I shot this pano Friday night and want to get some feedback on it. How does the PP look? Thanks, Josh
Posted by Phillip Noll on October 2, 2012 at 9:16 AM
I was there to witness (and shoot) this wonderful sunset. Your image looks like I remember it! That rainbow sure got intense at times! Good job!
Posted by Jack Brauer on October 2, 2012 at 9:49 AM
Awesome! I like how you can see the direction of the sunbeams, and that Sneffels is still visible in the misty atmosphere.
I was hoping I would see some shots from here from Friday! I was up in the Cimarrons that evening... totally blown away by the lightshow, and I could see that it was going off over the Sneffels Range too.
Posted by Tom Stermitz on October 2, 2012 at 10:17 AM
Did you clone out the trailer in the meadow, or did you get the shot before they parked it there ALLLLLLLL weekend?
Posted by Phillip Noll on October 2, 2012 at 11:31 AM
Oh that trailer was SOOOOOOOO annoying!!!
Posted by David Kingham on October 2, 2012 at 12:07 PM
Looks like I remember it as well, what a show!
Posted by Pam Colander on October 2, 2012 at 12:34 PM
While it would be tempting for me to bring up the contrast and brightness of the midtones, this must be what it looked like in reality judging from the sky. With that said, maybe give it the image polish and sharpen? Love the drama you guys witnessed....am jealous
Posted by Glenn Randall on October 2, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Great shot and great moment! The only thing odd I noticed in the post-processing (visible in both IE and Firefox) is in the sky halfway between the rainbow and Sneffels. There seems to be an orangish oval surrounding a yellow area, with a rather harsh transition in between. Maybe that's just the way it looked, but you might want to check if it's an artifact of some sort. I've seen odd "yellow doughnut" effects before with bright areas, where the sensor doesn't handle the transition to other colors gracefully.
On further reflection: I have to agree with Pam that the foreground is too dark. Your eyes undoubtedly saw better detail than that; the trick is conveying that feeling in the image without making it feel fake. I suggest lightening the foreground and mountains using a subtle gradient to give the image an overall "lighter" feel. Right now it feels rather heavy and ominous, which I think is likely to diminish its appeal as a print. Of course, maybe that's the feeling you want to get across! I wasn't there, so my comments may feel off-base.
Posted by Art Escobado on October 2, 2012 at 2:32 PM
Josh these are very nice conditions! I shot the Divide on Sat. and missed all the hoopla.
My two cents...process the mountains and trees brighter, bring down the sky's bright area, if you can add structure/texture to the clouds and maybe even selective brightness I would experiment with that. Nice pano!
I would agree with others about the foreground brightness and bringing that up, if possible. Being there, I know there is some outstanding color. Images like this is where I can appreciate some natural looking HDR work. It brings back the original dynamic range that you may have seen. Difficult to judge since I wasn't there at that particular time.
I agree with Tom about the trailer being smack dab in the middle of that drainage...and a fifth wheel trailer to boot. Thoughts of the Monkey Wrench Gang danced in my head
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I am working on a second PP run that brightens the foreground a little and a couple other things, I will post it up later. It was truly a sight to see, I must have gotten lucky to get there before the trailer. I didn't go back up Rt. 7 the rest of the weekend, I figured it wasn't getting better than that.
Discussion
10 repliesI was hoping I would see some shots from here from Friday! I was up in the Cimarrons that evening... totally blown away by the lightshow, and I could see that it was going off over the Sneffels Range too.
On further reflection: I have to agree with Pam that the foreground is too dark. Your eyes undoubtedly saw better detail than that; the trick is conveying that feeling in the image without making it feel fake. I suggest lightening the foreground and mountains using a subtle gradient to give the image an overall "lighter" feel. Right now it feels rather heavy and ominous, which I think is likely to diminish its appeal as a print. Of course, maybe that's the feeling you want to get across! I wasn't there, so my comments may feel off-base.
My two cents...process the mountains and trees brighter, bring down the sky's bright area, if you can add structure/texture to the clouds and maybe even selective brightness I would experiment with that. Nice pano!
I agree with Tom about the trailer being smack dab in the middle of that drainage...and a fifth wheel trailer to boot. Thoughts of the Monkey Wrench Gang danced in my head