North Window Monument Valley Approaching Storm (View Larger)

Several years have past and my skills with Photoshop have increased to

the point that I am unhappy with most of my previous posts. Such is

the case with this image. It is a very difficult image to process as

the scanned original is extremely flat ( I will post it) but such is

the case with most scans as your goal is to capture all the

information and not make a good image.To really handle this image

correctly I used 15 layers to achieve my goal. Each individual section

had it's own curves layer and extensive mask. The masks alone required

three hours of tedious work. The curves layers involved were as

follows: left monument, right monument, back monument right, distant

monuments, sky, foreground, and the bright bushes.I used three

gradients, sky top, left side, and bottom all to direct the viewer

into the photograph. A dodge and burn layer was used to give

highlights and tone downs where needed. The finishing touches were an

overall curves layer for balance and the addition of both an Ektalure

Cream and selenium toning. I feel that this remake gives more of the

feeling of the approaching storm and has an overall better feel.

The original scan

Great image, great toning. The sky might be a bit overdone - too dark and too contrasty. The rock faces and the grasses are just exquisite.

I like how smooth/quiet the road looks (it doesn't stand out from the desert details) in contrast to the drama in the rest of the scene.

I dig these kinds of B&W images, shot on 4x5" or 8x10". Would have loved to see it big up on a gallery wall.

Caspar Knox

Thank you Claude, David and Casper. Casper this was taken with a 4X5. I appreciate your comments and visitation.

that's some work you've put into this one. Actually know just what you mean because I keep going back to some of my older photo's as well and for exactly the same reason. I agree your original is too flat, that's blatantly obvious. But being familiar with your work I'm surprised that you took this as far because in my opinion this is way over the top. Of course maybe that was just what you were after but as it looks here I simply don't like it. The light looks very unnatural, your tonality is stretched beyond its limit and obviously so. The sky looks transplanted in looking as taken from another photo while from your scan it's obvous that in fact it isn't. Density's in the mountain don't correlate everywhere with the actual light.

Only guessing here, but I suspect you might got caught up in the actual act of rebuilding your image (as in been there and done that myself on occasion).

 

Just for the sake of discussion and providing some perspective I reworked your scan a bit more traditionally.

beautiful image , looks forlorn and forbidding ,black and white enhances effect ....

Well I can't say that you're wrong about over doing this as sometimes when working on small sections of a photograph we loss perspective of the whole image. I just received CS4 and I was enjoying using all the new features and tweaked each section as if the only one. However even with with that in mind, I still like the way this looks. Unnatural, overdone,

yes, yes but in a almost surreal way an interesting rendition. As always thanks for your input and sharp eye. I will post a toned down rendition for comparison.

This is an amazing creation of hard work that really shines. You always have great compositions.... but the detail that you pulled out from the scan is great. The selenium toning looks good. By the way, is CS4 worth the upgrade from CS3.

Good job, warm regards, Scott.

Yes very much so. I built and new computer with Photoshop in mind, Quad core processor, 4 G memory, fast video card, 3 Tera bytes of storage and a 64 bit OS. CS4 takes advantage of all of those especially the video card. It is much faster and I think that is mainly because of the use of the video card which makes redraws faster and wait till you see the zoom feature. You just hold down on you mouse button and it zooms to your cursor in one quick zoom motion. You can tilt your screen for easy editing and curves, levels ,etc have their own Adjustments palette. No more closing and opening of curves or levels adjustments and you can go back to previous state on any adjustment. Also there is editable masks! I think it is just amazing and I love it.

 

This takes my breath away! Outstanding image and remarkable detail. I can't stop looking at it. I can almost hear the thunder as my mind moves forward down the road.

 

WONDERFUL!

 

deb

Thanks a lot for taking the time to comment,Deb.

Thanks for the info..I too built a quad core( 2 dual core opterons) just for photoshop. Guess it's time for the upgrade. Looking forward to more of your fabulous work and thanks for sharing. Scott

Exquisite!!