Posted by Mike Ramy on August 17, 2015 at 11:50 PM
I'll be the first to post my version of Mark's Image.
My thoughts on the original image was to find the colors, retain the falling snow, highlight the darker rocks and running water to the left, get more detail in the shadows overall and bring down the bright areas. I also wanted more emphasis on the water as a whole and to help draw the viewer's eye down stream.
Processing notes:
1) The raw adjustments were very subtle and made in the program Mark provided in the Drop-Box upload;
2) Saved from raw and converted to Tiff into Corel Pro X7, I do not use any Photoshop programs or ever had any;
3) Tweaked in Antentech Perfectly Clear plug-in program;
4) Save and closed to reopen in Corel Pro X5, an older version of the Pro X7 but I like it better with the features that have not been over done with 'Progress' plus the Topaz Plug-Ins work within this program and not separately as with Pro X 7;
5) Tweaked with a Topaz Clarity Filter;
6) Tweaked with a Nik Efex Pro 3.0 Lighten/Darken Filter
7) Made a Color Fade correction directly to image in Corel;
8) Added a Fill Light/Clarity adjustment layer in Corel;
9) Then made a final tweak overall to the sharpening, vibrancy, black & whites, highlights and shadows in the Corel 'Smart Photo Fix' window that provides sliders for all these adjustments plus overall exposure.
Now when I use the term 'Tweak' that is exactly what I'm doing, making each adjustment from one extreme to the other and finding that sweet spot that looks and feels right. I do not pay attention to numbers just appearance.
Posted by Mike Ramy on August 18, 2015 at 12:05 AM
This should have been posted first, it is Mark's original image with no processing converted to jpeg and resized to 1 MB for referencing purposes.
Posted by Mark Seaver on August 18, 2015 at 12:27 AM
Hi Mike, you posted this as I was constructing my processing list. You're version looks good. Mine's below. I like your falling snow streaks, they show up better than mine.
Posted by Mark Seaver on August 18, 2015 at 12:27 AM
The one posted here was processed slightly differently. Here's the processing list for this image:
RAW processing: Lightroom 4.4
1. I've added 400 degrees to the color temperature for a subtle warming. (To my eyes the "as shot" settings almost always seem just a bit cool/blue)
2. Decreased the whites by 75 and the highlights by 25. This keeps the highlights from blowing out and adds a touch more texture to the brightest areas
3. Increased the Shadows and Blacks to avoid large areas of total black and to see a bit more detail in the darkest areas.
4. Added 15 Clarity and 25 Vibrance. (adds a modest amount of pop)
5. Tone Curve: Highlights -15; Lights + 50; Darks -20; Blacks 0 (Adds midtone contrast, but may need to be careful about the lights adjustment adding too much saturation...not in this one with it's very muted colors)
6. HSL: Increased orange, yellow, and green saturations by 10 (Add a bit more color to the water) (In most of my images some of the saturations need to be decreased due to how much Adobe adds as colors are darkened.)
7. Sharpening: Amount-100, Radius-0.5, Detail-60, Masking-15 (This is capture sharpening. It's reasonably subtle but adds nicely. I don't usually adjust these settings.)
8. Profile: Adobe Standard (I've tried some of the other profile settings and they don't seem to offer as wide a range of colors.)
Then it's off to CS6 where I used Tony Kupyer's triple plays that I've adjusted to apply in Luminosity mode to avoid major saturation bumps. The triple plays are mostly providing what's called micro-contrast enhancement and by doing that here, I don't need to apply much sharpening at the end. There's dodging and burning using a variety of Tony's luminosity masks to limit the tones adjusted. I also add a mid-tone contrast bump again using Tony's masks to limit the tones adjusted. In this case, I've added a general saturation boost of 20 points as the colors in the stream seemed too dull. The only final sharpening is what Lightroom adds (settings = screen and amount = standard) when it exports the JPG file for uploading to NPN.
Posted by Howard Cheek on August 18, 2015 at 9:42 AM
I used Nik Silver Efex & 'Cool Tones 2' in the preview pane. I brought up the red channel there @ 168%
Saved, then used Viveza 2 to select the rocks right side and bring up some of the shadows there. Left side rocks as well.
My thought was that I would try to show the scene with a bit more impact, & simply eliminate the colors. They seemed flat or non-existant in Marks low light winter scene here anyway..
I think mine has that liberal "Velvia" look to it.......which is all I know. I do not have LR so everything is done in old version of CS5.
