Shenandoah Trip - The first 24 hours (thoughts and comments requested)

Scott_Quier

Shenandoah (Skyline Drive) trip Day 1 and 2

1. Sunset (obviously) from Skyland Hotel


2. Chris, chimping an IR shot. Well after sundown, ISO 6400 and no noise reduction


3. Trying to get exposure right and a car goes by. For a while there I thought this was going to be the shot of the morning


4. Sunrise! (an HDR, not sure I like it)


5. Sunrise, looking away from the sun. Believe it or not, this is a single exposure, no explosure blending, no HDR. I think I like this one.

stirinthesauce

Love #5, a winner!

hawkeye978

Scott,

I like #5. Nice colors in the sky, foreground well exposed. Maybe some more playing in post to bring out a little more personality.

I think #4 has potential. I really like the sky but I think the foreground needs to be a touch brighter and/or some more contrast. That might get your eye to start in the front and then head to the sky.

pillman

One and five awesome.
Oct time to be here. Newport News not
that far. I live in the Valley.
Landscapers Dream place.

DeVerm

In #4 the horizon doesn't look level while it is in fact only a little bit off (optical effect with the slope).

I like all the photo's and can't pick a favorite!

cheers,
Nick.

Scott_Quier

Thanks all for the nice words on that last photo! I appreciate it.

@Pillman - I will be making more trips in the near future. You are right about the leaves in Oct - they will be present and much more interesting then. Though I'm not sure I want to try to battle with all the tourons. I think I will be elsewhere at that time.

hawkeye978 wrote: »

Scott,

I like #5. Nice colors in the sky, foreground well exposed. Maybe some more playing in post to bring out a little more personality.

I think #4 has potential. I really like the sky but I think the foreground needs to be a touch brighter and/or some more contrast. That might get your eye to start in the front and then head to the sky.

HawkEye, I would be very interested to hear a bit more detail on your thoughts for #5. Any time you can give to this would be appreciated.

AndMan

As others have said #1 & #5 are wonderful. clap

black mamba

Hi Scott,

That #5 is a standout shot....I'm not sure I'd mess with it much.

There's no need to avoid the Shenandoah Valley in October. Do as I've done; get a good back road map of the area and you'll discover more beauty than you can imagine and you, at the same time, can effectively avoid the masses of people. I'm sure that Bill ( pillman ) has learned the tricks to skirting the crowds.

Tom

Scott_Quier

AndMan wrote: »

As others have said #1 & #5 are wonderful. clap

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words!

black mamba wrote: »

Hi Scott,

That #5 is a standout shot....I'm not sure I'd mess with it much.

There's no need to avoid the Shenandoah Valley in October. Do as I've done; get a good back road map of the area and you'll discover more beauty than you can imagine and you, at the same time, can effectively avoid the masses of people. I'm sure that Bill ( pillman ) has learned the tricks to skirting the crowds.

Tom

Thank you for the positive vote on #5. I admit I'm finding it difficult to find something I want to change, but I'm just starting out with landscape work and am ALWAYS interested in the thoughts of others.

A good back-roads map - do you have a source you care to share?

hawkeye978

Scott_Quier wrote: »

Thanks all for the nice words on that last photo! I appreciate it.

@Pillman - I will be making more trips in the near future. You are right about the leaves in Oct - they will be present and much more interesting then. Though I'm not sure I want to try to battle with all the tourons. I think I will be elsewhere at that time.



HawkEye, I would be very interested to hear a bit more detail on your thoughts for #5. Any time you can give to this would be appreciated.

Scott,

What I was thinking was first putting a little more contrast into the rock in the foreground. This could be done in Lightroom with a clarity brush or in Photoshop by doing a curves adjustment to just the rock using masking. This would get your eye to start on the rock, which is your foreground object of interest, and then more back to the ridge and then the sky.

The second thing, and this is just a subjective matter at this point, is perhaps darken the sky slightly. This would bring a little more saturation to the colors there. Either an exposure gradient or just burn layer in Photoshop that you could selectively paint and bring out details in the clouds and colors.

Scott_Quier

hawkeye978 wrote: »

Scott,

What I was thinking was first putting a little more contrast into the rock in the foreground. This could be done in Lightroom with a clarity brush or in Photoshop by doing a curves adjustment to just the rock using masking. This would get your eye to start on the rock, which is your foreground object of interest, and then more back to the ridge and then the sky.

The second thing, and this is just a subjective matter at this point, is perhaps darken the sky slightly. This would bring a little more saturation to the colors there. Either an exposure gradient or just burn layer in Photoshop that you could selectively paint and bring out details in the clouds and colors.

Thanks for the thoughts. The added contrast to the rock - I think that might be a good idea. This afternoon I'll pull up the saved PSD, make the suggested change, and see what happens.

The sky - nope, going to leave it pretty much as it is. One of the things I really like about this image is the painted-like effect it has and the soft, almost pastel, colors of the sky and how the sky softly blends into the haze over the mountains.

As for the tips for doing the job in either LR or PS - yup, got it but I'm sure there are others that would be wondering how that's done.