if i have had one of those sexy 6x7 behemoths this could have been so much more magical
gotta admit that i tend to imagine that this is a first person view of my character in flight. in silence... just a mild feather rustling
this one suffered from 'distance fog' too so i had to correct its colors. (anyone knows the name for that 'fog'?)
[size=1] OOC JPEG <- -saturation, +pastel color vibrance, -ev, +black (more than usual), +sharpening, half resolution resize
this one suffered from 'distance fog' too so i had to correct its colors. (anyone knows the name for that 'fog'?)
[size=1] OOC JPEG <- -saturation, +pastel color vibrance, -ev, +black (more than usual), +sharpening, half resolution resize
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i just did a quick search of adams' work. its like staring at a mountain for the first time. do share your thoughts about how to play with his style! ill have to dig for better photos though, there should be plenty from this trip's folder. this one just doesnt have the same amount of components compared to his photographs imo
CAVEAT ON ALL OF THESE COMMENTS:
These are my personal thoughts and styles. You need to develop your own, but these will hopefully get you started. I am using Photoshop terminology and commands, but there should be equivalent in other programs. You can also go full auto fix, which can work surprisingly well.
For the sky, I would start with an Auto Contrast adjustment. It may look bad when you stretch the dynamic range to the max. Fade the amount of filter to get what you think works best. Working in Photoshop Elements 10, I was able to get a deep cobalt blue sky fading naturally to a near white at teh horison.
For the lake, I would try Auto Contrast first again. It gives a near mirror image of the sky, and things like the boat and its wake stand out more. You can also play with hue, saturation and color balance.
For the mountains, a lot depends upon what you want to do. I look at the peaks with exposed gray stone and see a need for a color correction to remove a color cast. I would consider increasing the contrast of the far mountain, but I would not go too far, because you expect some haze/atmospheric effects with distance. Finally, I look at the near mountains , and I would consider increasing its brightness. Shadow/highlight is great for this, if you ahve it. If not, levels and curves work well too.
A little Unsharpen Mask or other sharpening goes a long way. For a 12 MP image, try 50% and 3 pixel radius. Adjust intensity and radius as needed.
Cropping is also important. I probably would do little to none with this particular photo, but getting rid of unnecessary background and using some very basic concepts based around a 3 x 3 grid can do wonders.
Each photo is different, and so is each photographer's view of an "ideal" shot, but start with these suggestions to see how much you can change the image in one or two simple steps, and they proceed on to the other tools in our digital darkroom.
as for your thoughts, i will try to reproduce them in gimp firstly, and if i am unable to ill try to get a Ps copy.
i am also currently [url=https://media1.tenor.com/images/3a9da088c842796f714bf3d7038edf4f/tenor.gif?itemid=5590513][b]like this[/b][/url]
HINT: Red filters create very dark skies in B&W photos. I think GIMP can do the digital equivalent of an optical red filter.
[b]third round, plus red filters on sky and lake[/b] i like how smooth it looks when you use a pseudo filter instead of some sort of contrast tool to propagate the darker tones.
the mask still has noticeable flaws, and the sharpening and contrast enhancements threatened to expose them if i went too far. still, it is a nice teaching about how i should judge in the process. (the white-most dots along the mountains are spots in which i misjudged which mask to select)
dunno if thats normal, specially considering modern tools, but making the mask took me 4 to 5 hours haha
color filters are named 'colorify' in gimp, by the way.
For some of these, I will use a gradient fill in the mask mode to create a smooth transition, e.g., mask off everything below the sky using a vertical linear gradient through the whiter section of the sky. The gradient will progressively reduce the affect of anything you apply to the image. The same can be done with the lake. A mirror gradient can be used to select everything but the mountains, and then you can invert the selection to select the mountains.
You should also learn about smoothing, expanding and feathering the edges of a selection. Feathering is essentially a linear gradient applied to all the edges of a selection.
On the current B&W image, I would personally bump up the contrast, but that is a personal decision. I like high contrast.
I would suggest now moving on to another photo and manipulating it to reinforce your skills and learn some fo the ones that I have listed above..