I really do not have a step by step, beyond using color balances, curves, TK's tools, and a host of other items to change the image. It probably does not meet the weather look or criteria as well as others have posted, but again, it's how my brain is programmed or warped......
Posted by Steve Kennedy on August 18, 2015 at 3:31 PM
Here's my attempt. I used Lightroom 5 for my adjustments.
Adjusted Camera Calibration profile to Camera Portrait
Changed color temp to 6600 and added +11 to tint
Added +33 to Contrast, +31 to Shadows, +64 to Clarity and +19 to Vibrance
Used a Graduated filter from the top to the snow line and adjusted exposure -.25, Contrast +17, Highlights -40, Shadows +19 and Sharpness +55
Used a 2nd Graduated filter from the bottom to the snow line and adjusted color temp +10, exposure +.38, Shadows +45, Clarity +40, Saturation +10 and Sharpness +38
Tweaked tonal contrast in Color Efex 4
This may be too much detail but wanted to provide full disclosure.
Posted by Howard Cheek on August 18, 2015 at 7:51 PM
I hope this is a forum where we can speak our minds, challenge each other..
So without offending anyone I would like to express my thoughts.
One of the the rules I process by is to always keep in mind that the software's there only to Enhance an already great image.
There's just no substitute for getting the shot right out of the camera, as close to the finished product as possible.
The weather conditions, light, overall scene, etc. in Marks original is what it is (flat colors, almost monochromatic).
It's my opionion that when you go too far in adding color back into a scene, it tends to look a bit unnatural.
So I went at it from a different mindset than y'all.. You can let me me have it, I welcome your feedback
Posted by Mark Seaver on August 18, 2015 at 9:55 PM
I'm fascinated by what I would call only moderate differences in color (Howard's b&w being majorly different) yet each image carries a noticeably different overall feeling. Admittedly it's an image where there's not a large amount of potential for variation without the colors looking wrong, so it may not have been the best choice for this exercise. Even then, I'm fascinated by how different the visions are. With that said, I was looking to get folks talking/thinking about how they process images since I'm convinced that there are many paths to get to the same (or nearly the same) end in photoprocessing. I agree totally with Howard that you want the best image in the camera that you can get and that (plus 25 years of habit from shooting slides) is why I usually limit my cropping to no more that about 75% of ff and try to keep it to zero.
Paul, the raw processing in CS5 (or CS6) is the same as in Lightroom it just shows up in different places in the software.
Howard, interesting that you call this bleak, , speaks to experience and it's role in our personal vision. I enjoy a snowstorm like this especially if I can get out walking in it (but that's very hard in a major metropolitan area). Hopefully in my version some of that joy comes through with moderately inviting colors as part of an overall quietness.
To me, it seems that Paul and Steve's are quietly warm and inviting, Mike and my versions are cool but still inviting, and Howards is decidedly chilly. Those differences are what make us unique and keep things interesting.
Posted by Steve Kennedy on August 18, 2015 at 11:53 PM
Howard, in principle I very much agree. I personally used this as an exercise in 1) practicing what I'm just now learning in Lightroom, and 2 squeezing as much as I can out of the image. My list of steps may have been too explicit, but again, to me this is a learning exercise. I'm carefully reading what each person does to the image and comparing it to what I did. FYI - I did my processing before I read the other posts.
Mark, I agree that this is fascinating. It's very interesting how we can take very different approaches but have very similar results.
I'm enjoying this experiment. Thanks Mark!
Posted by Jeff Martyka on August 20, 2015 at 12:37 AM
Looks like a fun idea, Mark!
Since there weren't any rules I started off with a crop in Lightroom. ;) I felt like the impact of the image was looking upstream where it fades away into the snow and the left side wasn't showing that off to my eye. I like a nice walk in the snow myself, and its what I'd have been more drawn to present.
I then moved all the sliders back to 0 and started over.
Temp to 6700.
Exposure -0.5
Clarity -15 helps to soften for the snowstorm
Vibrance +40
Saturation +7 These 2 were to get some punch as I planned to go b&w
contrast and shadows +40
I used the local brush to paint in some more + to shadows in a few places.
Silver Efx using High Key 2 and some adjustments to the basic section that I don't recall. I should have used control points here to not affect the foreground water as much as I blew that area out a bit in this step.
Off to photoshop
dodge/burn some areas.
Localized contrast and brightness w/ masks for top and foreground
Softened it up a bit more with a gaussian blur layer
Back in Lightroom I added 5 to the temperature
Posted by Howard Cheek on August 20, 2015 at 7:58 PM
Really like what you've done with this Jeff, excellent!
