I used a tone curve with multiply blending mode, and moved it before filmic rgb;
I used two dehaze instances: a stronger one for the foreground and a lighter one for the background. I wanted to preserve the waterfall mist and bring volume.
In my rather myopic experience, I’ve come to enjoy exploring the thousands of compositions available in a single image capture. Some would say I need to get better at composing at the scene. Whatever…
I wanted to work this image, but I’ve not been in a place to get a download, dodgy internets. Now that I can, though, don’t think I could offer anything better 'specially with the chicken dinner winner…
I agree. Personally I re edit photographs over and over. I find it fun to explore them. You should give the edit a go anyway if you have time never know maybe you will win a turkey dinner
Edit Here is v2. In v1, I used my sharpen(edge) command, which caused artifacts where the trees meet the sky and the lack of textures in the highlights. Remedied .
20191030-IMG_0073.CR2.xmp (6.6 KB)
Done in dev version of darktable, so 3.0 RC2 + some, and additional GIMP/GMIC fiddling
Oh, I exported full size, let me resize it in GIMP, when I am already there why not …
This was a fantastic capture, and thanks so much for sharing it with us! I agree that some judicious use of a polarizer might have come in handy to remove some glare from those rocks and the stream.
Full disclosure: I tried to do this only using FOSS software, but in the end couldn’t resist exporting to Nik Color Efex Pro 2 to selectively bring out some colors and tones. Yes, it’s possible to do those things in GIMP alone, but this has just been my own workflow for my landscape shots. As it is, I imported the RAW file in RawTherapee, cropped to my liking and exported to GIMP, where I further did some contrast adjustments. I exported to Nik CEP2 from there where I did the bulk of the heavy lifting.
Thanks again for making this available to us. I’m longing to get out with my camera again once this weather breaks.
In my opinion almost all the versions here have destroyed the shadow detail to the extent that if they were printed, large areas of the print would be far too dark. The shadow detail is there in the CR2. It just needs to be shown.
Another problem with some renditions is that they are ruined by a lack local contrast.
Some are badly underexposed. Perhaps the solution there is to turn down the brightness on the monitors to at most 160 cd/m2, which is a compromise between general use and making prints.
Another solution to the tendency to make dark edits would be to turn on white borders in the photo editor of choice. Also, check your histogram for a balanced tonal distribution around the middle.