Sileby old mill - backlit challenge

spidermonkey · February 9, 2020, 9:45am

I found this picture a tricky one to deal with with the sunlight behind the building. I used the tone equalizer to lighten the shadows in ART, then added some localised masks to add contrast to the brickwork, darken the road and darken the sky.
I have included a colour and a black and white version. These 2 versions are snapshots in the arp file.
I will be interested to see what you come up with…
(Note I used a dcp colour profile from adobe camera raw as there is no dcp inlcuded for my camera in RT or ART, so your colours may differ slightly to mine if you don’t have this profile on your computer)

Sileby 6.RW2.arp (42.8 KB)

Sileby 6.RW2 (14.8 MB)
This file is licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.

Jade_NL · February 9, 2020, 12:33pm

Tricky indeed. Very easy to end up with an image that (partially) looks unnatural.

I might revisit this one and give it another try using some different modules/tools.

Very curious what others will come up with.

sileby.old.mill.rw2.xmp (13.4 KB)

Thomas_Do · February 9, 2020, 1:27pm

Sileby 6.RW2.xmp (32.4 KB)

Jade_NL · February 9, 2020, 1:45pm

Nice way of tackling the lens flair and using rgb curves instead of my channel mixer solution for the sky is probably the better way to go.

I’m rather focussed on not using the tone curve in dt 3.0 and it shows that I still have a ways to go I like your result better than my first try.

Thanks for posting and your sidecar is appreciated!

Thomas_Do · February 9, 2020, 2:05pm

I am also trying to convert step by step to the new linear RGB worflow. In general, l start now with filmic rgb and use sometimes after that the tone equalizer and/or an RGB tone curve. But hey, I do play raws just for fun and use what ever I find convenient after that. I hope that I will soon be able to abandon my old habits and use (almost) only linear modules.

age · February 9, 2020, 2:11pm

Darktable
Sileby 6.RW2.xmp (11.1 KB)

Photoflow
Sileby 6.pfi (44.0 KB)

sls141 · February 9, 2020, 4:49pm

Sileby 6.RW2.xmp (9.5 KB) Sileby 6_01.RW2.xmp (9.9 KB)

spidermonkey · February 9, 2020, 4:56pm

@sls141 Looks sinister!

srgmro · February 9, 2020, 5:39pm

Sileby 6.RW2.arp (42.8 KB)

My try with ART. I chose to do not use mask, mainly curves and tone equalizer

XavAL · February 9, 2020, 5:51pm

One try with plain RT5.8:

Sileby 6.png.out.pp3 (12.2 KB)

I’ve tried hard to remove the colored artifacts created by sun rays entering the lens, but I couldn’t do it better. A tricky picture, indeed

Sunhillow · February 9, 2020, 8:22pm

Tricky backlight - my first tries used a local spot, but finally it looked better without
RT5.8

Sileby 6_RT-3.jpg.out.pp3 (12.7 KB)

afre · February 9, 2020, 8:23pm

@spidermonkey Thanks for the vitamin D goodness.

kakashy · February 9, 2020, 9:03pm

darktable 3.0.0

Sileby 6.RW2.xmp (9,6 Ko)

spidermonkey · February 10, 2020, 6:46am

Thanks for all your attempts so far. This was a late afternoon in winter in the UK with a low watery sun, and I think @srgmro has captured this well, along with several others. I also like @sls141 sinister gothic alternative!