Marcellina Gold

Here was the original..not so hot!

Wow, what a difference. the original looks like a dud, but this image really pops! Love the light, the yellow pops, and the clarity on the range in the back. The drama in the sky is very nice also. Way to pull this together.

You worked some magic on this one, Jack! Great scene and you captured it beautifully.

Impressive difference Jack. Which NIK plug-ins did you use for this? Color and contrast are greatly improved.

I use some of NIK's plug-ins as well, sometimes..... especially like Silver Efex Pro 2 for B&W, Define 2 for noise reduction, and Sharpener Pro. Rarely use Color Efex Pro, but I have it. I use TK's luminosity layers in general instead of Viveza (not a critique just what I do).

It's amazing what can be done in processing, which I'm just beginning to learn. Great save.

The mountain is slightly off center which makes this an appealing composition and the rule of thirds has been applied wonderfully. It's quite impressive what you were able to pull out of the original.

The light on the background mountain really makes this image, I think. I'd be inclined to stretch even further, by adding some more drama to the clouds and peak. Beautiful, wide view and glad to see you were able to dig this out of the archives.

Eva,

I don't remember the exact settings but I used most of the NIK products in the suite:

Started with Viveza...brought up the structure, that makes things look much sharper already, then adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation sliders. This is the best application for increasing saturation and you can use multiple set points.

Next I went into Color Effects Pro and used the following filters in this order:

1.Brilliance/warmth...played with the sliders..you can see results immediately.
2. Darken/lighten...you can set the point where you want the light to direct the viewer and use sliders to adjust.
3. You can also try pro contrast but I didn't like the results so canceled it. Pro contrast lets you do some colorcast corrections as well as contrast, etc.

Next, I went to D-fine and let it reduce noise automatically. The nice thing is you can use selective parts of the image without effecting other parts....awesome!

Finally, I used Sharpener Pro. You tell it the output and it sharpens for you..I let it go auto but you can make some adjustments also.

The whole process took less than 10 minutes.

Oh, I also had to use content Aware in CS5 to get rid of the ugly branches

I have thought of acquiring the NIK software package and you may have just made a sale for them . The processed version is beautiful.

Major difference, indeed. I really like how you interpreted the light here.

Very pretty.

- Dan.

Hey thanks Jack for the explaination. I kinda thought trhat was your workflow. Since this is a learning place, just wanted to know more for others to learn. I have used the structure tool in Silver Efex Pro. Again, impressive results and thanks for responding to my questions.

Good golly, what a difference. I like the way the dappled light and color were brought out. Nice work in turning this into a keeper.
Could this have been done in Photoshop CS5?

great image and excellent processing

Phenominal shot Jack. I really enjoy this scene.

Michael

Great work Jack