Took a sequence of shots the other day while out and about, and I figured the hive has some insight on what else I can do with these. I’m never sure how to communicate how striking some contrast can be in low light.
For a bonus, I’ll post a couple-second timelapse of the full sequence if we all can manage to urge me into conglomerating the ideas here. I’d upload all 60 images, but I’ve got 32MB per raw and a 1Mbps pipe. DSCF7354.RAF (31.9 MB)
Thank you for this lovely photograph.
My attempt: Filmulator +2.1667 EV then into GIMP. Increase of saturation of the foreground. Reduced the saturation of the rocks of the mountain (less blue) and increased the saturation of the sky. Overall increase in contrast.
I think the interesting about the development of this image is how to get a night appeareance. I was not able to do it. Just lowering the exposure does not give the night feeling in my opinion.
Since all of your edits and words about my photo have been so moving, I figured I’d demonstrate the photo moving in return.
It was too cold and late to stay long enough to do this dance justice, but the result is pleasant. I’m thinking of using the sequence to make a blended GIF of sorts, but that would require learning a new process.
Since I’m on Windows, darktable-cli wouldn’t let me automate this the way I wanted to (as it has been crashing on launch the last few releases), and so this was just the manual process of loading each xmp, exporting, and then running it through ffmpeg for the final result. (ffmpeg.exe -framerate 20 -i %04d_01.jpg -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset veryslow -pix_fmt yuv420p -an out.mp4 did the trick)
I’m sorry that I don’t yet have the knowledge to make everyone else’s edits into this process; I’ll get some time over the weekend to play with automating filmulator, ART, and the others, though I can’t promise anything. Otherwise, if you are all interested in playing with the entire dataset, I can find a spot to host the 940MB .7z collection of all 60 shots for your own personal play–there might even be a better shot for a solo than what I previously posted; I simply put up the first.
Thank you, @7osema , for reminding me of how Utah usually looks to so many viewers; you captured that really well in that edit.
Thanks, @dqpcoxeas , for that baked-border, as it really keeps me focused on how brilliant the snow is in the dark.
Thank you, @kofa , for the use of the glow; it recaptures what it’s like next to a lake of “singing” (more like groaning, shrieking, bubbling) ice on a cold winter night, gazing at behemoths of both rock and vapor.
Thank you, @RawConvert , for digging out all of that detail and layering it back on so well.
Thank you, @Thomas_Do , for a clever crop (I really like how this aspect ratio works, there), which really rocks my eyes back and forth into the distance. I love that effect–pulling a real photo out of my common habit of trying to take everything in.
It’s unfair to the process to pretend that I’m any authority, so I hope me replying to everyone isn’t taken that way; clicking a heart icon just doesn’t pump the amount of blood needed to reciprocate the gestures, here.
To be sappy, PlayRaws are my favorite, specifically because of how expressive it becomes. I love it.
Thanks, in addition, though I can’t post your edits spread through the series (yet), to:
@david for capturing, in the first, the specific look I’ve seen on many postcards featuring Timpanogos’s rock, and a much dreamier edit that feels like how I’d see it if I were fishing,
@Ravn_Revheim for an edit that directly expresses my original intent for the photo, with such a subtle tragedy that I can’t see under the hood of the edit to find out how you captured it (I’m not above begging),
@josemar127 for showing off bloom reminiscent of some modern games (I’m reminded of Breath of the Wild’s effect for distant hills),
@essbe for the colorful reminder that I need to eat more carrots (and, consequently, for making me think about the real color contributions of oak brush, which I’ve previously written off as too dull to consider recuperating), and
@sallyanne for bringing the slightly smeared stars back out into the forefront: They’re the main reason I stopped at the reservoir that night.
Most people coming into photography really don’t appreciate how certain practices or decisions all have effects that can be later used for the one of the most fun aspects of photography: To generate the feeling you want to get from the shot. I set out to take some photos of the ice and the city beyond it to see if I could replicate a friend’s work, and while waiting for those shots to come together, I was, as I usually am when taking a less interesting photo, blindsided by this scene, and was then later surprised again by the wispy action in the open-bowl formation when I made the first lapse.
None of that prepared me for the welcoming feeling of this many people enjoying this with me. Thanks again.
@erratasama,
Thank you for your kind words. I too love PlayRaws. It gives me the opportunity to experiment with various techniques and to try to produce interesting interpretations of photographs.
As a result of your comment to sallyanne I could resist trying to change my .jpg to bring out the stars - no doubt overdone!!!
First of all sorry for the late reply, second the editing steps should be embedded in the uploaded jpg but here you go, here is the xmp for it: DSCF7354.RAF.xmp (13.7 KB)
