Snake River sunrise.

Travis Ingle · April 8, 2007

I took this a few months ago and actually had no intention of stopping here for photo opportunities. I was up early on my way to another location and when I drove over the bridge I just had to turn around and take a few shots. Good thing I did too because the rest of the day was a total bust.

Thanks for looking.

Bob&Glennie · April 8, 2007

Gorgeous!!! Idaho eh? who'da thunk?

Bob

Phyxius · April 8, 2007

Travis, great colors!! I bet this was a gorgeous site to see live! I noticed that the trees and bridge are a bit purple, so I took the photo to photoshop and set the trees as a black point. That changed the colors, making the purple sky more grey yet leaving the orange. I liked the purple much better so I added a mask over the top of the sky and the bottom portion of the reflection in the water.

This is what I got.

I hope you don't mind. If you'd like me to remove it, please let me know.

And, welcome to dgrin

!!

Travis Ingle · April 8, 2007

No I don't mind at all. I have much to learn both in photography and especially in post processing. I just wish I knew how to do what you say you did. I sort of understand setting the black point but still have not really learned about layers and masks.

Albert Dickson · April 8, 2007

Hey Travis Where on the Snake?
I am thinking the bridge at Marcing, Idaho but not sure. Am I right?

Travis Ingle · April 8, 2007

Albert Dickson wrote:

I am thinking the bridge at Marcing, Idaho but not sure. Am I right?

You are correct! You must be familiar with the area?

Phyxius · April 8, 2007

Travis Ingle wrote:

No I don't mind at all. I have much to learn both in photography and especially in post processing. I just wish I knew how to do what you say you did. I sort of understand setting the black point but still have not really learned about layers and masks.

Once again let me know if I'm stepping over bounds...here's a quick 'How To' of what I did.

Step 1 - In the layers box click on the icon that I highlighted in red. This is the "Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer" icon.

Step 2 - After you click the icon another menu will pop up. Choose the "Curves" option, highlighted in blue below.

Step 3- When you click on "Curves" a new box will pop up. This is the Curves dialog. You can do all kinds of fun things with curves, but we're just going to set the black point. So, click on the black eye dropper I highlighted in red. I have the preview turned on (that green check mark) so I can see what results my actions have. It's neat to toggle the preview off and on to see what your changes really are.

Step 4 - Click a spot that you feel should be black. I just clicked on the big tree. Now, the program has reset black to what color that tree was, so everything that was that purple is now black and everything lighter, but of the same hue is grey. I moved the layers window over so I could include it in this screen capture. See that we now have two layers, the original image and the curves layer. Make sure the curves layer is highlighted, because we want to get that gorgeous purple sky back.

Step 5 - Make sure also that you click on the square I highlighted here in red. This is the layer mask. If you double click on the circle that looks kinda like a yin yang you can change your curves. The same is true for the other adjustments you can choose. If you changed hue/saturation you could double click and change it again. But, we're happy with our black point so we're just going to paint in a mask.

Step 6 - Choose the brush tool (highlighted in red) and make sure that you have your foreground color set to black (highlighted in yellow). Once you paint on your mask if you accidently paint over something you didn't want to switch your brush color to white to "erase" the mask. You can use varying shades to equal varying opacities of the mask.

Also make sure that your brush mode is set to "Normal", highlighted here in red. There are many different modes and some can get you quite frustrated and confused.

If you want to see where your mask is you can make the mask channel visible. In the layers box, choose "Channel" Click the empty square next to "Curves" this will put a little eye ball there and will make your mask visible. You can choose a different color and opacity for the visible layer of the mask, but I usually leave this channel turned off unless I'm working on something intricate and I need to see where I'm painting.

So, since I'm happy with the mask I'm done!

Finished product-

I hope that helped a bit. The best thing I can suggest to do is play will the program. We've also got a digital darkroom section on the forum and there are some amazing artists here who can help you. I'm very basic, but everyone here is very helpful.

Some other things to know that will prove helpful are:
You can right click on any layer and choose duplicate and you will make a copy of that layer.
You can turn off any layer by clicking on the "eye".
You can add a mask to a layer by icon with the circle inside a square, the one next to the "new fill / adjustment layer" icon.
You can create a new layer by clicking on the squre icon next to the trashcan inside the layer dialog box.
You can drag and drop the layers into a new order. Which ever layer is on top is the one you'll "see". You can add masks which will allow you to see what's "below" it.

Travis Ingle · April 8, 2007

Thanks so much Phyxius you really went out of your way to help me on this one. I'll give it a try and see if I can come up with similar results. I have another photo I have been working on where I think this may come in handy as well.

Snake River sunrise.

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