Trying to improve my landscape processing. This is a single image in Acadia taken in the summer of 2019.
I do have multiple exposures that I can attempt blending but would like to see your thoughts on what needs special attention
What technical feedback would you like if any?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
too contrasty ? oversaturated ?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
14 mm. Perspective correction in LR done
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Single exposure? Pretty impressive processing of dynamic range for one exposure. You squeezed out every last drop of dynamic range to get this level of detail in the trees and cliffs. In fact I could even see putting a little more contrast back into the deeper shadow areas in the rocks and trees. The rocks on the right side could especially benefit from this. You have some great color and contrast here, overall the processing is very nicely done. In this location these rocks can be like a black hole at sunset, but you handled it well.
In terms of composition, I could see a slight crop from the bottom to eliminate the hint of grass in the LLC. I might also be inclined to take a slice off the left too, to reduce the amount of spruce boughs in the ULC. The composition feels a bit left heavy because of those spruce boughs, and a crop from the left would help balance that a bit better.
I end up blending a lot of images, typically for dynamic range, noise suppression, or depth-of-field. With that said, I much prefer NOT to blend when I don’t have to. It can introduce error and/or look artificial, warps reality (the images are always separated by at least some time), and can be a heck of a lot of work.
At this resolution, I don’t see much noise in the image, so unless there are issues at full size no need to blend for that. The closest rocks seem just a tad softer than the farther elements, but they are in the corners where that may just be the lens and I don’t think I’d blend this one for DOF unless you have other images that are way sharper. That leaves dynamic range, which looks pretty good here. You might be able to get slightly more detail right around the sun, but this looks pretty good as is and it may no be worth the effort. Bottom line, this is very nice without the blending!
Contrast and saturation both look good to my eye. I agree, I would crop out that little bit of grass in the llc.
Wow! I must say, other than Ed’s suggested crop to eliminate the grass tops, I think you did an outstanding job processing this! Colors are rich, yet believable and I think the contrast is right on, especially given the time of day, conditions.
I have to ask the obvious question… Was it possible to step to the left a little to allow the line of reflected sunlight to split the channel? My guess is either A. It was so obvious that you wanted to avoid the cliche? or B, Not possible to move any further left.
Regardless though, I like the balance and composition as presented.
I was with Karl when he took this image. It was possible to step to the left, but not enough to fully line up the sun in the channel (at this time of year). Going much further to the left and the trees would block the mountain. About two months later than when this was taken, the sun shifts south, and the shot you envision is possible.
Thanks @Ed_McGuirk, @John_Williams, @Lon_Overacker for your kind observations and suggestions.
This originally started as an exercise after watching Sean Bagshaw 's TK Blending video. I did come across this slightly under exposed image which I processed in LR and then in PS. But just for the practice, I plan to process 2 images and then 3
Great thinking Lon - honestly I did not think of aligning the sun with that channel. But as Ed points out, not enough room to the left
Cropping out the LLC, balancing the image by cropping L 5% and adding some contrast in the shadows make a big difference ! Thanks all 3 of you
I had pondered this as well. The location of the sun makes it difficult to create a balanced composition. I had decided that moving left would have resulted in shooting parallel with the left cliff and since the left cliff is the more attractive sunlit one you would be left with mainly the shadowed right one. I theorized that but then read Ed’s comment and saw I was wrong.
What not necessarily apparent here is that there are actually 3 cliffs in this scene , and the two on the right appear merged here. They just look like one cliff with two tiers. A very brave photographer could walk out on that 4 foot wide middle finger of rock and maybe get the light ray between the other two cliffs. Are you game Karl
I have actually seen a couple sit there @Ed_McGuirk - and said to myself - who is trying to impress who!
As for me, you are my lifeline - i couldn’t go down 4 feet to retract my polarizer - but thanks to you…
