In Between Giants

Justin,

This works wonderfully well for me. The implied scale is tremendous and I think a great image from the redwoods capturing their immense presence in the coastal woods.

The only suggestion I have is along the lines of color and that of course is usually a personal interpretation. From this web presentation, I would reduce the amount of magenta highlights and actually boost the reds here - aka - the redwoods... Otherwise, I think a great, intimate capture.

Lon

I love intimate forest scenes like this one. Your chosen composition works very well here, I'll echo Lon's suggestion on the color.

Love this perspective Justin
even the greens here are awesome

Loved the colour contrasts here Justin. The greens stand out well against the brown tones of the tree trunk. Some fine textures in the trees as well !

Hey buddy! This looks awesome to me. Love the comp here and the way that the trees create a little visual trickery in regards to which tree is closest. The sense of scale here is terrific.

I love these scenes of the forest giants and this is wonderful. The color and comp are excellent and it has a great sense of depth.

Beautiful, Justin. I love this one. This is really well done. The green leaves look fantastic in front of the redwood. Wonderful detail too.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it means a lot!

Lon - I can always count on you for color help, I really appreciate it!!! Here's a new version with less magenta and more red, let me know what you think. Thanks again!

I think it works perfectly... love it actually!

Wow! I liked it before, now it is even better. Lon's suggestion was just what it needed I guess. Awesome.

Nick

In an unusual subtle way IMO this works! It is one of those type of shots that has to be looked at for a bit to really appreciate it.

I had not thought of what Lon suggested about the highlights, and think I would have to agree. An easy way may be Image/Adjustments/Color Balance/Highlights. But you prob know that and other ways anyway... of course Curves would be the most powerful way to deal w it, but are a bit more complicated for some...

I like your second version, but feel it may be loosing something (a coolness) in the shadows.

Justin, this picture is tremendous in my opinion, the contrast between dimensions is incredible; this is furthermore stressed by the delicate bright leaves. I prefer the darker shadows in the first version, especially the tree at the left.

Peter

This really captures the sense of gigantic trees, Justin. Second version even better.

Excellent

I love the color and details of the trunks. The image is nice but I expect one would have to see a larger print to really appreciate the detail.

- Dan.

I agree it translates the sense of scale for these giants extremely well.

Justin,

Thanks for taking the time to rework. I think the magenta is certainly better, but along the lines with Mark M. I think some side effects crept in as well.

With your permission I'd like to post my impression. This is actually pretty tough because as you know magenta is strongly biased red to start with. So actually I think playing with the blues and greens is where this needs to go. In other words, just playing with the reds in Saturation or color balance doesn't quite work as I would have thought.

While I comment frequently on color balance in general, it's not very often that I stick my nose in other people's processing and their own interpretations. But once in a while I think an image is so worth the extra little attention that I just have to open my mouth... ;-) A great image with both depth and scale and nailing the color I think just brings out those elements even more. With your permission I can post or send you my interpretation.

Lon

Lon,

Please post away! I look forward to seeing your interpretation and learning the process in which you arrived at it. Never hesitate to "stick your nose" in my images, it's ALWAYS insightful and rewarding

This feels very intimate, and the framing helps convey the massiveness of the trees. I agree with Lon with regards to a slight color tweak to emphasize the redwoods (I might also tone down the greens just a tad). Very nice.

Thanks Justin(edit: sorry!) Now I want to emphasize that this is really about personal choice and my interpretation - doesn't mean yours is wrong or mine right.... but I know you know that. Also, these are from screen shots, so folks can ignore any sharpening or jpg issues...

This first one here is simply to highlight the areas I noticed. Just a rough idea of where I thought it was "magenta." So actually, "highlights" probably wasn't the proper term.

Anyway, the modified version follows.

Lon

Here's my take. I started out looking at the color of the areas in question and found out that yes, very strong in the red, but also that the blue and green values were kind of reversed for what magenta is usually seen as. I initially used the "Blur>average" method to reveal and neutralize the color cast, but that method doesn't work for all images. But what it did do is start me on a path to adjust the RGB colors. Initially a simple Levels layer of R83,G85,B70 and master at 110 (to bring back overall brightness) seemed to help with the magenta. Basically, the added blue mixed with the red is of course what gives the magenta cast. Although the overall individual RGB values were dropped, the adjustments favored green, which is what I think removed the magenta look to those areas. Also, reducing blue makes a difference.

So there was the Levels adj layer and then a regular Saturation layer. All I did with the Sat layer was actually Reduce the greens and yellows since greens were boosted in the Levels layer. Actually, I think you have the range to increase the reds in the Sat layer, although I didn't.

For me, this has just a little bit more pop to it while still keeping the greens/yellows reasonable.

Always fun playing with this stuff. Some may or may not like the changes - especially since your original wasn't far off to start with. Thanks for letting me play.

Lon

ok, here's another version. just added +10 in red and +5master in the Sat adj layer.

Lon,

Looks fantastic! Really great to see your process! I was using color balance to adjust the color, using an adjustment levels layer is new to me and is a great new tool to add to my processing skills.

One question about the process you described, where do you get these values? "R83,G85,B70 and master at 110"

Thanks again Lon!

Thanks Justin! Drop me an email if you would like the psd file.

The RGB values can be seen in the Levels dialogue box you see here. By "master" is mean the RGB channels all together. But with Levels, as with Curves, you can adjust the individual channels. That's where you can see the values for Red, Green and Blue if you pull down the Channel drop down.
The middle slider where the 1.11 is pictured is also called the "Gamma Slider" (I believe.)

You can also adjust individual color channels in a similar way with the hue/sat adj layer. That adjust does refer to the general saturation as "master." But you can also select individual colors, red, green, yellow, cyan, blue and magenta. I use this frequently to reduce magenta, but it wasn't working very well with your specific image.

Oh, btw, I'm using CS3. I believe either in CS4 or 5, the adjustment layers no longer pop up, I think they're displayed in the palettes somewhere. So this screenshot may be different than what you have.

Hope this helps.

Lon

I have not had a chance yet to get to this location, but I feel your image from there is great ! The tree in the fore ground really gives those redwoods some scale. Well Done

This is a very nice redwoods shot Justin. This has to be one of the most challenging places to find a good composition. I think you did a good job capturing the scale of the place. Thanks to Lon for showing his color adjustment strategy.

Beautiful, Justin. The foliage really helps to give a sense of scale to these huge trees. Very nicely done.

Very peaceful Justin. Works well for me. I love the delicate leaves in concert with the huge trunks with their strong texture. Very nice.

Nathan