Mighty Titan

One of Fisher Tower's (UT) highest monolith at over 900 ft. The most

challenging part of the image was getting separation from the bush and

the rock, as they were similar tones. I tried radical hue adjustments to

the color image prior to converting to B&W, but ended up using the

original color image to convert. Special thanks to Mark Geistweit for his

tips on use of the darken clone tool, as it came in handy for this image.

A bright halo was created around portions of the rock with the

conversion to B&W, and the tool helped create a more natural look.

My appologies Mark - I mispelled your last name. Forgot the e on the end, and I can't figure out how to correct it, so hope this will do.

Sorry, I forgot the t. Just kidding! My name has received many treatments, yours is one of the kinder misspellings. If you refer to me as Mark G, I'm cool with that as well, just don't call me late for the sunset. Your image is awesome. I truly feel the scale in the way you have composed it. Your b&w treatment is quite good and the bush has good separation. I don't see any haloes, yet you have preserved the sky very well while also providing good detail in the rock face. I do think slightly darkening the shadow portion of the tower would give a little more impact, maybe loosely select some of the brighter areas, inverse the selection and feather at about 3 pixels. Then add a layer mask with a curves adjustment. Darken about a half stop or to taste, meanwhile the selected areas will remain. That probably sounds like being OCPD, or Obsessive Compulsive Photoshop Disorder. Yeah, I got it! Question? Do you have CS2 or CS3. Also, did you take these Utah images recently or are they from archive. Whatever, they really are some of the best in a single collection I have seen in a long time. Good Work and HNY to you and yours!

Thanks Mark - I will try to tweak the shadow and see how it looks. These Utah shots were taken this past Thanksgiving. My wife and I were out there for a week. I found the low sun angle to really be helpful for photo taking. I was trying some flat hike to get my back put back together. Glad you like this one - one of most spectacular esy hike out there, and so different from anything I've seen before. I needed a neck massage from alwys looking up. I've been using CS3.

 

Have a great New Year. Harry

Attached is a slight shadow adjustment suggested by Mark. See what you think. I think it does improve the impact of the image. While ther doesn't seem to be much of a difference in shadows in this comparison, the original file shows the shado as darker.

The adjustment is perfect, really adds the right amount of drama with a slight increase in contrast. Honestly, it looks more natural as well. Just amazing!!

Hello Harry, Your have a very good shot here......It seems like you may want a suggestion or two for separation of the stone and the vegatation......Of course you may never get to go back there again.....(1) do it in infrared,..(2) Use an Orange & Polarizer filters together....(3) perhaps a green, with or without a polarizer......Jim

Thanks Jim - I did use a polarizer, but perhaps I could add an orange filter via PS. The problem seemed that both the rock and the tree show as yellows and red. What would have been nice would be a big shadow behind the bush. Thnks for th idea.

hi Harry

excellent shot. great sense of scale and light on the rock face. congrats

excellent work

Sweet! I think it works really well on a lot of levels, Amigo! Pretty stunning composition too. You gotta watch out for those Geistweite post-pro tutorials; they tend to be on-line versions of War & Peace; but eminently useful! Very cool shot, and the processing looks spot-on, Harry. I trust you had a great New Years! Cheers! Chris

Well done on several levels. Thank you for sharing some of the technique used. Having been there I do know how the tones can run together and you have achieved good separation. Also, you have captured the sense of the place with a POV that I have not really seen before. Happy new year.

Very nice and dramatic composition, excellent b/w. Bravo.

 

Cheers; Bela

This is a real stunner, Harry. Wonderfully composed, exposed, and processed. Beautiful low value luminance and highlight detail. So very well done, Harry.

harry, this is gorgeous. i'm trying to visualize what this would look like in color, and i'm thinking your black and white conversion was a good move. i'm sure it's great in color as well, but i really love the drama you've created here.

i like the adjusted version as well; there's a nice balance here...just the right amount of detail in the shadows and highlights.