[PlayRaw] Roadside Sunset at Newbigging, Angus, Scotland

@Ajohn An interesting PlayRaw no doubt but wow— that is a lot of play there! :sunny: I actually prefer your first take even though it is not as dramatic as your others.

@shreedhar Nice crop, though tighter than I would have liked. It really changes the focus!

@afre :wink: I must be in need of a life but it’s an interesting shot to work on.

On later versions I wondered about composition so sort of said ok it’s a sunset. Results then tend to be darker. I’d favour the last shot for that. Main element is the sunset and the rest added interest. Normally if I PP something I finish at some point, leave for an hour or so and then look again and make more adjustments. I’d probably change the last one a little but still try to keep the same idea in mind.

Looking I prefer the 1st one too. Maybe red channel work as per the last one would be better.

John

Wonderful shot!

My result with DT (HDR in DT too).


IMGP2425-hdr.dng.xmp (8.9 KB)

Nice shot !

Here is my version with RawTherapee and IMGP2426 only.


IMGP2426.pp3 (10,9 Ko)

PS : the key point is to activate the Gradient Filter to darken the sky quite a bite (by chance we have a relatively linear horizon line) then tweak the parameters.

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Only darktable


If you don’t know there is a good herbal tea at this photo.

RawTherapee
IMGP2425-2429_morgan_hardwood2.jpg.out.pp3 (11.2 KB)

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Thanks, everyone, for playing and for your kind comments! I’ve very much enjoyed seeing the different results.

I’m posting my impressions for what they’re worth in two successive posts as there’s a user mention limit of 10.

That scene sounds wonderful! I feel deprived, not getting to see it. :wink:

Thanks. I guess by “warmth” you mean more than just colour temperature, but I thought I’d mention I usually try to use my ExpoDisc to set white balance in-camera. I think many see that as unnecessary, but I feel it gives me more confidence as I know I’m starting with it set “right”/balanced, meaning I only have to adjust balance, etc., if I’d like a particular effect rather than feeling I have to correct. I’m fairly certain that I didn’t make any hue/colour balance adjustments to this shot.

It was interesting to read your very descriptive detailing of your process! I like that there’s detail visible in the darker areas, but I feel that (on my display at least) the shadows in the foreground are a little washed out and unnatural looking relative to the rest of the image due to their lightness.

I like the overall balance of your first result after your work in GIMP a lot. Enfuse seems to be capable of some great, natural-looking results, and I plan to have a go with it on this shot. I’m not so keen on versions 2 and 3 as they seem rather flat to me. Your version 4 is very interesting; the only thing that I think stops the purple from working is the pink/purple sun centre. I’m thinking that if it were more white this version would pull off the purple!

@yteaot, the sky in your first version is very dramatic! It’s a shame some of the light portion to the right is clipped to white. It was really interesting for me to see the green in the fields in your second version; it’s probably not a direction I’ll go in as I want to preserve the feel of the time of day, but it’s a nice, fresh look.

@Adlatus, the sky in your version feels very painterly to me - nice! I feel the shadows in the foreground are a little too light to avoid seeming unnatural; I’d be interested to see it with that tweaked. Oh, you already did a second version with darker shadows in the foreground! I feel this works much better, and like this version quite a bit.

I’m glad you got such a good, natural-looking result using darktable’s HDR. This is what I initially tried and failed at, so I’ll have to download your XMP and take a look at what you did. I now feel my version is a little over-contrasty/dark compared to yours and others.

Though this is intense I think you pulled it off and made it work with enviable colour control. Impressive.

Cool - it seems to focus more attention on the foreground, with all that detail you’ve made visible. I can’t say I’m a fan of the sky in this rendition - too greyish?

As with @McCap’s version, I’m impressed at how balanced and appealing this is despite its punchiness. I wouldn’t call it a natural look, but it doesn’t feel unnatural either! I very much agree with your notes.

@CarVac, another quality job! The sun’s more blown out than in some versions, but I like it a lot overall.

@HIRAM, wow - very moody. Nice.

@ChasingShadows, what colours! That’s intense. I can’t quite decide if I feel it’s too much for my tastes, but I’m currently of the opinion this could be a very good version if the sky were a little less saturated. I think you’ve nailed a punchy foreground.

@shreedhar, I like the subdued orangeyness you’ve got going on in your two versions. As with some other versions, I feel the darker areas in the foreground (e.g., the green stems) are not quite dark enough to avoid an unnatural, washed out effect. I wonder how much of this is down to differences in our displays.

