Post Processing Challenge Nov 23 2019

There are no rules as to how you apply your post processing to this image; but, please let us know what you have done so we can all learn.

If you would like to post a candidate image next week, please ensure it is of sufficiently high resolution for manipulation by the participants (3000px on the long side, 300dpi for example).

Most of all, let's have fun while we are learning or demonstrating how we use our post-processing software, imaginations and interpretations.

Lower Okanagan Valley British Columbia

I made a duplicate layer in Photoshop and then converted the foreground layer to black and white, added structure and used a dark red filter on the foreground layer to reduce background haze and help bring out cloud details. i then used the foreground layer as a "luminosity" layer at 100% opacity, and flattened the image (I learned the black and white luminosity layer technique from Line Martell, who used it in a previous PPC forum).

An irresistible challenge...

All in Lightroom:

1. Serious dehazing (+61)
   
2. increased temperature (+20), tint ( and exposure (+0.2)
   
3. slight crop to remove blue object in lower left corner
   
4. adjusted contrast: -38 black clipping, +48 white clipping, -5 shadows, -82 highlights, increased clarity and texture +27, increased contrast +24
   
5. hue-shifted the greens to make them less blue in the background
   
6. increased sharpening radius and amount
   
7. added graduated filter to cool down the foreground, increase tint, increase exposure, and increase clarity there
   
8. My now-vintage memory of the Okanagan Valley includes a lot fewer buildings, so I took the liberty of disappearing a few of ‘em
   
9. It still looked a bit chilly, so I used an adjustment brush to warm up and increase the tint of the midground and foreground.
   

♫ For purple mountain majesties ♪

Color adjustments in PS and then sent to Dynamic Auto Painter. I can’t remember which template and adjustments I chose in DAP due to too many experiments.

I see 5 'layers' or 'depths' in this image so, using PS, I expanded the canvas, cut each 'layer' out (pen tool, cut and paste to new layer), added bevel and emboss+ drop shadow on each, put a texture background behind them all and a black border stoke around the whole thing. Kinda gives (to me) the impression of someone doing this with a knife and putting each 'layer' up individually on a wall.

[ATTACH=full]1319099[/ATTACH]

Sorry, I had an interruption and I 'timed out'.

I see 5 'layers' or 'depths' in this image so, using PS, I expanded the canvas, cut each 'layer' out (pen tool, cut and paste to new layer), added bevel and emboss+ drop shadow on each, put a texture background behind them all and a black border stoke around the whole thing. Kinda gives (to me) the impression of someone doing this with a knife and putting each 'layer' up individually on a wall.

I once bought a Topaz tool bundle, most of which I never use (except Denoise). Playing around with Topaz 'Texture Adjustment', this is what I came up with:

- adjusted hues and saturation, brightness

- added a light leak

Back in PS, I reddened the nearmost hill and adjusted levels and curves

After seeing Leslie's version, I decided that my original color palette was too cool, so I did further editing in Photoshop, first using NIK filters "brilliance and warmth" and "contrast color range", and then "color balance" in Photoshop. I do not use Lightroom, even though I own it, because I still download photos in either Apple Aperture or Canon DPP 4 (for Canon RAW images), and go directly from either to Photoshop. My results are, I think, somewhat similar to Leslie's, but the editing steps are quite different. For instance, the is no "dehaze" filter in Photoshop. Also, I used cloning, rather than cropping, to remove the blue object in the lower left corner. I did not remove any buildings, but did burn their highlights to make them less obvious.

One of the things I like to do with an image is go on a 'fishing expedition' to look for scenes within scenes. The images that Gerald Cafferty offered for the challenge in the past were super for this. Here's one scene within the overall image that caught my eye. You can only go so small depending on the resolution of the parent image and the magic your software can pull off.

[ATTACH=full]1319115[/ATTACH]

 

After seeing Leslie's version, I decided that my original color palette was too cool, so I did further editing in Photoshop, first using NIK filters "brilliance and warmth" and "contrast color range", and then "color balance" in Photoshop. I do not use Lightroom, even though I own it, because I still download photos in either Apple Aperture or Canon DPP 4 (for Canon RAW images), and go directly from either to Photoshop. My results are, I think, somewhat similar to Leslie's, but the editing steps are quite different. For instance, the is no "dehaze" filter in Photoshop. Also, I used cloning, rather than cropping, to remove the blue object in the lower left corner. I did not remove any buildings, but did burn their highlights to make them less obvious.

Hi Glenn: Just thought that I'd mention that Photoshop does have the dehaze filter. It is part of the Camera Raw filter (3rd from bottom). I'm not sure if you didn't use it or if you weren't aware that it was there. A lot of the image enhancement tools of Lightroom are included in that PS Camera Raw filter.

There are no rules as to how you apply your post processing to this image; but, please let us know what you have done so we can all learn.

If you would like to post a candidate image next week, please ensure it is of sufficiently high resolution for manipulation by the participants (3000px on the long side, 300dpi for example).

 

Most of all, let's have fun while we are learning or demonstrating how we use our post-processing software, imaginations and interpretations.

Lower Okanagan Valley British Columbia

[ATTACH=full]1318964[/ATTACH]

Punta, once again, your photo library serves us well. But, it's your judgment about selecting one that is even better.

(1) Initially, I used levels in PSE15 to retain the alternating areas of light and dark. On to Color Efex: Used the darkest option in the graduated fog filter. Then used its brilliance/warmth filter to add warmth. Then darkened top section of the BG mountains using the graduated neutral density filter. Back to PSE & used the sharpening tool where I felt it was needed.

(2) Converted the original image to b&w using Silver Efex. Then PSE15: Adjusted tonality using levels, followed by the use of solarization , followed by an inversion.

Hi Glenn: Just thought that I'd mention that Photoshop does have the dehaze filter. It is part of the Camera Raw filter (3rd from bottom). I'm not sure if you didn't use it or if you weren't aware that it was there. A lot of the image enhancement tools of Lightroom are included in that PS Camera Raw filter.

[ATTACH=full]1319130[/ATTACH]

Thanks for the clarification Punta. When I searched for "dehaze" in Photoshop help, it said "no results found". There is always something new to learn about Photoshop.

Punta, once again, your photo library serves us well. But, it's your judgment about selecting one that is even better.

Thank you Michael. I hope others will post the challenge too.

Thank you Michael. I hope others will post the challenge too.

i’ll be happy to post next week’s challenge, since I’m unavailable until a week from tomorrow.

Curves/channels.