Repost - Sublime Lightning

Back in September 2012, a group of RMNP photographers led by Doug K camped along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

One of my shots of note was a late twilight image taken at Point Sublime nearly an hour! after sunset (30 sec f/2.0 ISO 100 on a 5Dm3, ND, and Zeiss 100mm). The image caught soft light on the canyon walls and lightning from a storm out by Williams. While a nice comp, the original photo was barely there (do I dare show you the original?) and my post-processing was crap :) If you can find the old thread dated Sep 10, 2012, this is shot #5, take a comparison. I might not have gone further had it not been for the lightning.

Since upgrading my studio computer - and learning more about post tools, I have been revisiting some old favorites. This one needed a full redo - so here it is. Yeah its still a bit dark but it was dark (like hard to see the camera). Heh... I'm much happier with the color balance, the light, the noise, the mood, and getting rid of those Windmill strobes (ok, I thought it was techie cool...)

Enjoy on the View Larger Photo link (uploaded as adobeRGB)

(and once again thanks to Doug for this trip... I think we all got an excellent collection in great locations)

Hi Karl, nice job going back and reworking some of those old images. I do the same all the time, its all about taking Raw shots back then right? I briefly remember your first post on this subject. This version has some nice comp features like the deep drainage on the bottom left, nice soft lighting on the distant cliffs and of course that awesome lightning strike! My only nitpick is the Noise Reduction here has basically "creamed" the scene in my opinion. What's left of the light that night was very diminished and you’re asking a lot from your camera to render a scene that's worth post processing. Your just gonna have a lot of noise, and NR is what you have to save the scene. Sometimes too much NR sets you back to square one...an image that's just too tough to PP to reality.

Here's a link to the previous version.

For the most part, this is a vast improvement, especially with the skies, most of the interior canyon (esp. the color balance) and the mountains on the horizon (kudos for eliminating the lights). The different vertical crop works great in placing the lone lower monolith further off center. My two minuses include the softening effects of the noise reduction (as noted) and the brighter lights in the interior of the canyon. Specifically, the highest rimrock near the surface looks quite gaudy (brights way too bright), while the brightest flecks of light on the rimrock on the far right midcanyon are also too bright.

You're almost there with this superb portrait, Karl! This is really a magnificent image and with just a few more tweaks, I think you'll be ready to proudly display it.

Thanks Kane, John,

I see what you suggest about the NR. Came from the CR conversion (using Capture One) where I worked on NR for the Sky, but definitely lost it in the canyon (where noise is buried a bit). Fortunately the way I processed this I did a two-part conversion (sky and canyon different settings) and seamed them in PS. So I should be able to keep the sky NR where it is.

On light - hmm, I am noticing a 10% pickup on the edge from the full size TIF to the 1200 size JPG conversion - maybe from the screen-reduction sharpening. I'll keep that in mind during the fix.

Yep Kane, from the RAW. :)

Yep, Good Tips. The detail is much better and I did not have to touch a bunch of blob artifacts. This is a 720-wide.

And for comparison with the original posted 1200-wide (larger), here is the detail from the revised 1200 size I cant post.

Getting better and better. A shot worth working on for sure. Looks pretty good to me now.

Yep, I think you're there, Karl. Again, I think that this is really a spectacular image!

PP Question... I was doing a final sharpening on the full size image and noticed that even moderate sharpening will reveal the sensor pattern (a quilt like pattern) in the lowest dark areas to the right.. yeah, the long 30-sec exposure in very low light conditions did imprint. So I am selectively sharpening using NIK Sharpener 3.0 to avoid those sensitive area. Its actually an interesting technique since I can keep other areas such as the sky out of sharp and relatively noise free. I may also look at selectively darkening that corner with Vivesa.

But the question - anyone run into this issue with other photographs and how did you resolve it?

You'll see that pattern most anytime that you try to lighten an underexposed area, even if just a smidge.
About all you can do is to make a separate correct exposure for the landscape after you captured the lightning and then darken the landscape to taste.

Your last rework looks great, you captured an amazing moment!