Greetings,
Attached (I think) is a Raw file and my xmp file.
I need some help with this one. I just can’t seem to get a more ‘natural’ looking image with my processing (which is still ‘lets-try-this-slider’ in many instances!)
Some background may help:
What I saw - The grey clouds, sunbeams, the big blocks of shadow as the clouds drifted. It was hazy in the distance, and dying fall colors in the foreground.
That’s what made me take the photo. I exposed for the sky to try and preserve the clouds, which of course throws the foreground into deep shadow. The RAW file almost looks completely gray, very very little color. Even the camera JPG is flat and lifeless.
What I wanted to do - darken and define the clouds and P1058305-.rw2 (23.1 MB) P1058305-.jpg.xmp (2.7 KB)
sunbeams if I could.
Bring up the colors in the foreground. Just a bit of dehaze and local contrast to make the foreground in particular pop. I wanted the eye to start there, an settle on hazy-ish mountains in the distance.
It was tough for me. I obtained some of the results, it just looks a bit too much for me. What I need to know is:
What process would you have used to reach that end? Everybody will take a different (but similar) tack to get there.
what is yours?
And thanks a lot for the help!
In Lightable view, select your image, than use the circled button, with the mode set to “replace” not append.
If you want to keep your previous edit use the duplicate button to make a duplicate first.
In a hurry at the moment and my brush masking on the far background mountains is less than precise, but here’s what I did in ART 1.21. Trying to make the foreground too bright sort of turns the depth inside out, since the far distance should be brighter to cause the eye to go there. But this looks OK. It’s just a hazy day.
Here’s my version. Not quite happy with it at this point, still…
I added a lot of contrast in Sigmoid, then used a combination of a masked exposure instance and tone eq to balance the shadows and highlights.
Then a little selective colour grading to add a bit more colour to the foreground forest.
dpqcoxeas
I like this best so far. I noticed you used 5 different instances of CololrBalance rgb.
How did you decide where to set the sliders in this case?
You were changing things in progressive steps it seems.
What was the sequence you used for this image to get from point A to the finished image?
Thanks
As I don’t use DT, I spent most of the editing time here with ART simply trying to make it look like your example @Va3pinner → It is very good in my opinion!
After I “pretty much” got there (I like your sky better!!) , I moved to try to make it “more natural” and darker clouds like you asked ← I’m a ‘sucker’ for the natural view!
Hope I got it right, and thank you for the practice!
I’m also still finding my own style and don’t really have a “process” yet, or great understanding in what exactly I am doing. It’s a trial and error thing, and I think you’re doing very good @Va3pinner !
Though I like this version better with brighter sky, (no gradual filter)
Thank you Thomas, I’m getting there!
My ultimate goal with processing my images, is not to necessarily have the crispest-cleanest-sharpest image, but to convey the feeling I had, or the detail(s) that might have caught my eye.
Problem is, I still have a tendency to crank it up a bit too much from time to time!
Bruce
@dqpcoxeas
I modified your work a bit just to see what I could do with it.
Used Tone Equalizer to bring down my burned out patches in the sky, It darkened the clouds a bit more but I still like it.
Used contrast equalizer preset Clarity, then reduced it way down to 0.22. It’s very subtle I think.
finally used Color Zones to just bring the lightness up a tiny bit. A bit more glow to the yellow leaves in the foreground.
thanks for the foundation to build on!
