[Play Raw] Is it the tones?

Here is a shot I took some days ago. It was not a motive I had planned it just appeared and looked very nice at that moment. Even the out of camera jpeg I do like and this image feels very promising to me, but as soon as I start processing it I feel it looses something, and I have been struggling to make it great (for me at least).

So, either I should just leave the image as it is or I am having the wrong ideas while processing. Thus I am very curious what other people see in this and what approaches might work.
RAW
20180206T083246.RW2 (14.1 MB)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

As I said that I struggled, I will only post the ooc-jpeg for now and add a play raw version later, once I have something I actually like.

OOC-JPEG
20180206T083246

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20180206T083246-output

Here’s my Filmulated take. It’s just drama and white clipping point, with auto CA correct. Nothing fancy, just bringing up the shadows a bit.

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Tried to enhance the sunrise atmosphere.

20180206T083246
20180206T083246.RW2.xmp (11.0 KB)

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20180206T083246.jpg.pp3 (11 KB)

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I think that there are two tricky parts in this image. The lower foreground has too many small twigs and a little fog giving an appearance of noise and top left part of the sky is a bit blown. If one starts processing, these two borderline parts start to distract from the whole picture. I used Highlight recovery (color propagation) and graduated filter to take care of the sky and lowering contrast and noise reduction in wavelet as well as detail tabs to take care of the foreground. Also I based my White balance on the snow lying on the rooftops. Here is the result:

DSC_6210.NEF.pp3 (10.6 KB)

PS: I was also bothered by that building jutting out at an angle at the center. So, used GIMP to clone it out.

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Don’t think are the tones @McCap ; this is totally a POC, but I think the vista would benefit from a bit of blocking, so I brought more attention to the trees - which actually have an amazing palette - that are saying goodnight to the city while planning THE REVENGE!!! {bloody head}. The river seems also a natural line of force, too much sky is distracting says the frog, I say kiss the frog, burn the bridges, love the trees =)

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The other buildings are still falling down to the right border.

I thought I would try a punchy version :wink:
20180206T083246_01
(processed in darktable)

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@McCap What did you find attractive about the scene? What was the feeling you got when you captured it? Maybe it had to do with more than just the light… I will give it a try soon but as my screen is terrible the result could potentially be :poop:.

Basically the light and the slightly misty feeling in the distance, I guess.

Thank all for their posts, I have already gotten some good ideas from looking at them, Will retry a version myself once I get time.

My Darktable edit


with the associated xmp
20180206T083246.RW2.xmp (7.4 KB)

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A fast review of POC (not done in FOSS, chorry). Notes/critique/poking stickin eye to self:

  • for a proper shared happiness editing of someone else’s “image” questions are needed, the sort of what @afre asked. I did this image before reading @McCap’s misty comment
  • when is ok to go against naturalistic perception? darker top mountains, really?
  • maybe a way could be to limit time spent in a (digital) tool, developer, etc.
  • a blindfold is said to augment the other senses…
  • when are tweaked luma masks too close to dodge and burning? I don’t really care
  • teq takeaway, inverted microcontrast blend in softlight useful misty poo.

Cheers

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20180206T083246.RW2.xmp (14.4 KB)

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These two are attractive for me, too. I tried to make them a bit stronger and here is the outcome:


darktable: 20180206T083246.RW2.xmp (10.3 KB)

I enjoyed working on it a lot. Thanks for contributing such a fascinating photo!

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Here is my version of this image 20180206T083246
20180206T083246.jpg.out.pp3 (11.3 KB)

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20180206T083246.RW2.tiff.out.pp3 (10,7 KB)

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Thanks for all the interesting entries, I got some ideas from them and finally did a version myself, which I am quite happy with.

Basics done in RT including the cropping, then exported to Gimp where I added the pinkish reflexion to the river, turned the lights on along the river and added local contrast to the foreground trees.

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misty lovely, contrasty yet soft on top, river mirroring sky, and the later a pastel dream… love the colour’s delicacy, super!
Just top left corner is distracting IMO. Salu2 McCap =)

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You are right, it is kind of blown. I only noticed after exporting to Gimp, and you know how it is…laziness is just stronger…so I didn’t go back.

Also the lower left corner is a little weak where I dodged the image a little because it lacked left framing (you know on the right the tree does a wonderful job, but the left was just to open…)

But thanks for the nice words. :smiley:

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I totally know what you’re saying… and I downloaded your version to suggest that an “easy/lazy” way out would be to crop just below the blown part, then I noticed that there’s a smudge below the blow (now in an imax near you), then I thought okay, we could cut above the knew, there are plenty of 2nd hand wooden legs and then and there I noticed another smudge on the right, then I start laughing and now I share it with you =)
Sorry? Ja ja aj ajaa ja