I posted a similar image in a weekly challenge back in August. But this one has been sitting in my WIP folder for a long time. I never was happy with the processing. It was taken in October, 2006 at noon. So, while the sky was overcast, it still came back as an extremely flat, washed out RAW file. I’ve been studying the numerous training videos for Capture One and learned quite a lot–mostly about not overdoing the various sliders in the app…anyway, this has a lot of processing on it, but I think the result is pretty good. Would love to get your feedback and thoughts.
Specific Feedback Requested
Mostly about the processing. Does it look realistic without being overly processed? Here’s the original RAW file below for comparison:
I like this photo a lot. I think you have done an excellent job with the processing and I don’t think it is overdone at all. You have managed to bring out the richness in the colors yet keep the detail in tact. I use Capture One as well and love the control you have using color selections and luma ranges. Very nice job with this.
A lot of photos come out of the camera like that - not at all how we perceived them, but you stuck with it and it works for the most part. I can see why you went for it to begin with. It looks like a serene and inviting place full of life. The very furthest trees seem a bit blue to me - a bit too cool in color compared to the rest, but that’s just me.
I don’t think it is over processed at all. My first thought is that it is somewhat heavy on the left side given the nearest tree on the edge of the frame there. It is not necessarily a bad thing because it gives depth to the image. When I tried cropping it out, I find the image lacking depth. A somewhat more tedious work is to play with tonality to reduce the visual weight of the left side… Something to think about.
I think this is beautifully processed. It looks natural to my eye with a slight warm tone to it. I would maybe rotate clockwise just a little bit to level this out and also to remove the water in the LRC and crop a tiny bit off the left side to get rid of the lowest branch on the tree poking in from the side and possibly add a touch of + hue/Magenta but nothing really stands out to me that you had a heavy hand in processing this. As @Kris_Smith said, most raw images look pretty flat and dreary compared to a fully processed file so I don’t think you have anything to worry about with this image. And…who wouldn’t want to be where this scene was taken. Beautiful location.
Thank you @kelly_cole, @Kris_Smith, @Adhika_Lie, and @David_Haynes for some great comments and suggestions. I will play around some more with this one. As someone said, our images always seem to be a work in progress.
What a pretty and inviting scene. I would have guessed Alaska but it’s right here in Oregon. One thing that I noticed is that the entire image has a slightly green cast. That may be your intent but I just wanted to mention it.
Thank you all for the great comments and suggestions. I am reworking this a bit.
@David_Haynes, I usually am very careful in making sure the image is properly aligned and straight…I can’t believe you noticed it and I didn’t. But sure enough, it needed a bit of rotation. Thanks.
@Igor_Doncov, thanks for the note about the green cast…being red/green color “deficient” I have to rely on other people’s eyes, (usually my wife), or the RGB color values. I will adjust the cast accordingly. Thanks.
@Han_Schutten, thanks for the really nice compliment.
My experience has been that if you shoot at a white balance of daylight and then try to correct it using a yellow cast you end up with a greenish cast. I used to think that you can change a white balance from daylight to cloudy by using the yellow color cast in photoshop but you don’t get a warm image. You get a greenish image.
That makes sense, Igor. I generally shoot with Auto White Balance and then adjust in Capture One. C1 has a great little trick that allows you to auto adjust the levels of the individual Red, Green, and Blue channels separately. This generally gets rid of most color casts, although it really messes up the “Blue Hour” photos. For this shot, I did that adjustment, but then did more tweaking that added back the cast…
The end result with your processing looks just fine to me, David. I am enjoying the peaceful vibe you have created with this beautiful scene as it looks like the perfect spot to just sit and chill for a bit!
That’s funny, I have a WIP folder too. Actually I also had a WIP 2 folder for a while because it was getting really unwieldy.
Anyway, I think you did a really fine job with the processing. The image looks very natural and it’s a beautiful scene.