@Thomas_Do, I love those colours in the sky! It’s interesting to see the crop with the tree and sun located on the horizontal thirds.

@Hombre, I think this version may just be my favourite. The glow you’ve brought out on the flowers is lovely, and it all feels very impactful and balanced.

@DeadMetaler, very nice. I haven’t yet got used to the blue in the sky, but it makes for a striking contrast to the pink of the flowers. I like the vignetting(?) that leads to the attention going to the centre foreground.

@Morgan_Hardwood, and another great result here. Dat pink. I always enjoy the results of your processing.

Thanks again, all. I’ve been inspired and will have another go at some point.

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@Morgan_Hardwood Your version is just perfect ! Have you merged the images with HDRMerge before processing as the pp3 file name suggest ?

Thank you :slight_smile: Yes I did.

This version is made using just IMGP2425.DNG and the same PP3 as above:

The only visible technical difference is the noise.

@DavidOliver: Thanks for your comment. I like the color of the sky, too. However, I did the edit on my laptop and saw that the color of the flowers is not what I intended, when I watched the result later on my calibrated monitor :open_mouth:.

@ChasingShadows, what colours! That’s intense. I can’t quite decide if I feel it’s too much for my tastes, but I’m currently of the opinion this could be a very good version if the sky were a little less saturated. I think you’ve nailed a punchy foreground.

Well I was using one of my profiles and forgot about the ICM profile. So I was using the profile for my Nikon camera, Somehow I liked the colors, but I agree, it tends to be to much.

Therefore I have updated my try with a gradient filter and an additional curve IMGP2426.jpg.out.pp3 (13.1 KB)

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Following similar re-seasoning, I mean reasoning (maybe in oppositee direction :P) I used to shot everything under UniWB. I wanted to bring the machine’s capturing pontential to its very limits, I also was vegetarian at the time and editing all the images anyway… - which means I had a carnal affair with the mechanics of the thing but did not romanticize (?) the medium. In my perspective, there’s no right or wrong here, just a path; along the way things change, we get flexible (maybe, hopefully); today I’m waaaayy too lax about all that. Bottonline, the expodisc works for you, long live the expodisc!!! :mage::nail_care::cactus::bouquet::spider::cyclone::shallow_pan_of_food:

It was interesting to read your very descriptive detailing of your process! I like that there’s detail visible in the darker areas, but I feel that (on my display at least) the shadows in the foreground are a little washed out and unnatural looking relative to the rest of the image due to their lightness.

You’re right, they are washed out… I mistaken them for the feet of christ, again :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hi,
I’m probably late to the party, but hopefully not too late :slight_smile:
Very nice pic, thanks for sharing! Here’s the best I could do. I tried to keep it natural looking, working only on 2426. Comments welcome.


IMGP2426.DNG.pp3 (10.8 KB)

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Filmulator with drama at 75 and a little kodachrome 64 film emulation from G’MIC.

Tough couple of weeks. A cousin left the hospital only to have my father enter. Anyway, while at the hospital, between the constant re-positioning and mitigating my father’s symptoms, I got a chance to play with this raw set.

  1. dcraw
    a) Output 5 linear 16-bit TIFs with clipping.

  2. enfuse
    a) Output #1 using defaults.
    b) Output #2 using exposure cutoff.

  3. gmic
    a) Blend (darken) #1 and #2.
    b) Increase exposure of foreground.
    c) Dollop of secret sauce.
    d) Sharpen using tone mapping.
    e) Brighten your day using a curve.

  4. Regrets
    a) Not enough energy to do better.
    b) Mileage may vary: laptop display is a dirt-cheap replacement part.

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@DavidOliver Enfuse can be a pretty useful thing to have around. There is also a windows version rip off that is pay for and adds a couple of adjustments. Frankly though I find that the default settings of the Linux OS version are usually ideal and number of settings adequate. People who own the windows version always disagree with the adequate aspect but then they paid for it. It’s an odd piece of software that works well and has been around for a long time.

I should have spotted the sun going purple. :wink: I may have another go at that one from a single raw file and use more than one package this time.

John

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Nice result, @afre. I haven’t used GMIC for single-image editing/processing; I’ll have to try it out.

Sorry to hear about your father. Best wishes.

Very nice shot, David!

Arranged with Luminance HDR, exported with Reinhardt '05 operator.
In GIMP adjusted saturation and contrast, applied Orton effect and sharpening.

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Here is my take on this wonderful photo! Thanks for sharing!
HDR and processing in darktable.
IMGP2425-hdr_02

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