Carl,
I to am a photoshop nub, but, as for a level, if you can not afford or find one of the ones Don pointed out you can always troop down to the local Home Depot or Lowes and get a two pack of line levels for under two bucks. A small torpedo level can be had rather cheeply and would fit nicely in a camera bag as well.
Any ways, I think the real key here is to slow down, my problem is I tend to foget this and the other rules and just blow my shots, but belive you me if I'm going to travel 800 or so miles to a place like the Tetons/Yellowstone I'm going into slowmo.
Charlie
- adjusted levels so that the information was contained within the histogram
- reduced the saturation in cyans
- increased the saturation of reds, yellows and greens
- sharpened at medium level in Fred's sharpening action
- selectively sharpened top half of the image using unsharp mask
- burned corners slightly with large soft brush
Hope this helps, and am looking forward to seeing how others might improve the image...
Like what u did here, specially removing the cyans..
Here is my take on your photo. I'm no PS expert. I created a PS action, based on a couple of techniques that I read on the web. I use it 90% of the time. It takes less than 10 seconds to edit the image. I suggest you do the same. Luminous Landscape is a great place to start. I also recommend looking at existing actions. You can always learn something.
Reid mentioned getting to Oxbow Bend a bit earlier. I parked my vehicle in the first spot and slept in the car. I had my rig set up well over an hour before official sunrise. Needless to say, I had my pick of the spots.
I've done the same for countless other locations. I did it for Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and set up 1 hour early. Funny thing was, another photog that I had bumped into earlier, came to set up about 1/2 hour later and was disappointed to find that I had set up in the exact spot he had pre-scouted. This actually happened at another place on that trip with the same guy, as well. We got to know each other quite well. Anyway, I've found there is often 1 BEST spot to set up. Be there first!
The overall lesson here is that if the shot is worth getting then it is worth doing whatever it takes to get it. A bit of discomfort and lost sleep upfront is more than worth it later on when you see what it can produce.
PS I was lucky I didn't get kicked out by a Ranger since they do not allow you to park overnight at these locations. On another trip, Jeffrey and I found a nearby out-of-the-way spot within a mile of this location to park our vehicles for the night.
PPS Bring a good alarm clock and set it for the correct time and time zone.
This took about 4 minutes, so it doesn't nec. represent the scope available to process the image, but i think it gave the pic an extra something. Without seeing the scene in person, i guess you can call this a "manifestation of reality's somewhere."
Steps were as follows:
Curves adjustment to bring a little more light and contrast into view
(Create new adjustment layer ?¨ Curves)
Shadows/Highlights adjustment to further tweak the curves adjustment
(Image ?¨ Adjustments ?¨ Shadows/Highlights)
Hue/Saturation adjustment to bring out the greens in the moss
(Create new adjustment layer ?¨ Hue/Saturation)
Went back a step and selected the history brush for the Hue/Saturation because i didn't want the greens in the top of the photo to be too exagerrated. Then i painted the selected areas in the bottom where i wanted the greens to really come through
Unsharp Mask to add that last little pop to the photo
For transporting everything I've found that the best solution for me is to wear both a photo vest and and backpack. The backpack to transport stuff in safety between locations and the photo vest so I have everything accessable once I get there. There's nothing I hate more than having to take off my backpack each time I switch lenses.
With all the digtal gizmos, you'll probably end up wiring up your rental car like a christmas tree. Make sure to bring a cigarette lighter splitter and an AC inverter.
If you're unfamiliar with the area, two indespensable items are the Robert Hitchman guide for the area and a GPS. The Hitchman guide will tell you where to be, and the GPS will make sure you get there even in the pre-dawn darkness. It can also help you find your way back to the car post-sunset.
First of all, I am in the "others" group of your title. I am far from famous for my lanscapes and certainly not one of the folks who should be giving too much advice, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Here's a link to two I recently posted so you can get an idea of my limited abilities
With that said,
I think there are some easily improved areas of this photo.
"A" is your foreground. It is not particularly interesting. The colors don't jump out. I think the water to the right might have made a better foreground - i.e. if you were 10' to the right shooting up into the flow , but I don' t know if that was possible.
The water is very well done, but other stuff in the middle of the photo - area "B" - doesn't look pretty at all.
The "back of the photo "C" just kind of fades off. The upper left of the photo holds my eye in, but the upper right doesn't. If there was something beautiful there freat, or maybe a tighter crop.
It would be nicer if there was a line or flow through the photo - maybe of the POV was a tad higher so that one could see the water as a continuous flow. As is the lower part of the falls feel disconnected and just goes off to the corner.
In your processing / bracketing the shadows under the falls are done well - excellent dynamic range.
Is there a better picture of this falls? - it always seems to be that a better photographer can find the picture from a place that I cannot. It seems to me, without having been there, that this is a pretty falls, with with less than ideal surroundings. Maybe some tighter crops?
Again - not trying to be too critical or overstep my bounds or portray myself as anything special. Others have told me why my photos needed improvement on this board and there has been little better for my photography. Just trying to return the same favor to others.
Thanks for the work that you pointed out on the image - to be honest, I do have a number of other images from the same falls from different POV that do show as you suggest but I just grabbed this image on the fly just to post something to see what guys like you could suggest to be done with it, from a post-processing point of view.