Posted by Mark Seaver on August 20, 2015 at 9:25 PM
Jeff, this looks very good. I like the turbulence at the bottom against the calm reflections above and the falling snow streaks show up decently. Fine "food for thought".
I just discovered this thread and I think it's a great idea. It reminds me of an education night we had in our local camera club where we divided into small groups and chose first, second and third choices for the same photos. Each group picked a different photo for first! So this is useful just to remind ourselves of the subjective nature of our art. It's also very useful to see what others do with their software.
Discussion
13 repliesI'll be the first to post my version of Mark's Image.
My thoughts on the original image was to find the colors, retain the falling snow, highlight the darker rocks and running water to the left, get more detail in the shadows overall and bring down the bright areas. I also wanted more emphasis on the water as a whole and to help draw the viewer's eye down stream.
Processing notes:
1) The raw adjustments were very subtle and made in the program Mark provided in the Drop-Box upload;
2) Saved from raw and converted to Tiff into Corel Pro X7, I do not use any Photoshop programs or ever had any;
3) Tweaked in Antentech Perfectly Clear plug-in program;
4) Save and closed to reopen in Corel Pro X5, an older version of the Pro X7 but I like it better with the features that have not been over done with 'Progress' plus the Topaz Plug-Ins work within this program and not separately as with Pro X 7;
5) Tweaked with a Topaz Clarity Filter;
6) Tweaked with a Nik Efex Pro 3.0 Lighten/Darken Filter
7) Made a Color Fade correction directly to image in Corel;
8) Added a Fill Light/Clarity adjustment layer in Corel;
9) Then made a final tweak overall to the sharpening, vibrancy, black & whites, highlights and shadows in the Corel 'Smart Photo Fix' window that provides sliders for all these adjustments plus overall exposure.
Now when I use the term 'Tweak' that is exactly what I'm doing, making each adjustment from one extreme to the other and finding that sweet spot that looks and feels right. I do not pay attention to numbers just appearance.
This should have been posted first, it is Mark's original image with no processing converted to jpeg and resized to 1 MB for referencing purposes.
Hi Mike, you posted this as I was constructing my processing list. You're version looks good. Mine's below. I like your falling snow streaks, they show up better than mine.
Here's my latest result (done today) on this image. (I posted a different image taken about 10 minutes later in landscape last Feb. (http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vp&pr=225318&CGISESSID=bc30d4185ef3bc1c234a978a83cf974d&u=20290), if you want to compare my own results.
The one posted here was processed slightly differently. Here's the processing list for this image:
RAW processing: Lightroom 4.4
1. I've added 400 degrees to the color temperature for a subtle warming. (To my eyes the "as shot" settings almost always seem just a bit cool/blue)
2. Decreased the whites by 75 and the highlights by 25. This keeps the highlights from blowing out and adds a touch more texture to the brightest areas
3. Increased the Shadows and Blacks to avoid large areas of total black and to see a bit more detail in the darkest areas.
4. Added 15 Clarity and 25 Vibrance. (adds a modest amount of pop)
5. Tone Curve: Highlights -15; Lights + 50; Darks -20; Blacks 0 (Adds midtone contrast, but may need to be careful about the lights adjustment adding too much saturation...not in this one with it's very muted colors)
6. HSL: Increased orange, yellow, and green saturations by 10 (Add a bit more color to the water) (In most of my images some of the saturations need to be decreased due to how much Adobe adds as colors are darkened.)
7. Sharpening: Amount-100, Radius-0.5, Detail-60, Masking-15 (This is capture sharpening. It's reasonably subtle but adds nicely. I don't usually adjust these settings.)
8. Profile: Adobe Standard (I've tried some of the other profile settings and they don't seem to offer as wide a range of colors.)
Then it's off to CS6 where I used Tony Kupyer's triple plays that I've adjusted to apply in Luminosity mode to avoid major saturation bumps. The triple plays are mostly providing what's called micro-contrast enhancement and by doing that here, I don't need to apply much sharpening at the end. There's dodging and burning using a variety of Tony's luminosity masks to limit the tones adjusted. I also add a mid-tone contrast bump again using Tony's masks to limit the tones adjusted. In this case, I've added a general saturation boost of 20 points as the colors in the stream seemed too dull. The only final sharpening is what Lightroom adds (settings = screen and amount = standard) when it exports the JPG file for uploading to NPN.
