Pinnacle Buttes (+1 re-edit)

Attempted to fix the lens distortion -

These gorgeous rock formations overlook the meadow beside Brooks Lake in Bridger-Teton National Forest. The meadow is at 9200 feet and so freezes early although the day temps stay high enough to thaw the mud and make the mile or so trek through the meadow from the parking lot pretty rough going. Had to tramp through the uneven grassy hillocks rather than slip and slide in the muck. So many trees are dead due to pine beetle infestation. What a tragedy.

It was a cold day for hiking (around 30 F), but it was so beautiful. From here we hiked up another few hundred feet to some glacial lakes. Frozen and desolate, but wonderful. November in the Tetons is between seasons - fall foliage is over and skiing hasn’t begun. We had a lot of places to ourselves even if the main road into the park was closed.

Specific Feedback Requested

Processing feedback welcome.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Handheld

image

Lr for initial RAW processing including some exposure adjustment, white & black points, lens correction and transform, sharpening & nr, texture & clarity. Then into Photoshop for some luminosity masking and dodge and burn layers to contour the mountains and the trees. Painted clarity into the ice in the foreground and lifted the reds in the bushes. Also threw a curves adjustment into the sky to bring up some drama there, but not so much as to detract from the landscape. Cropped to 5:7.

@the.wire.smith

Well worth the hike – very pleasing scene! I like the early winter coloration against the gray of the water and ice. The mountains are spectacular!

I’m seeing some pincushion wide-angle distortion on the “horizon” – should be easy to fix.

That is an impressive ridge of eroded lava flows! The stream is a wonderful foreground. It certainly gives the feel that winter is coming.

Thanks for bringing that up. I thought I saw it, but then I looked at it so long I decided I was nuts. Attempted a fix using Warp in Photoshop. My first time messing with that. Did it by loading the image back in as a Smart Object.

Thanks, @Bill_Pelzmann - it was impressive for sure. If you ever get over that way, Bridger Teton is worth going to visit. It’s gorgeous with these kinds of formations and also a lot of red rock, too. Probably most visitors stay in Grand Teton, but it was closed so we got to see other areas.

Winter was most certainly making itself felt. Was freezing and windy, but we’re northerners so it wasn’t a big deal.

I think your pincushion work…worked well. :slight_smile:

This is a very majestic image with a lot of draw. I like the way it pulls you into the scene and directs your eye to the beautiful but stark cliffs and mountains. Awesome.

Thanks @David_Bostock - I’ve never worked with Warp in Photoshop before so I went cautiously. This kind of stuff always looks weird no matter what you do sometimes. Glad it seems decent.

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Much better, but there is still a bit of upsweep on the far left. It’s emphasized by the optical illusion of the horizon there and in a case like that I’ll overcompensate slightly until it looks right. Pulling down a guide from the ruler on top (Ctrl-R) helps.

Warp is a great tool but can be tricky. Do you have a lens profile for LR? They aren’t always accurate but the Lens Corrections panel gives you a slider to further adjust pincushion and barrel distortion. Additional leveling may be needed. In the Manual tab you also have a slider for a generic correction.

Pincushion and barrel distortion are just a fact of life with wide angle zooms.

That’s for sure. Lightroom has a lens profile for my 12-35mm, but Photoshop doesn’t for whatever reason so I did the Warp adjustment in manual. Maybe I can try again.

In Filter > Lens Correction, click the Custom tab and you can do a number of adjustments without a profile, although the sliders are a bit clumsy. You can download profiles for many lenses.

The original scene looks just fine. The frozen creek leads to that fine group of mountains. The color in the willows and the grasses add a lot of warmth to offset the chill of the cloudy sky. The repost look decidedly stretched out to me.

I never noticed the lens distortion until someone brought it up…then I could not…not see it. Your adjustment works quite well.

Looks like everyone’s perceptions are different - an important thing to remember when it comes to editing. I can work on it more if I’m going to print it.