[dawsonjm]

I am interested in how I might have acheived more dynamic range in this image. I was using a Tokina AT-X 24-200 with my K10D. Any other comments appreciated.

Exif data: 24mm.; f3.5; 1/45 sec.; ISO 100; Exposure Bias +1.

Thanks, John

Attached Images

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

[J.Scott]

I think it has lots of dynamic range to begin with. All it needs for a bit more punch is some very minor adjustments in Photoshop. (shadow/highlight; hue/saturation and brightness/contrast)

What do you think of this version? Too much?

[dawsonjm]

Jeff,

I think that what you did is a big improvement. I don't have photoshop, and am pretty new to post-processing. I will work more on those elements that you suggested.

Thank you,
John

[foxglove]

I agree with Jeff, there's plenty of dynamic range - looks like you have the full gamut from pure white to pure black. Perhaps you're hoping for more contrast, particularly in the clouds? That's something I have difficulty with in this sort of image, and it's best dealt with in PP. If you lay hands on some kind of software that allows layer masks, you can confine adjustments to certain areas of the image, such as the bright clouds, and tweak the levels or whatever to get the greater cloud detail. I can show you a before-and-after example if you're interested.

Julie

[dawsonjm]

Thanks, foxglove,

I just replied to another thread where I asked if I had enough software to make these kind of dramatic changes. I would love to see your vision of this photo. (See: autumn and foggy photos).

I am new at this, and have never used PS.

John

[foxglove]

Okay, here's my go at it. I think it's actually pretty much fine as it is, but I tried to up the drama a little. I've got a more dramatic example of my own, but I don't have the original right here. I'll try to remember to post that up this evening. But for yours, I did several layers, masked so that the effects on each only were applied to part of the image. Two layers were for the upper, more orange part of the sky. First I tweaked curves a little, to make the midtones darker while preserving the highlights. This made it quite red, so I also did a colour layer to try to deal with that. It wasn't entirely successful, but it does make it more dramatic, if not more true-to-life! This is just an exercise, after all. I did another layer for the bright yellow areas near the horizon, used levels to bump the midtones down, much as I did with the curves layer. Then, just because I'm procrastinating again, I did a quick levels on the water, to lighten up the midtones, at least where the sky reflects most strongly. It all took me about 10 minutes, including doing it once and deciding you wouldn't actually be able to see any difference at all!

If you like that sort of thing, photoshop can be a lot of fun. I confine myself to these sorts of things that I figure I would have done in the wet darkroom (dodging and burning, basically) and try to keep it under 20 minutes per image. If it needs more than that, I really messed up!

Bear in mind, I'm a rank amateur at this, too, but I like a challenge. Can you see any difference? Do you like it?

[dawsonjm]

foxglove,

I like what you and Jeff have both done! It really helps to get more light on the water. This lets you see the cloud of smoke going up from the grass fire that was just started by the lightning. In fact, there were up to ten fires started that I could see from that spot.

I have a lot to work on with PP!

Thanks,
John

[and]

Very nice sky and colors there, the composition is focused on the interesting sky and it works well, and on the ground, instead of just black scenery siluette you have a river which is relecting the light and that is a great choice. the black haze in the left of the image is a bit distracting to me though.

j scott's pp version is good but a little bit too much, its clipping on my monitor(the shadows). foxglove's version is not as strong and works better for me

[foxglove]

Perhaps this will whet your appetite for post-processing fun.

I took some photos of dramatic clouds over the mudflats, but when I downloaded the images I was a little disappointed...
DL + kit lens at 18mm, default Camera Raw settings, just resized and sharpened:


Note the vignetting that's typical of the kit lens at its widest. I had just started shooting raw, which made dealing with the vignetting easy, and gave me a little more to work with editing. Not that you can't do the same with jpeg, but you can push it a little more with raw. I have no idea what I did, it involved at least one adjustment layer, tweaking levels to darken the midtones and bring out the texture in the clouds, but this is what I ended up with:


I was particularly pleased because this one (or one very like it, I think I re-did it before submitting) got into the Pentax photo gallery. Of course that was before they started this voting thing, it seems to have got tougher since then!

Looking at it now, I think I over-did it in a couple spots, and got sloppy with my layer masks. The one in the gallery must be better. But you get the picture! [pun only partly intended ]

Julie

[Ole]

Julie, that's a great picture - the clouds are almost like a space ship coming in for landing!

[and]

Yes, nice shot Julie, and nice PP work, sublte but effective.

[foxglove]

Ole, Andreas, thanks. It's one of my favourites, and one of my first truly successful pp experiments. I suppose it'd be easier to buy a gradient filter for skies, but until I have the bucks, I'll keep playing in photoshop.

Julie