I used Nik Silver Efex & 'Cool Tones 2' in the preview pane. I brought up the red channel there @ 168%
Saved, then used Viveza 2 to select the rocks right side and bring up some of the shadows there. Left side rocks as well.
My thought was that I would try to show the scene with a bit more impact, & simply eliminate the colors. They seemed flat or non-existant in Marks low light winter scene here anyway..
So is this 'bleak' enough for ya?
I think mine has that liberal "Velvia" look to it.......which is all I know. I do not have LR so everything is done in old version of CS5.
I really do not have a step by step, beyond using color balances, curves, TK's tools, and a host of other items to change the image. It probably does not meet the weather look or criteria as well as others have posted, but again, it's how my brain is programmed or warped......
Here's my attempt. I used Lightroom 5 for my adjustments.
This may be too much detail but wanted to provide full disclosure.
I hope this is a forum where we can speak our minds, challenge each other..
So without offending anyone I would like to express my thoughts.
One of the the rules I process by is to always keep in mind that the software's there only to Enhance an already great image.
There's just no substitute for getting the shot right out of the camera, as close to the finished product as possible.
The weather conditions, light, overall scene, etc. in Marks original is what it is (flat colors, almost monochromatic).
It's my opionion that when you go too far in adding color back into a scene, it tends to look a bit unnatural.
So I went at it from a different mindset than y'all.. You can let me me have it, I welcome your feedback
I'm fascinated by what I would call only moderate differences in color (Howard's b&w being majorly different) yet each image carries a noticeably different overall feeling. Admittedly it's an image where there's not a large amount of potential for variation without the colors looking wrong, so it may not have been the best choice for this exercise. Even then, I'm fascinated by how different the visions are. With that said, I was looking to get folks talking/thinking about how they process images since I'm convinced that there are many paths to get to the same (or nearly the same) end in photoprocessing. I agree totally with Howard that you want the best image in the camera that you can get and that (plus 25 years of habit from shooting slides) is why I usually limit my cropping to no more that about 75% of ff and try to keep it to zero.
Paul, the raw processing in CS5 (or CS6) is the same as in Lightroom it just shows up in different places in the software.
Howard, interesting that you call this bleak,
, speaks to experience and it's role in our personal vision. I enjoy a snowstorm like this especially if I can get out walking in it (but that's very hard in a major metropolitan area). Hopefully in my version some of that joy comes through with moderately inviting colors as part of an overall quietness.
To me, it seems that Paul and Steve's are quietly warm and inviting, Mike and my versions are cool but still inviting, and Howards is decidedly chilly. Those differences are what make us unique and keep things interesting.
Howard, in principle I very much agree. I personally used this as an exercise in 1) practicing what I'm just now learning in Lightroom, and 2 squeezing as much as I can out of the image. My list of steps may have been too explicit, but again, to me this is a learning exercise. I'm carefully reading what each person does to the image and comparing it to what I did. FYI - I did my processing before I read the other posts.
Mark, I agree that this is fascinating. It's very interesting how we can take very different approaches but have very similar results.
I'm enjoying this experiment. Thanks Mark!
Looks like a fun idea, Mark!
Since there weren't any rules I started off with a crop in Lightroom. ;) I felt like the impact of the image was looking upstream where it fades away into the snow and the left side wasn't showing that off to my eye. I like a nice walk in the snow myself, and its what I'd have been more drawn to present.
I then moved all the sliders back to 0 and started over.
Temp to 6700.
Exposure -0.5
Clarity -15 helps to soften for the snowstorm
Vibrance +40
Saturation +7 These 2 were to get some punch as I planned to go b&w
contrast and shadows +40
I used the local brush to paint in some more + to shadows in a few places.
Silver Efx using High Key 2 and some adjustments to the basic section that I don't recall. I should have used control points here to not affect the foreground water as much as I blew that area out a bit in this step.
Off to photoshop
dodge/burn some areas.
Localized contrast and brightness w/ masks for top and foreground
Softened it up a bit more with a gaussian blur layer
Back in Lightroom I added 5 to the temperature
Really like what you've done with this Jeff, excellent!
Jeff, this looks very good. I like the turbulence at the bottom against the calm reflections above and the falling snow streaks show up decently. Fine "food for thought".
I just discovered this thread and I think it's a great idea. It reminds me of an education night we had in our local camera club where we divided into small groups and chose first, second and third choices for the same photos. Each group picked a different photo for first! So this is useful just to remind ourselves of the subjective nature of our art. It's also very useful to see what others do with their software.
Bravo, let's have some more of this!