Gorgeous photo; thank you for sharing both the image, and your thought process at the moment of composition—enjoyed reading your insights.
I centered my edit around exposing for sunbeams, attempting a gothic Edward Steichen look.
Thank you very much for your kind comment.
Forgive me if I am telling you something you already know.
In any module that contains a mask, when you click on the square that has a circle inside, you can see the zones where those masks are acting.
In each one of the instances I have decided to do a different thing, in one to lighten the foreground, in another to darken the sky, in another to give more luminosity to the sunny areas…
Depending on the photograph I have in front of me, I decide to do one thing or another. I don’t always move the sliders to the same point.
In short: you look at the photo in front of you for as long as you need to decide what you would like to achieve at the end of the development.
If you need one or more instances of a module to get to that result, the photo demands it.
I would like to add that sometimes you get the result you wanted, sometimes you surpass it and sometimes you don’t even come close… but you always learn.
Sorry for my English.
Best regards
Thank you for your reply!
I am familiar with DT masking, but have just started using it. You’ve inspired me to try and duplicate what you did from the beginning.
Before I start processing a RAW file, I do spend time deciding what I want the final result to be. First, what do I want to convey? is there something in the image I want to emphasize or needs to be reduced? how much contrast? What colors to work with.
I get this in mind either before I start, or as I go.
This RAW file was very flat. Almost no contrast at all. Different from others I have worked with. Probably because from where I took the photo, there was not a lot of contrast in the entire scene to begin with. I was standing in the same shadows as the foreground. mostly gray clouds in the sky, not a lot of blue anywhere. Only the bursts of sunlight in the distance, including sunbeams furthest away. That is what really caught my eye, and made this particular scene different. I exposed for the sky to preserve the clouds. I knew this would throw the foreground into deep shadow, but wanted to see if I really could bring this out, but I had difficulty figuring out where to start. Raising the exposure first blew out the sky, so I used different modules to enhance contrast & color. I can see where my processing went astray. Because I did not use masks to isolate the features I was working on, each change I made would affect everything before it, even slightly. I actually like what I did at first, but it did not convey the ‘natural’ softness I saw that day.I thought my first attempt was a bit too crispy looking. There was quite a bit of color in the foreground, I’ll see how I can bring that up a bit in future attempts, but it was softened colors, not like one would see on a bluebird sunny day.
All of the posted suggestions have given me ideas on how to proceed in the future.
I think I’ll be exploring masks quite a bit this year! I have some things posted on flickr under the name Va3Pinner. I know a lot of those will change from using masks!
thanks for the tip
And your English is fine!
@Popanz I like both attempts. thank you!
What I’m learning as I look at these versions, is how to decide what I want to enhance or subdue, and how it affects the overall image. I like the softness of this one, but I also liked how you brought up the sunbeams in the first image. Two different feelings, both work well for this image.
@Roberto_Vacci Thank you! I have not played much with ART, choosing to stick with one processing program until I know it well. I don’t have a background in processing at all, so I’m learning as I go. The colors in the foreground are closer to what I actually saw, and I like how you killed the overexposed spots in the sky. I can do the same with DT, then bring up the clouds a bit, but still figuring out how.
Here’s a slightly better version with the mask touched up and the brighter sky highlights dropped just a hair. Although I like brush masks, I normally tend to use them broadly and avoid trying to paint exactly-matching edges and such, since that’s usually a recipe for problems. But in this case (especially with edge-aware feathering) it wasn’t too hard to match well enough on the background mountains.
Really nice. You brought out the sun rays perfectly and didn’t overdo the colour. Congrats
