I took my girlfriend and a few of her friends on a hike up Cathedral Peak, Drakenberg. It wasn’t a photographic trip per se, and I was mostly shooting while hiking. This image, shot on our way down in the later afternoon, was one that I quite liked. Apart from some contrast with the Tone Curve, and a bit of warming up, not much processing has been done. I guess I’m on the fence as to whether the image has merit or not?
Any thoughts?
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any notes on composition would be appreciated.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any and all welcomed.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Not a composite. Shot handheld on a Sony A7riii with 16-35mm F4 @ ISO 200, 16mm, f11, 1/125
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@mattbouch_
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
I like this a lot; it caught my eye. Like the clouds and the layers of the landscape. I would play with the crop to get rid of the foreground distraction.
It has a magnetic allure, a other worldly, not anchored in time feeling about it, like a wave of female energy.
Perfect Matt crop.
All very nice.
Thank You
I agree with the crop that Matt suggested. It’s a very interesting composition and I think you have captured a very nice light here. This is probably not what you have envisioned with this image, but I think processing this as a B&W and bring out the subtle tonal contrast on the vegetation can make a different image that you might like as an alternative.
The shapes of the main peaks are quite striking, Matt, and the side lighting adds to that nicely. The crop focuses attention on those two peaks, nicely. I think some burning-in of the sky, especially the blue areas would add well.
Matt, this is a great image. I love the shapes of the mountains, and you had some dramatic light and clouds too. For just a hiking trip, you did all right
This image has a lot of potential, and is well worth investing some processing effort to get the most out of it. I’ll start by saying I like @Chris_Percival suggested crop, I think the image is more dramatic by having the cliff drop directly off the bottom edge of the frame. I think you could recover some more detail in the sky, it looks a bit bright on my monitor. To rework your image, I used a TK Lights 2 luminosity masks selection to select the sky, and pull down the exposure of the sky only. While color is very subjective, I think you could generate a little more color separation and color contrast in the landscape. Using the ACR filter, I shifted the Hue of green to more green, and the hue of yellow from orange to more yellow. I also used a TK subtracted masks L2 -L5 to increase shadow detail in the landscape. Here is my take on your image, I hope you don’t mind illustrating these points with an example.
As mentioned, this certainly deserves merit and worth making it the best it can be. And I think Ed’s rendtion is not only a good start, but I would say a great finished image. The sublety of the light hitting the rim and the far back peak is really quite nice. My initial reaction was the brightness of the sky/clouds and I think Ed did a great job reeling that in.
Hhmmm, I can definitely give BW a go. Will need some more work to bring out the necessary contrast and definition, but worth a shot. Away for a few days, but will share this version once done. Thanks for taking the time to give your thoughts
Thanks @Michael_Lowe That would have been great, but not possible unless with a drone, as I was already on the edge of the peak I was standing on to capture this.
@Mark_Seaver Much appreciated. YUou’re right about the sky, and I see Ed has actually tackled that in his response
@Ed_McGuirk Man, thanks so so much. Love what you’ve done. The hue shift is a great touch, but the TK adjustments to the sky really bring it home. I will definitely be replicating this (or close to it) on the original image.
@Lon_Overacker fully agreed, Ed has done a stellar job. My sky was far over exposed, and the edits applied have finished it nicely. Thanks for the kind words.
You are welcome Matt, this is what NPN is all about. I also like what @Igor Doncov did in his rework. I think the extra contrast Igor added in the land relative to my rework takes it up yet another notch. To me this image is all about the light playing upon the landscape, whatever little tweaks you can do to accentuate the light will help make this image even stronger.
