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Vermillion Cliffs wilderness area Arizona
Jan 17, 2022 21:24:11   #
PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia
 
I made these 2 pictures within about 200 yards of each other. This was late in the afternoon last fall and this location was the most amazing place that I have been in a long time. I present them to this group in hopes of getting some feedback on what can be done post production to make them stronger images. I think that the downloads are more accurate color wise. thanks for looking


(Download)


(Download)

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Jan 17, 2022 21:31:54   #
CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City
 
Your colorspace is not sRGB, that being why the JPEG attachments look different than the thumbnails.

What do you see as the weaknesses? To me, it seems like the highlights are still too bright and the shadows are too dark. I'm working off just the first image, where posting just one image would help focus the discussion. You can always start a second post with just the second image, where the issues / concerns / actions might overlap or might move in unique directions.

I feel my eyes drawn to the brighter sections for the sky and the clouds that are just a small section of the image. Working more on the foreground and drawing down the sky / highlights should help to change where people focus within the image.

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Jan 17, 2022 21:49:19   #
frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.
 
PoppieJ wrote:
I made these 2 pictures within about 200 yards of each other. This was late in the afternoon last fall and this location was the most amazing place that I have been in a long time. I present them to this group in hopes of getting some feedback on what can be done post production to make them stronger images. I think that the downloads are more accurate color wise. thanks for looking


I agree with Paul. Take the skys down and bring out the shadows. It looks like the skys are almost blown in spots. Good focus and comp. I like them a lot. That's definitely going on my bucket list of places to go next trip through that area.

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Jan 17, 2022 21:49:54   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
Initial exposure and then appropriate processing would enhance either of these, the second one especially. The blown highlights in the second are quite distracting from the overall scene.

A good bit of burning and dodging, along with Zonal adjustments can really bring out a number of details.

By the way, one of my favorite photographic safaris.
--Bob

PoppieJ wrote:
I made these 2 pictures within about 200 yards of each other. This was late in the afternoon last fall and this location was the most amazing place that I have been in a long time. I present them to this group in hopes of getting some feedback on what can be done post production to make them stronger images. I think that the downloads are more accurate color wise. thanks for looking


(Download)

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Jan 18, 2022 07:32:45   #
anotherview Loc: California
 
Photoshop now offers a "sky" filter. It automatically selects only the sky for processing. You can save this selection and later invert it to select the foreground for its own processing.

Here, the sky seems too pale. Processing it for more blue in the sky area would produce a more natural balance in the scene.
PoppieJ wrote:
I made these 2 pictures within about 200 yards of each other. This was late in the afternoon last fall and this location was the most amazing place that I have been in a long time. I present them to this group in hopes of getting some feedback on what can be done post production to make them stronger images. I think that the downloads are more accurate color wise. thanks for looking

Reply
Jan 18, 2022 09:18:26   #
Hip Coyote
 
Thank you so much for sharing and allowing us to offer our (my) amateur advice.

What a great place to visit. Here are my thoughts:

I like the composition of both shots. Usually a tree in the middle of a shot is not for me but I think it works. Good eye!

This is a very challenging shooting environment...although shot at sunset-ish, the shadows in the valley area, coupled with the sky were tough to deal with. This, IMO, cried out for use of bracketing and eventually HDR photography. I am not a fan of it anymore because so many people over cook their images, but in this case, might have helped.

As others noted, the highlights were too bright and the other areas seems too shaded. LR does have the select sky feature which as saved so many of my shots. So much so that I have gone back and re-edited a few to overcome my mistakes. This would and was my first place to start.

In the first shot, I also notice what I believe to be the horizon that is a bit off...maybe the terrain, but if not, it does catch the eye. Both shots need more saturation, texture, clarity and adjustment. The dark holes in the terrain can also be brought out a bit to where you can see some detail of the rock ribbons.

In some instances, I convert shots to black and white to overcome some contrast problems. This place is beautiful for its color but a B&W version looks kind of interesting. See what you think. I did download the shots and messed with them in LR for a few mins. If you ok, I will post when I get a chance.

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Jan 18, 2022 15:29:35   #
PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia
 
Hip Coyote wrote:
Thank you so much for sharing and allowing us to offer our (my) amateur advice.

What a great place to visit. Here are my thoughts:

I like the composition of both shots. Usually a tree in the middle of a shot is not for me but I think it works. Good eye!

This is a very challenging shooting environment...although shot at sunset-ish, the shadows in the valley area, coupled with the sky were tough to deal with. This, IMO, cried out for use of bracketing and eventually HDR photography. I am not a fan of it anymore because so many people over cook their images, but in this case, might have helped.

As others noted, the highlights were too bright and the other areas seems too shaded. LR does have the select sky feature which as saved so many of my shots. So much so that I have gone back and re-edited a few to overcome my mistakes. This would and was my first place to start.

In the first shot, I also notice what I believe to be the horizon that is a bit off...maybe the terrain, but if not, it does catch the eye. Both shots need more saturation, texture, clarity and adjustment. The dark holes in the terrain can also be brought out a bit to where you can see some detail of the rock ribbons.

In some instances, I convert shots to black and white to overcome some contrast problems. This place is beautiful for its color but a B&W version looks kind of interesting. See what you think. I did download the shots and messed with them in LR for a few mins. If you ok, I will post when I get a chance.
Thank you so much for sharing and allowing us to o... (show quote)

I am asking for advice on making both images stronger. If you took the time to mess with the images then you bet I want to see what you have done. And thanks for the efforts

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Jan 18, 2022 15:32:34   #
PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia
 
rmalarz wrote:
Initial exposure and then appropriate processing would enhance either of these, the second one especially. The blown highlights in the second are quite distracting from the overall scene.

