Thank you so much for the comments and discussion on my previous image!
This one is similar and has the same oak lined ridges as an image I posted not too long ago. But capture a week later. Storms were still passing over and still creating great opportunities. When I got to this roadside location I just stood and watched and the light came and went; the sun getting closer to hiding behind the ridge. Luckily, the sun and clouds all worked together and I got to watch these bands of light crawl up the canyon. The show lasted about 7-8 minutes. I was able to capture a few images; I liked this one the best.
Oh and for you @Kathy_Barnhart, you were close on your guess on the last image. Del Valle is just one canyon over. These are up Mines Road. I know you know these areas well. Good eye!
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any/all processing; color, contrast, saturation
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Anything welcome
Any pertinent technical details:
Nikon D800E, Nikon 28-300mm @ 98mm f/9 1/80th iso 400, tripod, single frame.
Processing pretty simple. Well, I tediously cloned out the power lines that went the entire length of the top ridge! grrrr. A Levels and that LAB color layer for color/saturation and pop. Also a little bit of dodging and burning the enhance the rays of sunshine. Also used TK’s Saturation painting to actually reduce some of the greens in some softer areas that were a little too vibrant.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Fantastic image Lon. The warmth of the image and the light provides a great mood.
I have no suggestions for improvement but I do have a question. Would you mind elaborating on your lab layer technique?
@Nathan_Klein ,
Thank you so much for the comments! I appreciate it.
Thanks for your question and rather than take away from the whole commenting and critiquing thing, I went ahead and wrote up something and just posted in the Post Processing Discussion forum.
Anyone who’s interested in the LAB Color mode I keep bringing up, you may be interested in checking it out. I’d love the feedback there as well.
Lon
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Oh wow, those green hill tops! And the sombre brown oaks. This is super. I wondered about a 16:9 crop, but I think you’d lose the sense of rays of light coming down. Contrast and saturation are ok for me. Those greens are really green, but they are just a thin strip, so it works. And the brown oaks are so rich.
Thank you @Bonnie_Lampley. I think you’re right on the greens. They look a bit on the vibrant side after seeing this posted. thanks for your comments!
Lon
Another real beauty here Lon, it’s nice to see some of your grand landscape work too. Your strong emphasis on shapes, light and shadow is masterful. The way you have processed the light in the top half of the image creates such a nice warm mood in this image. This truly looks like a Hudson River school painting.
My only nit would be to try to slightly reduce the luminosity of the highlights in the higher ridge-line, but that in no way detracts from what is an already spectacular image.
This is really unique and intriguing and well done. Very unusual scene and lighting. No suggestions here, most enjoyable to view.
The best part is the detail in the larger version. Eye candy Lon.
