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In the sequence above you first see the unedited colour image straight from stitching. Next is the result of a black and white conversion with the default settings in the Photoshop BW conversion adjustment layer.
Next is the result of a major lightening of the yellow at the same time as doing a significant darkening of the blue. While this is somewhat akin to shooting the original with an orange filter, it's not quite the same, and of course is infinitely adjustable via the sliders - who'd go back to film?
The last image is the final edit of a few days ago that I previously showed you - in which the mountains have been brought out somewhat (though not enough according to Chuck and he might well be right), darkening of the lower right corner and of the left side, and not quite so much lightening of the yellow - I kinda like the even lighter yellow of the "filtered" adjustment shown above.
Note how wishy washy the bluffs on the right are after the filtered BW conversion. Much improved after a few extra masked curves darkened them more and more.
Just to see if Andy (note, I'd earlier mistakenly put Chuck down for the suggestion on the mountains) might be right, here's a crop of the mountain range before and after a quicky contrast adjustment via a masked curves layer.
Looks like Andy's right - significant improvement - I'd been afraid to push things this far but hey, I like it.
This brings up the point that images are always a work in progress - when requested to make a print after a few months, I often make further adjustments and sometimes go back to an earlier save so I can redo the further steps. I don't always prefer the new version, but sometimes I really do.
8 comments:
While I would love to take credit for being right, it's only fair to point out that it was Andy who pointed out the mountains, not me. I was the one who told you how great the b/w topic was. Andy criticized, I complimented. :)
I find this is a nice way of viewing along the developing proces! Indeed there is always room to explore more in a picture. Very nice photo bye the way. and yes Chick is right! ;)
Oops: full credit to Andy for the suggestion on the mountains and I certainly appreciated the feedback. Sorry guys.
Ronald:
I'm going to do more of these sequences in the future.
George
Geortge, how about a peek at the full version with the darker backrange? Chuck: I may have "criticized" but note it was a gentle suggestion made on the heels of a rave. Indeed, I think the original image was awesome already as is. I would love to see the full version with the new edit. Better: I'd love to see the print of the full version with the new edit. Must be spectacular.
I like the color version as well....
"...here's a crop of the mountain range before and after a quicky contrast adjustment via a masked curves layer...."
For us readers, less adept at postprocessing in Photoshop, could You please give some more details on what You did exactly?
TIA
for Zeus1 and all the others who'd appreciate a bit more detail:
First, everything I do to an image is done via an adjustment layer - for the finest control and the ability to undo or at least reduce effects, or for that matter to add a little more later on.
When you order up a curve, the graph of the curve comes up - I have it set to black on the bottom left, white top right. An S shaped curve increases contrast and it's only a matter of where you place the S and how steep it is and whether you flatten the ends to finely control where the effects of the contrast increase take place.
If you use the layers pallete to order up a curve, it automatically comes with a white box next to the image icon - this is a white mask - indicating that whatever curve you decide on - it's going to apply to the entire image.
Command (control for pc) I inverts this mask to black so that the contrast enhancement isn't effective anywhere. Now I use the paintbrush - round brush, zero sharpness to the edge, strength usually 10-30% to paint into the mask some gray which of course then applies the contrast increasing s curve to those areas painted, in proportion to how much lighter I paint it - multiple strokes with the paint brush applying ever more effect, to a maximum of 100%. IF that isn't enough, you can double click on the curves icon to the left of the image to the left of the mask icon in the layers pallete and the graph comes up again and you can steepen the curve if need be. Remember though that you are now changing the contrast in all areas which have gray in the mask for that layer. Sometimes I simply do a second curve adjustment layer rather than going back and editing the first one.
Remember too that you can fade the entire curves adjustment layer with the opacity slider to the right end of that layer in the pallette. If you wonder if you have overdone it, this can be very handy, multiple slides between zero and 100% opacity will tell you the best spot to leave it.
George
that is too cool. I'm just learning about photography and photography lenses. I see stuff like this and realize what a huge world is out there in this area. I'm trying to capture some of what i'm learning as I go. Thanks for the great ideas and inspiration. Derrek
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