Yosemite Tunnel View -- suggestions?

photobug

OK, I'm finally strapping a photo to the whipping post ...

Here's a photo of Yosemite (the traditional "Tunnel View"), taken in early July. It was shot as a panorama (stitched together from three 8mp photos, creating an 18+mp final file). It seems "OK" to me, but I was hoping to end up with a photo with a little more "zip" somehow. (note: no sharpening has been applied yet)

Snow on the mountains would have been nice, but was a bit out of the question in July :wink. At least the waterfalls were still going strong, given the very wet winter!

Two questions:

1. In the original, I noticed that the farther away an object in the photo was, the more of a cyan cast it seemed to have. I tried to partially correct for that with a light warming filter applied just to the background (via a Photo Filter adjustment layer with a layer mask) in Photoshop, but I tried not to over-do it.
   Does anyone know what caused that depth-dependent color cast and/or how I could have corrected for it when I shot the photo?
   .
2. Can anyone suggest ways to improve this photo?

A larger copy can be viewed from:
http://topflightimages.smugmug.com/gallery/1828417/1/91455771/Large

thanks!!

wxwax

Looks like regular old haze, to me.

There are ways to minimize haze in post, but you have to have a fine touch. Try Googling it, that's how I found some interesting tips last time I tried to defeat haze (with middling results.)

wxwax

BTW, this belongs in Technique or Finishing School, not Whipping Post.

photobug

wxwax wrote:

BTW, this belongs in Technique or Finishing School, not Whipping Post.

OK, I'm still starting to use them and figure out the differences between them -- feel free to move this thread to the correct forum!

photobug

Haze? In Yosemite? Yikes.

wxwax wrote:

Looks like regular old haze, to me.
There are ways to minimize haze in post, but you have to have a fine touch. Try Googling it, that's how I found some interesting tips last time I tried to defeat haze (with middling results.)

Thanks much ... it never occurred to me that it might be haze, way the heck out in pristine Yosemite. I suppose there could have been a fire in the wilderness that would contribute to a subtle haze (via smoke) or something.

Given your tip, so far I quickly found articles which contributed ideas for 1) using Unsharp Mask and 2) using Gradient Tool with Color Burn blend mode, to cut down on the haze. I'll give these a shot at home.

DavidTO

Photobug,

Moved to finishing school, which is a more appropriate forum for post processing questions such as the ones that you have.

If you want the photo flat-out critiqued, then the Whipping Post is for you. But to ask for PP advice, Finishing School it is!

wxwax

photobug wrote:

Thanks much ... it never occurred to me that it might be haze, way the heck out in pristine Yosemite. I suppose there could have been a fire in the wilderness that would contribute to a subtle haze (via smoke) or something.

Given your tip, so far I quickly found articles which contributed ideas for 1) using Unsharp Mask and 2) using Gradient Tool with Color Burn blend mode, to cut down on the haze. I'll give these a shot at home.

Oh man, you wouldn't believe how far pollution travels.

Heck, they were insistent that the haze at the Grand Canyon was from California cities! And the Great Smoky Mountain National park gets a lot of its haze from Atlanta.

That stuff travels, apparently.

Be sure to show us the shot after you work on it.

erich6

Yes..it still looks "too blue" and the effect is due to atmospheric haze.

One thing you can try to do is to boost the contrast (and reduce the brightness a bit) just over the mountains and sky (leave the trees alone). You can do this by using Curves in photoshop as a layer and then use a mask to paint over the areas you want to have the Curves apply to.

Erich

Sam

Here is a very crude attempt to punch it up a little. All I did was some masking, levels, selective color, and sharpen.

Sam

kriyababaji

30 sec. LAB Adjust
I like the photo composition, the light seems a little hard, which is why I think you are getting that nasty cyan color cast.

Here is a 30 sec. LAB adjust with sharpening.

Sam wrote:

Here is a very crude attempt to punch it up a little. All I did was some masking, levels, selective color, and sharpen.

Sam