What to do with this?

[DoctorJazz]

Just took this photo this a.m. and was wondering how best to bring out the etched effect of the trees against the heavy mist. I did nothing to it except cut the brightness a little.

Would love to post this in the Before and After category, but I agree with the plan there to encourage new members to participate.

Thanks!

[Hype]

Thought I would take a shot at this. Great picture.

Photoshop
Levels Adjustment

Lightroom
Created 5 exposures and blended them all to make one HDR image -2,-1,0,1,2.

Photoshop
Opened the HDR Image
Noise Ninja.
Brought in the original as a layer and set the opacity to 30%
Slight adjustment on the curves (RGB Channel)
Levels adjustment.

Not sure the final result is what you was after but I liked it :) also the methods I use as always are most likely not the best way to go about achieving the final results, This is just what I did this time :)

Link to big version. (Click Here (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2750/4155940560_37bf2e9a2a_o.jpg))

The image:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2750/4155940560_3f83cb3c6f_b.jpg

[DoctorJazz]

Wow! That's fantastic Hype! I will see if I can figure out how to achieve the same effect with my limited skills.... I'm a long way from learning HDR, but love to see
what you and others are doing.

Many Thanks!!

[Luiz]

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f78/goofysailor/mountain.jpg

[Luiz]

I like to play with colours :rolleyes:

[StephenK]

Nicely done Steve! I love the fluffy quality of your finished image! And fun color injection Luiz!

I played around with this quite a bit.. running it though channel masks, playing with blending modes, fought off banding as
the contrasts deepen... and eventually fell back to the easiest fix possible.

I added a Levels Adjustment layer, and using the pickers picked a comfortable white spot and then picked a black with
the black picker and that was it...

This helped to take the flatness out of the image in a way that my other approaches kept falling short on...

Great picture Doctor Jazz! :^)


http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll202/StephenKr/DSCF1428reduced2.jpg

[Pat]

Hi DocJazz. Truth be told, I would have liked to see a little more foreground, say a bit of the land that the trees were sitting on. I always find trees floating in space a little disconcerting like an anchor for the pic was missing.

What I did here was desaturate, lighten the lights, darken the darks, increase overall contrast and soften. Also, I took a thin slice off the top and added a snappy, eyecatching post-impressionist border.

Nice views from your place. :)

[StephenK]

Gorgeous rendition Pat! Beautiful edit!

...I love how the weather changes so dramatically around mountains! So I tilted this edit toward a scene that
I've watched so many times around mount Spokane as a storm passes through.



http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll202/StephenKr/DSCF1428reducedlightn.jpg

[DoctorJazz]

These edits are all incredible!
Luiz- I love the fantasy quality your color gives it.
StephenK- Versions 1 and 2 both are beautiful.....and the lightening bolt is
a common sight here too.

Pat- That is stunning, and I will post a second image here for you with some more
foreground......anyone please feel free to edit this one as well.
OK, I'll post a third image as well......for the sake of discussion on how much
foreground.

[StephenK]

Another great picture DJ! If this is the view that you have from your home I'm most definitely jealous!! :^)




http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll202/StephenKr/DSCF1425reducedmntbirds.jpg

[DoctorJazz]

Love the edit StephenK! What kind of birds are they? They make the photo.
Thank you!

[julimucca]

I played with it in PSElements with a new overlay collection I just bought.

[DoctorJazz]

Very cool rainbow colors.......Thanks julimucca!

[Pat]

So I took both your latter pics, clipped the top off one and added it to the other (liking the foreground in one and the higher clearance over the mountain in the other). There being no easy way to matching the colours I took theast route and went black and white, adding colour later in the form of a blue cast in the misty mountain and copying the foreground from the original and pasting it into the composition.
Just before adding the colour back in I saved a copy of the black and white and cranked the bejeebers out of the contrast and will include it along with a fairly straight colour version and a quasimild HDR/orton version.
My basic workflow aside from the above was to combine the two pics and selectively erase and clone areas with soft edge brushes for a (hopefully) believeable match. I then used the spot healing tool (Photoshop) to eliminate the myriad white spots in the lower right grass area. I then applied Noise Ninja to only the misty mountain area (not the foreground).
And of course, whilst typing this I thought to myself, "Self?, I wonder what the black and white would look like quasi hdr ortonized." Sooooo.....

[DoctorJazz]

Pat,

I am speechless....they are all magical but the third image of yours is beyond
beautiful. Thank you for sharing your incredible gift and knowledge.

[Pat]

Thank you, Doc. A lot of great input on this one. Juli, what is an overlay collection? I really like the water colour type effect you got. Now I'm going to have to go and splash rainbow colours on blank layers and play with blend modes.

[StephenK]

Pat! That was flippen genius! I hadn't noticed that the photos were taken from the same angle, which is
a natural for doing composites in photoshop!

I selected the three, the first one, the middle and the one that showed the pond and loaded them all as layers
in one image in photoshop.. (Bridge>Tools>Photoshop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers) I could have chosen
Photomerge from the Tool options, but I wanted to go the slower route in case I needed to change things on the fly.

Once in photoshop, combined all three (Edit>Auto-Align Layers) chose auto, and then of course ended-up with a mess!
But then selected all three and told it to Auto-Blend the bunch, (Edit>Auto-Blend Layers) and presto... it did so wonderfully!

I cropped wide, to get everything in, so a fair amount of cloning was involved to make-up the difference, and
did a lot of other little things to liven up the image... but the core process of combining the images was the real
treat in this exorcise!

Great catch Pat! And I easily agree with DJ on his choice of favorite with your edits... the third one is uniquely ethereal!

And Doctor Jazz... the birds in my last picture were from a brush that I had picked-up along the way (I have tons of brushes that I've
collected over the past year) My wife seems to think they may be swallows. I liked them because they added a moment
of dynamic life to the image.... :^) And thanks again for posting these photos! They've been a wonderful treat to spend time with!



http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll202/StephenKr/composite-mnt-reduced.jpg

[Pat]

My first attempt at the splashing rainbow colours on a blended layer thing went horribly awry and all but gave me a headache. Payback for my misspent youth, no doubt. Thought I'd best diguise it up as an oil painting.
Stephen, you've fulfilled my somewhat lacking as of late learn something new everyday credo de jour. Great tip. I have bridge loaded but tend to just load images from my files. Thanks.

[DoctorJazz]

You are welcome StephenK....and this has been a great treat for me to see all of
these images and what can be done....and what there is to learn.
I'll probably never look at this mountain in the same way again!
Great fun!

Thanks all, Sandy

[StephenK]

Thank You Sandy and Pat! :^)

I gave a run at the rainbow idea to see what would take shape and came up with this image below. I ran it through
the FX option at the bottom of the Layers editing window in photoshop. It's using the "Gradient Overlay" option, with the Rainbow gradient,
(blending mode Overlay), . And the "Pattern Overlay" using Stucco 3, and that's set to Overlay as well.

Then a quick mask to return the original color to the foreground.

I've played on another forum since March where we brainstorm stuff like this and have come to see this sharing process as
warmly cooperative... So if you ever have any questions about edits please feel free to ask! There is soooo much to
editing that is fun to explore... at this point I'm convinced that I could be doing this for 10 years and still
be learning a lot-of-new on a regular basis! :^)


http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll202/StephenKr/rainbow-1.jpg

[DoctorJazz]

It looks like gold at the end of the rainbow!
I'll have to look into this too.....Thanks StephenK

[Kaye]

All those who edited; these are all wonderful edits.
Why not have a go in the "Games" - Before and After Game to bring more interest.