'Time to get Serious' work in progress.

OsirisPhoto

Following on from my submission to the Whipping Post...
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=81588
...and feedback received so far, here is the progression of the image.

Original image saved from ACR as JPEG.
Quite dark. Was low-light and hand-held, balanced on a rock.. not much point in exposure bracketing.


Image as submitted to WP.
Converted to LAB, separate layers using masks for sky/water and land. Shadow detail recovered by shadow / highlight.


Following feedback.
Converted back to RGB, selective colour and saturation.


From the feedback in the original WP thread, I've selectively decreased the shadow/highlight adjustment layer in the foreground area to try to add some more detail to the shrubs and hopefully make them a more useful part of the scene - just can't bring myself to cropping them out yet :cry.

Using selective colour and saturation applied to the whole image, there is now more contrast in the details and a bit more 'pop'.

Also, as Jon astutely pointed out, the image originally posted to the WP was going to suffer on its journey to paper (verified well using soft proofing in CS3 and the EZprint profile). The current 'work in progress' image above fares much better. I would recommend to anyone download the very useful Luminous Landscape video package 'From Camera to Print' :deal

Not that I'm saying the image is complete! No, no, no. I hope all you good people will continue to provide your valuable input so I can nail this one in time for Easter. :thumb

NeilL

Came here via WP, and there I agree with all comments - about the foreground (too different to the rest in too many ways so it causes a division in the experience of the image), and re Gary Glass with the need to enhance definition and palette. I feel that beyond all that, the composition is wrong, specifically you are in the wrong position. If you were to move to the left, leaving the prehistoric ferns behind, and shoot across the rocky, reedy foreshore, over the lovely lawnlike far shore on up into the high ground and sky you would capture the PERSPECTIVE which it needs to have presence and power.

OsirisPhoto

NeilL wrote:

Came here via WP, and there I agree with all comments - about the foreground (too different to the rest in too many ways so it causes a division in the experience of the image), and re Gary Glass with the need to enhance definition and palette. I feel that beyond all that, the composition is wrong, specifically you are in the wrong position. If you were to move to the left, leaving the prehistoric ferns behind, and shoot across the rocky, reedy foreshore, over the lovely lawnlike far shore on up into the high ground and sky you would capture the PERSPECTIVE which it needs to have presence and power.

Thanks for taking the time to comment NeilL.

I agree that the image would benefit greatly from enhancement. I disagree about the composition being wrong. I do have several other shots from different angles, but this thread is about how to get the most out of this image

jfriend

I like cropping some of the foreground out of this image. The story of this image is the sky, the mountains and the reflection (which together can make a nice rule of thirds composition). The foreground gives the reflection a border or edge, but it doesn't really add any more to the image than that so I'd keep only a little bit of it. You can do that by maintaining the aspect ratio (you just lose a little of the sides) or you can do that by making it more into a panoramic layout like this:

NeilL

Hyperbaric wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to comment NeilL.

I agree that the image would benefit greatly from enhancement. I disagree about the composition being wrong. I do have several other shots from different angles, but this thread is about how to get the most out of this image

You were not clear in WP if you were going to look back there for other comments, so I presumed your intention was to continue ("keep the ball rolling" in your words) what you started there here - only reason I posted my comments here and not there.

The high reality herbage of your foreground will certainly appeal to some potential buyers. They will make comments like "Oh, you can almost SMELL those plants!!", and they will think that your picture will bring vibrancy and lushness to a space in their home, like an indoor tropical plant.

All fine.

You didn't say specifically, but it is now clear, that you are only interested in ideas about how to make this picture more appealing, and commercially rewarding for you, in that kind of market.

jfriend

OK, here's a different post processing take on it. As I looked at your processed image, the foliage just didn't look right to me. It felt like the kind of look you get when you way overdo a shadow/highlight adjustment and/or oversharpen. So, I took a different approach for lightening up the foliage and went for a more subdued look on the foliage that seems more consistent to me with the sky. This is what I ended up with (in two different crops).

In summary, I converted to LAB and made significant moves in both the A and B channels to both enhance the color and to change the color. Then, I used a strong L curve to raise the brightness of the greens and used a mask to block that from the sky and water. Then, sharpened the L channel.

The greens might be slightly overdone, this is definitely something you'd have to tune to your tastes. Same image, two crops:

OsirisPhoto

NeilL wrote:

You were not clear in WP if you were going to look back there for other comments, so I presumed your intention was to continue ("keep the ball rolling" in your words) what you started there here - only reason I posted my comments here and not there.

The high reality herbage of your foreground will certainly appeal to some potential buyers. They will make comments like "Oh, you can almost SMELL those plants!!", and they will think that your picture will bring vibrancy and lushness to a space in their home, like an indoor tropical plant.

All fine.

You didn't say specifically, but it is now clear, that you are only interested in ideas about how to make this picture more appealing, and commercially rewarding for you, in that kind of market.

I should have made it more clear in the WP that I was still open to further comments there in addition to PP comments here

Comments about how lush and green are exactly the ones I've had from friends & family , and you are also correct that I am trying to get the most bucks for the bang from this image Like I said, I have other versions to play with.

ATB.

OsirisPhoto

John, I like what you've done with the image.

I started out with A and B steepening, but on reflection (no pun indended) I went for the shadow/highlight tool too quick and too much, even on the watered down version. I will revisit the original.

As for the cropping, the foreground balances well with the dark cloud. I think when I order the print I will leave it uncropped just to see the whole thing then manually crop the image for display.