sunapeephoto

I think that I can't see the rocks for the forest probably. Whenever I "fix" one part of this shot I lose another. I agree that the rocks now need work. They are now too blue.

Sorry, I should be more specific. My trees seem darker than yours. Yours really seemed to pop. Mine don't, but if you weigh the river and rocks brightness too, you are obviously right. Thanks again.

Yeah, I can see the noise. i was terming it "muddy" to myself. This puts me a whole lot close on a photo I was going to give up on. Thanks.

Definite work in progress. Testing the opinion waters to see how well it has

progressed.

Okay here is my first pass at your method Pitman. I tried but failed at the merge layers. I'll have to research how to do that one a bit and as a result I think my effort is darker than yours and I think my rocks are a touch blue, but a lot better than before. I'm posting as an attachment here and will also put it to the que for comparison numbers. Thanks.

Thanks Pitman. It took a lot of time to put those steps together and I will try it tonight on the original image. :)

The sky between the leaves becomes muddled and nearly invisible when this

is printed on Matte paper, It is fine on Lustre paper. If anyone knows why that

happens I would like to know. If you'd rather just tell me what you think of the

photo, that would be great too.

Michael, the problem with the original post is not so much the glow around the rock (that can be adjusted and eliminated) , but the slight mismatch of the tree branches resulting from the two separate exposures. I think I will take another shot at blends, but maybe use the raw file twice adjusting one lighter and one darker so that the tree branches will line up.

 

Pitman, you are definitely on the right track and hopefully you can tell me what you did so I can learn and work on the original. Your solution must be better than mine because you had less file information to work with and came up with a better result.

 

Thanks Michael and Pitman. John

I did mean to say that your sunrise shot really is not unexciting. I like the fog and reflections (though they could be a might stronger), but you do have more of that great light on the trees that my photo is lacking. Thanks again. John

This is not the blended image. I will attach the blend for your comparison. I have been a little obsessed with this image and didn't care for my blend attempts.

 

Here I went back to the original NEF image reopened it in capture using daylight wb adjusted to 5500 temp. Then in photoshop selected the sky, made a layer mask and painted the darker, more colorful sky back in. You are right about the mountains as I have lost all detail in them several times and had to restart .

 

As far as the lens this was shot with it was either my 18-35 or a straight 24mm, I would need to check the EXIF data to make sure, but your estimate is pretty close. I didn't buy the kit lens because the lens from my F-100 still work on the D-70. Oh yeah, the tree tops; I see what you mean but don't know what to do except try to avoid cutting them off next time. I have to ponder that one a bit for this location (trees are very tall on the river bank) Finally tactless is diametrically opposed to the name Michael Chang though synonomous with John Rhodebeck. I truly appreciate all your suggestions.

I am not going to totally disagree with you Michael, but I'm not going to agree wholeheartedly either.

 

I truly like this shot compositionally. I shot over 100 digital shots and two rolls of film at this spot, so I have a fair number of alternate compositions for companions. My folder here contains another shot at noon time from a different day if you would like a comparison.

 

Rather than a compositional problem I would say that my shot is lacking a good, exciting light source. You are right that composition cannot be ignored, it is the reason Nikon and Canon need us to make a superior photo. We could also take 10 people and have each of them choose their favorite composition from the 100 or so that I shot and come away with ten different favorite compositions.

 

Here I got a subject, the river with the rocks protruding (I would have liked a stronger water flow), a good background with Autumn colors, twin mountain peaks and a good sky with a few clouds and some sunrise color, but the magic light of sunrise never materialized to make this whole thing work.

 

I want to try to create that magic on the computer and am failing miserably so far.

 

As you stated you can do all the color, cropping, toning in the world and still end up with a bland picture. My hunt is for a way to make that photo pop and I have a long way to go, so I truly appreciate your thoughtful comments and suggestions.

 

After I find a way to fix the light, then I may well have to seek alternate compositions, because there is no way to ever be satisfied with my own photo and keep the desire to keep taking photos.

 

Regards, John.:)

David, I did some work with shadows/highlights to lessen the silohette effect, but if the line you are talking about is diagonal and just below the midpoint of the picture, then that is a dam creating the line. Now that I look at it your way it does look less than natural. I am probably going to rework this to something less saturated, etc. and put it up for comparison, just for fun.

Love this scene, but have had difficulty getting the colors right. Comments/

advice is appreciated.

Here's a sport I'm not familiar with. Nice capture, great snow. I too like the expression on the driver's face, but I interpret it as desire to win.

Thanks for the comment on the shadows and saturation. I guess I modified the shadows because it is a heavy black silohette that i didn't care too much for and I'm not thrilled with my shadow manipulation either. As for saturation, this is less saturated than the original. I had to add a touch of saturation to this version because my "save for web" action made this version look muddy. How is the frame? This is something I just learned.

Comments/advice would be great.

And cold, even for a hearty New Englander, I was surprised how cold it was up there at sunrise.

Magic light at sunrise makes the rocks and lichen glow. Comments are

welcome.

Mostly a fun shot. The snow caps looking like stocking caps resting on these

cattails. Highlights are blownout and if anyone has suggestions for fixing/

minimizing that problem (post exposure) I would appreciate your comments.

The water ripples are sharp, but it is difficult to get past the tilt in the horizon and the brightness of the sun. A sunset done in black & white is a slightly different twist to typical sunsets. I'll have to experiment a bit with them.

Thanks Eduard.

I appreciate the comment Hugh and I'll trade places with you as we are expecting 12 to 18 inches more of this stuff tomorrow. Of course at this point the forecasts are worst case scenarios to get us to run to the supermarket and buy bread :)

Dramatic sky and ocean, might need to be rotated a degree to level the horizon. Otherwise strong/powerful photo.

B & W version of a previous post. Just seeing which version is

preferred by you. Thanks.

Too many possible subjects and none that stands out clearly here. Personally I would have tried for the snow on the branches and left everything else out.