"Prairie Farm Dawn"

This is really very nicely done! I love the composition; a quintessential California scene. The light is just beautiful and rich, with wonderful shadows and contrasts. Is this over in the Cuyama Valley west of the Temblors; or is it in the Carrizo Plain? This is a wonderful landscape; with a timeless feel in black and white. It ought to be on the cover of a Steinbeck novel. Mark, Your work, as usual, is impeccable. Cheers! Chris

 

BTW, I notice in the 'details' that you used a 3-stop NDG. Why? For the sky? Frankly, its use is absolutely indiscernible; I can't see a trace of it. Well done! C

Chris, this was taken on the Hog Canyon road north of Paso Robles. The filter was needed because the foreground was actually in shade up to the barn. There was a glow to the yellow grass because of the cool light. The filter is soft in transition and actually resulted in the foreground becoming a half stop too dark. I simply created a screen blend layer to dodge in some lighter areas. The dark strip running diagonally is, however, as it was; a darker patch of grass along the fence. This is actually a blend of three conversions. The grasses liked the blue channel, the hills favored more green and finally, the sky benefited mostly from the red channel. The overprocessing resulted in the sky becoming noisy, so I treated it with surface blur and masked the rest of the scene. Taking the picture was the easy part.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Okay, I now have a much better understanding of why this looks so damned good. While I really like the foreground grasses and fences; what just 'pops' for me is the section with the barns and the hills. The light there is just fabulous. You are way beyond me in the post-pro. skills, Amigo. Very nice work! C

Thanks for your time! I hope you will enjoy the Larger view.

Fabulous landscape. Thank you.