Heart of the Volcano

Any advice, tips, and criticisms are greatly appreciated. I wish to perfect my craft.

Took the advice from critiques on a previous iteration of this image and made it better.

ReEdited the RAW file and would love more criticisms.

 

Thank you so much!

Actually, I liked the previous image much better and prior to your deleting it I copied it for a try at smoothing out the digital noise.  Here it is after running it through "Neat Image" software.  See what you think.

 

Welcome to PNet, we look forward to seeing more of your work... Mike

Wow I do like the reduced noise image much more.  I hadn't used that software before.  It's pretty cool.  I do like the framing in this photo more than the previous, which is why I deleted that one, but the new less noise version is superior.  Thanks!

Cheers

 

PDE

A very nice image with a dramatic atmosphere, ciao Giangiorgio

Here's the thing. What Mike did, actually the software he used :) did is to remove noise from entire photo- which tends to soften, or blur everything, so, you lose that great  detail on the volcano and in the clouds. What you want to do is simply remove the noise in the areas of interest, namely the sky directly above the mountain and the water below. At least 2 ways to do this. Use what Mike did, make a layer out of it, put the original as a layer over it and then "erase" what's noisy to reveal the smoothed out part below. Merge all layers and you're done. (Could be done the other way around too, of course)

You could also simply use the blur tool in PS and run over the noisy parts till they are smooth, leaving everything else as is.

BTW, I think any noise removing program, including that in PS would do  pretty much the same thing. At least the 3 or 4 I've tried are all pretty similar in the end.

If you smooth out the whole thing, then you lose that Ansel Adams effect you are looking for.

Cheers,

Greg

 

Please note that I totally agree with Greg.  I only use Neat Image as a last resort, or as in this case, as an example.  The layering method would be much more desirable... Mike

Very dramatic work. I am not as interested in the technique as  in the effect which is most powerful.

Very dramatic scenery makes an appealing image. Say I was reading the noise discussion and I'm a little puzzled about how noise became an issue at ISO 200. Cheers, -Clayton

The foreground texture  and  its exposure  very  nice  as  it  is,  being there. But  the  mountain range / Vulcan,  suddenly  jump-out  black,  very  black,  some  part  losing  details,  and  almost  blend  to  the  blackness  of  the sky.  You haw  to  play a more  balanced  tones  with  them.   Because  the  mountain all ready  dark (black)  enough,  the  sky  not  supposed  to  black  as  you  created  here. Tone  back the  sky  to a dark grey  and  work on the  mountain, now,  totally  black and some area absent  of  details.  When  you convert the image  to B&W  pay attention of  the  colors  and  pre-visualize  which  color  do  you like  to  get,  what darkness of  the  grey scale,  black, or  dark  grey. When you  get  the  image all ready in B&W,  play  with  the;  "Image" - "Adjustment" - "Selective Color..." and play  with  the black channel. It  is  not an exposure issue, command, it  is  increasing the  black blackness  without  eliminating  detail all ready  there.  Then as usual,  lots  of  detail work, dodging and burning. One  more time. The  black  sky  not  always  beneficial  for the  image  if  there all ready  lots  of  very  dark  subject, like  the  mountain in this  case.  The  sky  and  the  clouds  is  extremely  nice  a  crown on the  whole  composition.

IMHO.  I would definitely  re-edit  this  beautiful image, regardless  how  many "beautiful"  etc., comments  you going  to get for it.

Checked on a calibrated EIZO  monitor.

The  image  is  beautiful, dramatic and powerful, excellent composed,  perfect for  B&W,  the  biggest problem is,   it  is  not  my  image. Haha.

Cheers.

 

I agree with Bella, great image that needs a bit more tweaking to separate the mountains from the sky. You'll loose a bit of the dramatic contrast in the clouds, but it will be worth it. I also prefer the noiseless sky and would work on that.

Gran blanco y negro, felicidades