After posting to the photo critique gallery and doing some re-work, here is my final edit of a shot that I myself did not think would be so popular.... but it is more popular than my full color pano.....
Very simple and clean, sometimes simple is good. Agree about cleaning up the trees, it was actually what my eye went to first, very distracting. Very lovely image though. I like it a lot!
I appreciate the responses fellows..... but I have a question because I truly don't know and would like to.....would love to hear your responses so I stop feeling quietly stupid.....
I did not do any PP'ing around the trees... what so ever... so......... if my simple and basic PP in LR4 caused any Halo's... I want to know how I did that so I can avoid it in the future. Also... I am looking at the trees... and I am not seeing what you guys are saying.....what about the trees need cleaning up..... I only have and use LR4, nothing else, so if you are willing to give advice, could you talk in LR-ese?
Please do not take any offense... it's not my goal, I truly just don't see what you are saying about there being a "halo effect" here. I hear a lot of talk about "Halo's" on the forums and wonder if it's just the fad buzz word used during critique or if it's a rather minor problem made into a bigger one because we can..... is the "Halo effect" in this photo minor, major or middle of the road....?
Eager to hear some responses on this, so I can stop feeling photographically stupid when people say things like "halo's"...... so again, thanks in advance
Lee, look at the areas between the projecting branches of the trees, that should show through to the background. This should be the same tone as the background, but in a number of areas it is distinctly lighter. In the aggregate, the contrast between the lighter areas the trees makes what can be described as a "halo" around the trees, and it tends to draw the eye.
This is usually caused when we try to use a mask to brighten a shadowed object, such as the trees, against a lighter background; it is very hard to match the mask to the edge of the object. But if you didn't do any of that in your LR processing, then there must be another explanation. Did you combine multiple exposures, either manually or a blending program or plug-in?
That's all folks.... I have been playing around with the sliders trying to create better visualization of the Halo's in question without much success and just do now know what part of the pp contributed to it.... Is it overuse of Clarity and Contrast perchance?
Again, thank you for your assistance, I appreciate it.
It is definitely a mix between your added clarity, and some chromatic aberration. I find anything above around +20 clarity and it starts to ruin the image. Also, is this a crop? And what lens are you using? Going into lens correction and turning the chromatic aberration button on will help with the blue that appear on all edges going out from the center of the image.
Lee Wiren wrote:
That's all folks.... I have been playing around with the sliders trying to create better visualization of the Halo's in question without much success and just do now know what part of the pp contributed to it.... Is it overuse of Clarity and Contrast perchance?
I personally don't think it looks that bad. I see what people are seeing...but it doesn't ruin the image for me.
But yes, overuse of the clarity slider can make some unnecessary halos appear. Play around with that for a little bit to see what you get.
Overall though, the area isn't an eyesore, it could just be slightly improved. Take all critique with a grain of salt though. Ultimately, you have to be happy with your image.
Justin Grimm wrote:
It is definitely a mix between your added clarity, and some chromatic aberration. I find anything above around +20 clarity and it starts to ruin the image. Also, is this a crop? And what lens are you using? Going into lens correction and turning the chromatic aberration button on will help with the blue that appear on all edges going out from the center of the image.
This is only a very slight crop... mainly a little off the left to cut out tree I did not want and a slight clockwise rotation to level horizon... this crop is at least an 85% representation of the original image.
Unfortunately LR does not have CA lens correction for my Zuiko Olympus 25mm 2.8 prime lens..... the only downfall for using unsupported gear.
I am happy with the image and don't see the "Halo" as that problematic, and other than on this forum, it has not been mentioned at all on any other photographic forum... but then again, I come here for the refined skills I hope to encounter - no other forum imnsho offers better photographic talent than what I see here on FM...
Lee Wiren wrote:
This is only a very slight crop... mainly a little off the left to cut out tree I did not want and a slight clockwise rotation to level horizon... this crop is at least an 85% representation of the original image.
Unfortunately LR does not have CA lens correction for my Zuiko Olympus 25mm 2.8 prime lens..... the only downfall for using unsupported gear.
I am happy with the image and don't see the "Halo" as that problematic, and other than on this forum, it has not been mentioned at all on any other photographic forum... but then again, I come here for the refined skills I hope to encounter - no other forum imnsho offers better photographic talent than what I see here on FM...
You should still be able to remove CA even if it doesnt have a lens profile. The box will still be there. I do the same when I use my 17 TS-E and it does a fantastic job.
Sorry I forgot to mention, it is a great image anyways Nice light on the peak.
Lee, I agree with the others that the haloing around the tree isn't fatal, and probably wouldn't be noticed by non-photographers, and even if they did, they wouldn't care because the overall image so great. But for further refinement and future reference it would be even better if you could track down the reason and reduce the effect.
I don't think it is overuse of Clarity or Contrast, by themselves, because the only pace the halo shows up is around the trees and it doesn't seem to be uniform around every branch, as would be the case for a global adjustment. Rather, it looks more like the result of manual brushing around the trees.
I don't use Lightroom, so forgive my ignorance of how the grad filter works, though I suspect it is similar to the one in ACR. Since you applied this to the top half, and the overall effect of the parameters is to darken, that might account for the difference between the overall background tone and the lighter tone in between the branches, if the mask was modified around the trees. I know in ACR you can modify the mask density in particular areas using a brush. Did you by any chance brush in any modification of the grad filter mask in the vicinity of the trees?
Thanks Dave.. the grad filter mask is a like pulling a window shade down as far as you want and can rotate its horizon on the central point.... I pulled it down from the top and stopped it just at the bottom of the trees. I didn't want to go to the brush tool as I feared wreaking more havoc on the image than needed.... and initially left the brush tool away because I didn't want the brush effect to be noticeable for things like.... Halo's... maybe I need to use the brush to try and take away the halo's that are visible... i'll have to play with it more later.
Thanks for the help, glad everybody likes the shot.