Aqua Rush - Oxararfoss

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
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Aqua Rush - Oxararfoss
Aqua Rush - Oxararfoss1067×1600 346 KB

This was taken on a trip to Iceland where I tried a lot of long exposures. There is a platform here limiting where you can go a little, and I was trying to find a composition I liked in the light rain.

Specific Feedback Requested

I like that the aqua color in the water shows, but I think I should have given more space in the foreground to capture the water coming around the rock(s). I don’t remember if there was something there that I was eliminating, but seeing it now I want more space there. Thoughts?

The other images posted for the long exposure challenge are very inspiring and creative. Is there something more creative I might have tried here?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Sony a7c with the Sony 24-105 f/4 G lens at 30mm, 1.6s, f/22, ISO 100 . I used a ND filter, and it was a bit underexposed, so I corrected for that. I brought out a little detail in the sky. Also, I find that I can see color on my editing monitor that doesn’t seem to show up as well on other monitors, so I saturated it very slightly to try and maintain the color across devices.

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Lovely shapes of water in both the falls and stream. Wider might be nice just because of the wish to see more of a lovely subject, but it doesn’t feel crowded. The vertical composition works for me.

There are some lovely subtle aquas and blues in the water. I wonder about pulling more detail out of the sky?

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@Diane_Miller - I will try to do that and repost. I had used some tools on the sky and then dialed it back a bit in case it was too much. There’s not a lot of color due to it being heavily overcast, but I think there is some additional structure/texture in the clouds that can be recovered. I think I’m at a stage of trying to keep the realistic look/feel of when I was there but have some pop so that it’s not too flat on the screen - and I don’t think I’m quite hitting it. :slight_smile: I am always concerned about overdoing it. Thanks for your comments!

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I’m right with you on that, Karla. It’s easy to go overboard, but I like this scene a lot and worked on it with some TK8 masks and tools (mostly dodging and burning) and I think I made it pop without going too far. What do you think?

21-09-20-3-0147
21-09-20-3-01471067×1600 233 KB

If you want me to walk you through the edit, let me know.

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@Kris_Smith Thanks, Kris. Yes, I think it does make a difference. If you don’t mind walking through, that’s great. Or, if you have an image of where you went with the dodging and burning, that helps. I have tried some localized work with a brush, but I’m always afraid it will be super obvious to anyone who knows what they are doing. I’m kind of different in that I do almost everything in Capture One, so I don’t have the same tools, but I should be able to get to a similar result (given the right skills). :slight_smile: I’m not at my editing screen today, but I’d like to take a look and appy the suggestions when I get a chance. Thanks for your input!

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No problem, Karla - All of this was done in Photoshop on different layers, but maybe you can approximate the same in Capture One.

  1. Clone stamped over bright spot on nearest rock
  2. Curves adjustment to raise mid-tones
  3. TK8 color mask to isolate aqua in water - output to hue/saturation layer & increased saturation
  4. Select sky mask - save to channel - activate channel - curves adjustment to find what detail I could in the sky
  5. Dodge layer - low opacity brush - targeted transition zones from light to dark and darkened them a little for some drama
  6. TK8 lights mask targeting the highlights in the water - subtracted the sky - output to a curves layer and brought up the middle of the luminosity - the mid-tones of the lighter tones
  7. Dodge layer for middle rock that was very dark - brightened a little
  8. Dodge layer for the fog on the left rocks - lightened a little
  9. Burn layer to darken the brightest sky a little more than the curves layer was doing

Here’s how the layer stack looks -
image

image
image468×503 37.8 KB

Hopefully you can see the thumbnails clearer in an enlarged version - that shows where the edits were applied.

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@Kris_Smith Thanks for taking the time to add the detail, Kris. I’ve bookmarked this so that I can go back over it. I follow most if not all of it. :slight_smile: I’ll see what I can do for a similar effect.

1 Like
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If anything is too nebulous, let me know. Here or in a PM. Whichever works. I’m not familiar with Capture One so terms may be different for similar or identical things.