull back the yellows especially in the green leaves
TK's vibrance and saturation masks with a dash of smart glow
Slight Vignette
Hi Brian, sure its a borderline iconic but it's still worth shooting. I love the scene. OK, I think the color is pretty good but there's a bit too much cyan for my taste.
Also, I played around with this file in PS and liked the color pop I was seeing when :selective color/reds, reduce cyan. selective color/greens, reduce magenta. BTW, the file saved even looks a lot better than your NPN compressed file.
One of my very favorite places to shoot, Brian. I think the comp works great, and the colors look natural, but Kane knows his stuff, so give his suggestion a try and see if you think it improves it.
If you ever get a chance, there is a trail that goes up from the horse park area and leads close to the red group of trees. It's great to just be among them up there.
Ditto Kane's comments. Selective color adjustment is a much better approach than the global "color balance"; you can change specifically what needs to be changed without impacting everything else.
You can post up to 300kb for the small file; yours is around 190kb. So if you do rework the original, see how that extra 100kb helps you on the compression.
Great light, well done. The colors look fine on my monitor.
I also made my first fall trip there last year, just before the first big snow.
Photos are great, but you can't beat seeing those massive aspen stands in person.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Kane, I definitely see what you are seeing about the Cyan in the post here on NPN. For some reason when I saved this one for the web there was a slight color shift toward Cyan. I don't notice it when I view the original in Photoshop. I think I just need to work on my technique for resizing and presenting images on the web. I have heard mixed comments about whether to use the "save for web" option or not (I am using CS5). I did use it for this image. That could be hurting it some here. Kane, I appreciate your input and I enjoy seeing your work.
Morris, thanks for the tip about the trail going up to the stand of red aspen. I will have to check that out next time I am there. It looks like it must be pretty steep - I better get to the gym!! I found it on the Nat Geo map.
Awesome scene Brian. Icon or not, I never tire of it. I echo the comments about the Selective Color Adjustment. It is one of my favorite Photoshop tools...ever. I have to admit though that I like cyan more than most people, especially in my greens. I like greens to look lush and foresty as if we were living in Oregon and my taste ends up to be a little cooler on the color balance to accomplish that. My only suggestion for your image would be to (in a layer) add a little vignetting of every corner but the bottom left. There is already a bit of shadow down there and matching it in the other corners might draw the viewer into the photo more.
I have updated this image incorporating Kane's recommendation for the selective color by pulling down the Cyan out of the Red Channel and pulling down the Magenta in the Green Channel. I also saved it differently for the web so hopefully this shows up closer to what I actually see in CS5. Thanks again for the feedback everyone.
Discussion
8 repliesAll honest comments and critiques are welcome. I am particularly interested in the color but all comments are welcome. I dialed back some of the yellows because they made the greens look a little too much like army green. I still haven't mastered the battle over compression which seems to be killing all of the details in this image.
D700
100 mm
f8; 1/800 sec
ISO 200
Processing:
Curves Layer for global contrast
Color Balance layer to pull back the yellows especially in the green leaves
TK's vibrance and saturation masks with a dash of smart glow
Slight Vignette
Also, I played around with this file in PS and liked the color pop I was seeing when :selective color/reds, reduce cyan. selective color/greens, reduce magenta. BTW, the file saved even looks a lot better than your NPN compressed file.
If you ever get a chance, there is a trail that goes up from the horse park area and leads close to the red group of trees. It's great to just be among them up there.
You can post up to 300kb for the small file; yours is around 190kb. So if you do rework the original, see how that extra 100kb helps you on the compression.
I also made my first fall trip there last year, just before the first big snow.
Photos are great, but you can't beat seeing those massive aspen stands in person.
Morris, thanks for the tip about the trail going up to the stand of red aspen. I will have to check that out next time I am there. It looks like it must be pretty steep - I better get to the gym!! I found it on the Nat Geo map.