A good bit of burning and dodging, along with Zonal adjustments can really bring out a number of details.

By the way, one of my favorite photographic safaris.
--Bob

Thanks for the comments it is an amazing place I will go back sometime. I tried the saturation thing but just wasn’t real happy with it

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Jan 18, 2022 15:38:16   #
PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia
 
CHG_CANON wrote:
Your colorspace is not sRGB, that being why the JPEG attachments look different than the thumbnails.

What do you see as the weaknesses? To me, it seems like the highlights are still too bright and the shadows are too dark. I'm working off just the first image, where posting just one image would help focus the discussion. You can always start a second post with just the second image, where the issues / concerns / actions might overlap or might move in unique directions.

I feel my eyes drawn to the brighter sections for the sky and the clouds that are just a small section of the image. Working more on the foreground and drawing down the sky / highlights should help to change where people focus within the image.
Your colorspace is not sRGB, that being why the JP... (show quote)

Thanks for the comments. I will try darkening the sky and adding some light to the foreground to see how that works. I was concerned about the composition on the first shot. I have one pointed a little more to the left which eliminates the hole in the rock top right but it looked a little less balanced to me

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Jan 18, 2022 15:54:16   #
Hip Coyote
 
PoppieJ wrote:
I am asking for advice on making both images stronger. If you took the time to mess with the images then you bet I want to see what you have done. And thanks for the efforts


Not perfect, but see what you think. Also I am on my laptop away from my monitor so take the end product with a grain of salt.

Happy shooting





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Jan 18, 2022 16:36:54   #
KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan
 
I hope you don't mind that I worked on your photo, but without actually doing it, it's hard to say what I would do.

I only worked on the first photo which I think is great! I love the bird atop the rock ... great catch!

Anyway, here's what I did:

Exposure +10
Contrast +14
Highlights -63
Shadows +88
Whites +12
Blacks +75
Clarity +38
Vibrance +44
Saturation +10

Then, a whole lot of light painting with the adjustment brush, bringing down highlights, bringing up shadows.

Cropped off the out of focus rock at the bottom.

Then, the rocks on the right seemed way too yellow, so ... went to the HSL panel

Yellow Sat -45
Yellow Lum -6
Yellow Hue -10

Then, straitened the horizon just a tad.

And this is what I ended up with. All this was done in Lightroom 5.7 Painting with the adjustment brush, following the flowing lines made the most difference. I had 58 of those adjustments.

This was just me fooling around. Just play with the sliders until you get what you want.


(Download)

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Jan 18, 2022 18:42:09   #
PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia
 
KTJohnson wrote:
I hope you don't mind that I worked on your photo, but without actually doing it, it's hard to say what I would do.

I only worked on the first photo which I think is great! I love the bird atop the rock ... great catch!

Anyway, here's what I did:

Exposure +10
Contrast +14
Highlights -63
Shadows +88
Whites +12
Blacks +75
Clarity +38
Vibrance +44
Saturation +10

Then, a whole lot of light painting with the adjustment brush, bringing down highlights, bringing up shadows.

Cropped off the out of focus rock at the bottom.

Then, the rocks on the right seemed way too yellow, so ... went to the HSL panel

Yellow Sat -45
Yellow Lum -6
Yellow Hue -10

Then, straitened the horizon just a tad.

And this is what I ended up with. All this was done in Lightroom 5.7 Painting with the adjustment brush, following the flowing lines made the most difference. I had 58 of those adjustments.

This was just me fooling around. Just play with the sliders until you get what you want.
I hope you don't mind that I worked on your photo,... (show quote)

nice. I think that the yellow is still to strong but otherwise not a bad edit

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Jan 18, 2022 19:25:37   #
PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia
 
PoppieJ wrote:
I made these 2 pictures within about 200 yards of each other. This was late in the afternoon last fall and this location was the most amazing place that I have been in a long time. I present them to this group in hopes of getting some feedback on what can be done post production to make them stronger images. I think that the downloads are more accurate color wise. thanks for looking


after looking at your comments and edits I went back to my files and this is the changes that I have made. I straightened the second one. I don't know that it was actually tilted but I saw the horizon line and made the change, it looks better. I cropped some off, darkened the sky and lightened the foreground, then I did some dodging and burning as well as some color saturation. On the first one I lightened the foreground, darkened the sky as well as the glow that was coming through the tree. there was a short line on the bottom left that I cropped out
let me know if you think better or worse, or if I need to do more or less to improve. Thanks to all for your comments and your efforts.


(Download)


(Download)

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Jan 18, 2022 19:32:27   #
CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City
 
PoppieJ wrote:
after looking at your comments and edits I went back to my files and this is the changes that I have made. I straightened the second one. I don't know that it was actually tilted but I saw the horizon line and made the change, it looks better. I cropped some off, darkened the sky and lightened the foreground, then I did some dodging and burning as well as some color saturation. On the first one I lightened the foreground, darkened the sky as well as the glow that was coming through the tree. there was a short line on the bottom left that I cropped out
let me know if you think better or worse, or if I need to do more or less to improve. Thanks to all for your comments and your efforts.
after looking at your comments and edits I went ba... (show quote)


You're still having problems creating JPEG posts in the sRGB colorspace. You might consider the LR export with all the appropriate parameters saved to a repeatable Export Preset.

I like this version better, but you might still brighten the foreground colors, possibly adjusting the luminance and / or saturation of the red and oranges in that section.

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