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Its a very nice shot.
I thought that a 16X9 crop would suit, and using the original shot applied some modifications:
To get a 16X9 without losing a lot of the original, I added sky at the top. You may or may not get away with this depending on how convincing it is.
I lifted shadow detail quite a lot, and also using the haze filter, reduced the hazy appearance in the centre a small amount.
I set the black point to 9 for the centre area only; I increased white to 240, and excluded the middle bright snow.
I reduced saturation to -9.
the effect is a little more dramatic, though yours loos more real, - however dramatic isnt always bad!
BTW, you uploaded these with the Adobe RGB profile; convert to sRGB before uploading, some browsers will not display the image properly unless this is done.
regards
Willie
I thought that a 16X9 crop would suit, and using the original shot applied some modifications:
To get a 16X9 without losing a lot of the original, I added sky at the top. You may or may not get away with this depending on how convincing it is.
I lifted shadow detail quite a lot, and also using the haze filter, reduced the hazy appearance in the centre a small amount.
I set the black point to 9 for the centre area only; I increased white to 240, and excluded the middle bright snow.
I reduced saturation to -9.
the effect is a little more dramatic, though yours loos more real, - however dramatic isnt always bad!
BTW, you uploaded these with the Adobe RGB profile; convert to sRGB before uploading, some browsers will not display the image properly unless this is done.
regards
Willie
The original looks bland (not a criticism, just an observation and familiarity with Lakeland weather) so your processing has definitely improved the appeal.
You could have ue a longer focal length setting at the time so all you needed was to crop of excess uninteresting foregrond and nothing from the left, Keeping file sizes large helps maintain quality especially if you make lots of adjustments. Alternatively, you could shoot two shots that overlap and combine them into a panorama.
You're certainly on the right lines with your processing, and while more moody than perhaps in reality, Willie's mod is a good indication of how far you could push things. Eyecatching is good but go too far and it'll look false which can work against you. There's no harm in trying a couple of variations and coming back to them a day or two later nd reevaluiate them.
Willie has detailed his adjustments and they are localised so making controlled and feathered selections of particular areas is key no matter which adjustments you use. You may know that but others reading this may not. tend to use Curves adjustments, that's just another way of achieving similar effects. There's no right or wrong way, whichever method you feel more comfortable working with.
You could have ue a longer focal length setting at the time so all you needed was to crop of excess uninteresting foregrond and nothing from the left, Keeping file sizes large helps maintain quality especially if you make lots of adjustments. Alternatively, you could shoot two shots that overlap and combine them into a panorama.
You're certainly on the right lines with your processing, and while more moody than perhaps in reality, Willie's mod is a good indication of how far you could push things. Eyecatching is good but go too far and it'll look false which can work against you. There's no harm in trying a couple of variations and coming back to them a day or two later nd reevaluiate them.
Willie has detailed his adjustments and they are localised so making controlled and feathered selections of particular areas is key no matter which adjustments you use. You may know that but others reading this may not. tend to use Curves adjustments, that's just another way of achieving similar effects. There's no right or wrong way, whichever method you feel more comfortable working with.
You did well with your post processing here but, as Willies mod demonstrates, you could go even further...carefully and really go for the drama.
It all depends on the way you want to see an image, if you are satisfied with your results then that is the most important thing.
It all depends on the way you want to see an image, if you are satisfied with your results then that is the most important thing.
Thank you all. love the comments and critique. 100% agree that there is a lot more impact with Willie's image. I'm always afraid of pushing it too far but will definitely push it further in future.
Willie thank you for the blow by blow on the processing, I often see/know what I want but don't always know how to get there.
Willie thank you for the blow by blow on the processing, I often see/know what I want but don't always know how to get there.
I did do a mod, couldn't resist.
I probably went a little further with the drama than Willie.
Warmed the frame by altering the white balance a touch in Camera Raw.
Increased the intensity of the light ray on a brightness/contrast layer in Photoshop, added a mask and inverted it (to black) then used one of the gradient tools on the mask to reveal the brightness/contrast on the existing light ray.
Lastly, converted the colour profile to sRGB for display on the web.
There is a small strange area on the left side, visible on all the mods, even your original, it's probably snow on the foot of the mountain and could perhaps do with darkening a tad.
My mod is probably a touch OTT and to enter into competitions/exhibitions would really have to be done on the raw file to maintain clarity and detail.
I do like hat wee cottage snuggled in the trees.
I probably went a little further with the drama than Willie.
Warmed the frame by altering the white balance a touch in Camera Raw.
Increased the intensity of the light ray on a brightness/contrast layer in Photoshop, added a mask and inverted it (to black) then used one of the gradient tools on the mask to reveal the brightness/contrast on the existing light ray.
Lastly, converted the colour profile to sRGB for display on the web.
There is a small strange area on the left side, visible on all the mods, even your original, it's probably snow on the foot of the mountain and could perhaps do with darkening a tad.
My mod is probably a touch OTT and to enter into competitions/exhibitions would really have to be done on the raw file to maintain clarity and detail.
I do like hat wee cottage snuggled in the trees.
You have a lot of good advice above in terms of processing the image you've taken.
I want to suggest an alternative approach - simple in concept, harder to do.
It's about the camerawork: so often, it is. With mediocre light, you have to work very hard to introduce the drama and atmosphere that you want. If you look at THIS PORTFOLIO, you wil lsee what can be done by knowing the territory and waiting for the light to come to you.
With film - as that member has mostly used to date - you don't have the option of changing things in editing: Fuji Velvia is utterly unforgiving! And I find that I keep quoting what he said in an interview with Amateur Photographer: the elemensts of his successful images are, in this order, light, composition, and location.
In other words, the best landscapes come to those who spend weeks sitting on damp boulders, waiting patiently. The alternative is to go for a sort of jewelled miniature, rather than epic and heroic. British weather's not wonderfully conducive to Ansel Adams style pictures, most of the time.
That doesn't help with processing at all, but might suggest alternative approaches.
By the way, I'm going ot be in the Lake District for three full days in a couple of weeks. I have absolutely no expectations of shooting any landscapes worthy of hte name: I have the same effect as the man in a weather house - if I go out, the sun goes in... But I might get some images of glistening stone walls...
I want to suggest an alternative approach - simple in concept, harder to do.
It's about the camerawork: so often, it is. With mediocre light, you have to work very hard to introduce the drama and atmosphere that you want. If you look at THIS PORTFOLIO, you wil lsee what can be done by knowing the territory and waiting for the light to come to you.
With film - as that member has mostly used to date - you don't have the option of changing things in editing: Fuji Velvia is utterly unforgiving! And I find that I keep quoting what he said in an interview with Amateur Photographer: the elemensts of his successful images are, in this order, light, composition, and location.
In other words, the best landscapes come to those who spend weeks sitting on damp boulders, waiting patiently. The alternative is to go for a sort of jewelled miniature, rather than epic and heroic. British weather's not wonderfully conducive to Ansel Adams style pictures, most of the time.
That doesn't help with processing at all, but might suggest alternative approaches.
By the way, I'm going ot be in the Lake District for three full days in a couple of weeks. I have absolutely no expectations of shooting any landscapes worthy of hte name: I have the same effect as the man in a weather house - if I go out, the sun goes in... But I might get some images of glistening stone walls...
Hi Bajob always worth a look in B&W I think especially as the colours are muted and to push them looks unreal IMHO.
Re the crop I just find the dark tree on the left troubling and the foreground does not add anything for me as Darklord suggests a longer lens would have been good.
Re the crop I just find the dark tree on the left troubling and the foreground does not add anything for me as Darklord suggests a longer lens would have been good.
