While exploring Lassen NP last fall I was treated to some wonderfully moody afternoon storm clouds that created what I felt at the time was quite a compelling scene. In particular, I enjoyed the contrast of the snowy peak against the forest and lake.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any feedback welcome
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Processing and framing feedback much appreciated! Would a narrower crop better suit the scene i.e. 16x9, 16x10, etcā¦?
Any pertinent technical details:
Sony A6000, Zeiss 16-70, shot handheld as I did not have my tripod with me.
Processed in LR + PS.
ISO 125 | 44mm | f/8 | 1/90sec
Hi Zach! That looks like an amazing place to be. Wish we had more snow here. I think this is generally a nice image but i feel the processing lets it down a bit. Sorry to sound harsh
I have a few comments that may help so here goes:
BALANCE - there seems to be an imbalance between the sky and the main subject (the mountain). Its almost like both elements are to bright and the one doesnt stand out against the other. Personally I may consider darkening the sky down a bit.
There are some lovely light plays on the mountain just to the right of the rocky ridge on the left. I think you should emphasise these. Just out of interest did you sue a polariser? That would have helped to get some natural contrast in the mountains and trees. I would maybe add a bit more contrast to the main subjects. There is some fuzzy blue haze on the right of the image, just below the snowline.
CROP - I think you are right about a 16x9 crop. I held a book over the green water in the very foreground, leaving just the highlighted water and I feel that helps the balance a bit too.
I agree there is an imbalance between the sky and rest of the image. In the lower part, there is evidence of blue and cyan from skylight, while the sky is very nearly grey.
I suggest that you add some blue and cyan to the clouds and perhaps darken them just a bit. Additionally, you might consider reducing the blue and cyan in the landscape, especially the spot on the right at the base of the mountain.
You might also try to pull a little detail out of the bright areas of the water.
Lastly, burn down the dead pine at the center on the far shore. It really grabs my eye.
This is a nice scene that deserves some tweaking.
-P
A beautiful and grand mountain landscape. I especially like the lake and ripples, reminds me of those animated gifs where a pool of water is in motion.
Indeed a beautiful scene, but I do think this needs some processing work, or maybe less work? You didnāt mention other than LR/PS, but was there any HDR processing? Itās almost getting that look. As mentioned already, there seems to be a disconnect with the sky/clouds where most of the sky seems straight b&w, as does the top of the mountain. But then goes blue/cyan at the base and in to the trees. From what I can see it doesnāt seem like there is a global change you can make, but addressing in parts (then again, donāt know what the RAW looks like.)
I think this would work well going all the wayto b&w. But also this deserves to be in color as well. This one has great potential me thinks.
@Lon_Overacker - Itās a single exposure, no HDR or dual-processing done. That being said, the RAW file was very flat and required quite a bit of massaging (particularly in the sky).
@Preston_Birdwell - Some of the blue is peaking through in the upper left-hand corner, but I agree on the lack of balance. I had tried to mitigate the blue/cyan haze on the mountain in the initial edit but clearly didnāt take it far enough! I appreciate the comments.
Zach, this is a nice composition, with some good clouds and light too. But it looks over-processed, with too much contrast in the sky and foreground. The use of too much contrast has increased the saturation as well, especially in the yellow-greens. As Lon said it looks like an over-done HDR, even though you processed just a single exposure. I think you need to restrain the processing of this somewhat.
If you are looking for more specific help with processing, you may want to consider posting the original raw file in this thread. Some of the members here could download it and take their own stab at processing it in a more restrained way, and discuss what they did. This might then point you in some directions on how to re-work this.
@Ed_McGuirk Apologies for the slow reply, but attached is a downsized copy of the original file with no adjustments made (for you or anyone else to take a whirl at). Unfortunately, it only allows me to attach web-compatible image formats so I couldnāt attach an uncompressed version e.g. TIF, but it was exported at 100%.
Zach, this definitely has promise, well worth the investment of time to do more processing. The file with no adjustments has bright areas of the sky with no detail. My guess is that the original raw file probably has detail there that could be recovered in Lightroom by pulling down highlights in the sky area by using the grad tool. That would give you a better starting point for processing. If the raw file still has blown out sky areas, then this image would have been a candidate for taking two exposures, one each for the sky and land, and then blending them for dynamic range in photoshop.
The issue that I had with your original post was that it had the look of an overcooked HDR. The shadows were lifted too much, significantly increased contrast was applied globally to the entire image, and the strong contrast added too much saturation, especially in the yellow/greens. For a scene like this, I think you want to keep your shadows more natural looking by keeping them darker, but with some detail. The increase in contrast should be applied to the midtones (rather than globally), this prevents increased contrast in the darkest shadows and brightest highlights. Contrast changes can be applied locally rather than globally , allowing different areas of the image to receive different increases in contrast. I use Lightroom, and Photoshop with the TK Luminosity Mask panel to achieve edits like this. If you are not familiar with TK, visit Tony Kuypers website to learn about his panel, there is a wealth of information there.
I reworked your image. I selected the sky and brightest part of the mountain using the lasso tool in PS, and then via layer mask lowered exposure and increased midtone contrast in the sky only. Skies are supposed to be bright, you need to be careful about not making the dark areas of clouds too dark, which can look unnatural. I used TKās dodging and burning tools to darken shadow areas in the land, and dodge or lighten areas of the land that were already receiving light, such as the shoreline and areas of the trees below the mountain. i burned around the edges of the frame to add a vignette, and draw attention to the center.
@Ed_McGuirk Most of the sky seems to be recoverable in the RAW file. Thanks again for taking the time to reply and take a stab at the edit. Iāll keep working on it and post once Iāve got something I feel happy with.
@Igor_Doncov You prefer it mostly blown out, or just something in the middle of the two?
I actually worked on a version but lost in PS. Part of the āHDR lookā is because the sky has been overworked. Something between the reworks and the original looks more natural. I brightened the mountain to make the whites stand out more while darkening the bare areas. I also lifted the shadows in the green trees as John did. I added some global saturation a bit but dropped the yellows as they got unnaturally hot. I prefer Edās colors overall. Oh, and I brought out the red tree in the middle. It draws the eye and thatās a good thing rather than bad.
I would have guessed the detail is there in the raw file, recover it first and then start applying exposure and contrast adjustments. I like how the mountain and foreground came out in my re-work, it looks much crisper. I agree with Igor that I may have taken the contrast in the sky a little bit too far, but I did something quick and dirty for illustrative purposes. My rework had a selection that contained both the sky and snowy mountain top in one selection, and I made midtone contrast adjustments to that. You may want to to try selecting the sky separate from the mountain and adjust each individually, perhaps backing off on the sky a bit relative to my rework.
The level of contrast (especially in the sky) comes down to personal taste. John Williams sky is still a little too bright for my taste (although the rest of his rework is similar to mine), but Igor thought both re-works were too dramatic in the sky. So there you have at least 3 opinions. None of us is necessarily ārightā or āwrongā, you have to settle on level of ārealismā in your processing that you are comfortable with. Study the reworks/comments you get for this image, and determine what you like and dislike about each of them, relative to your original processing. Then take another stab at it incorporating the changes that you do like.