BTW, I love the two images you posted as examples of your recent work!
Thanks for all the pointers on gear and getting to the right locations early. Luckily, I have been through the Tetons and Yellowstone for a couple of extended stays in the past few years so I know of the "spots" and timeframes you mention. I am one to be up and there, ready and setup about an hour before sunrise - I just hope both Roger and Mark are ready to get up early, too!
Arka - sent you a PM with all of the trip details, if you are interested in meeting us there.
David Patterson - great job on your processing work of my image - THANKS!
jehanson - thanks for the tip on the convertor for the car - already added that to my list of things to get. We do plan on keeping extra batteries on charge overnight and dumping all of our CF cards as we return to the cabin after the good morning light, but the convertor is still a good idea, especially for the laptop and burning some backup discs. We will use the mid-afternoon to scope out our next sunrise spots, even though I know where they are from being there before - the other two guys (Mark & Roger) have not been there before so they are in for a treat.
I usually try to post-process my images to whatever I saw on the scene, but for this case I have no reference - so this is just an approximation. I like David Patterson's edit - he neutralized the blue in the water which was the first thing I aimed to do when postprocessing the image too.
My steps:
1) Neutralize color cast using curves (actually Auto-Color worked here too)
2) Slight S-curve to make the image slightly more contrasty
3) painting over some rocky areas (those with distracting bright highlights) with burn tool for selective contast
4) sharpening with Fred's CSPro action at Medium setting
I love what you did with this - your depiction on the left is more like I remember the scene to look when shot. I was very new to dgital when I shot this and I believe I shot it using AWB on the 10D, with the 17-40 f/4.
I think what worked for the picture too is the sharpening. The right amount of sharpening (as well as original sharpness/depth of field) is very essential for landscape works.
Also, I think I know what Mahesh means in his initial post regarding pre-processed images - sometimes an original image may not seem all that wonderful when you take it, but after some post-processing (cropping, color-correction, sharpening, selective contrast, deepening/replacing colors, adding/removing objects etc) the results can be even more pleasing/more "real" than the actual conditions itself --- thus the reluctance to show preprocessed works. While this is not acceptable in the "purist-view" of landscape photography, it certain fits well in the "artistic-view".
The larger your group the more difficult it will be to coral everyone. Some independence in mode of transportation helps. I have to say I've never had the pleasure of going on a photo shoot with a group of photographers. I'm usually the lone photographer in a group who love the outdoors, but are rarely as motivated as I am to photography goals. It's a good thing I'm rather independent and don't mind venturing off on my own.
And as others have implied, the gains you will make in excellence are hard won with the post-processing, but the journey is worth it. Remember this is a passion you will hold on to for your lifetime and there's time to become better. Don't be impatient, enjoy the journey. And remember the tools are ever changing, so you better be in for a lifetime of learning. I'm just taking the first steps myself.
Thank you for that - well said! Right now there are only three of us going and we will limit it to just us in the one rental vehicle. We pretty much share the same passion and agenda for the week, which for me will also be the first time with a group. I typically take these trips on my own and have met wonderful people along the way that have given tips and shared "secret locations".
I will defintely take all the advice given to me here by some pretty wonderful photographers in their own right and use it to make this a productive trip. Like I may have said, I have been through this part of the country before on extended photo trips so I am familiar with some of the places to go and the best times to be there. Patience is definitely required for this trip as that one prized image may take a while to "develop". Besides, the love for the art of photography provides all of the necessary patience.
Oh, I wish. I've got back to back company through mid-September. But it's family I love and I'm looking forward to practicing my candid photo work. I've got plans to take the whole clan camping several times, so I'll get some landscape opportunities as well. I am hoping to head to Seattle for a fall shoot if that trip comes together. I will have to wait on the Tetons, but it's up there on my list.
Have a great time, and take us there with your photos.
The luminous landscape has alot of good tutorial info on correcting images. That would be a good place to start. Learning to use contrast masks, and correcting in layers is a good plan. For the image above, you could build several duplicate layers that would allow for correction of different elements of the picture without effecting the whole. For instance, in the foreground you might find a greater amount of saturation and sharpening makes it stand out in relation to the other elements of the image.
I am by no means an expert (and there are alot of them here!), but this is what has gotten me off to a start.
Oh, btw, color calibration and proffing for the end use is a must. I am learing that one the hard way.
David:
I am new in digital photography and learning. What you did to the image ,shot by Carl is amazing. The end result is like day and night compared to the original. The part which I personally appreciate very much is the way you explained step by step what you did to get to that result. This is the most valuable training people like me can get from experts like you. Thanks , Dary33
dary33 wrote:
David:
I am new in digital photography and learning. What you did to the image ,shot by Carl is amazing. The end result is like day and night compared to the original. The part which I personally appreciate very much is the way you explained step by step what you did to get to that result. This is the most valuable training people like me can get from experts like you. Thanks , Dary33
Trying to say mine was crap! (only kidding!)
Yeah, it's guys like David, and the others that posted, that take the time to explain what was done that help the most. I've picked up some good tips by all that worked on this image - thanks all!
Anyway, I've found there is often 1 BEST spot to set up. Be there first!
