by Tony Kuyper
This is one of my first exposure blends in a long tme. I live about 4-5 miles from these mountains (anyone recognize them?) and often see some very nice sunsets/sunrises. But the dynamic range is signficant enough that getting detail in both the highlights and shadows can be challenging. I'm certainly not an blendng expert, but have a couple of blending observations.
1) Don't overadjust the RAW files in terms of brightness and contrast, especially contrast. I found the blending edge difficult to control when I increased RAW contrast. So I left that alone and just blended the exposures as they were.
2) It's still a lot of work to recover shadow and highlight contrast even after blending. The mountains, in particular here, were signficantly lacking in contrast, so a bit of effort was expended with luminosity masks to separate the darker tones.
Thoughts and recommendations would certainly be appreciated.
5D2, 28-200 lens @ 54mm, f/11 @ 1/13 - 1/6 - 1/3 sec IS0 400
Comments
13 commentsI like the color and processing but don't think the clouds alone are enough to carry the shot. The mountains don't really have much of anything unique for the eye to explore.
Shots like this are way too easy to over-process. I think you handled it just about right. This gets better as it gets larger. I suspect a "wall hanger" would be spectacular!
Looks like a beauty to me, Tony. Great sky and the mountains provide a nice entree. Processing looks spot on.
Wonderful image, Tony. Absolutely gorgeous. It's like a painting. And thanks for including the technical observations.
Me, I'm still trying to blend in here at NPN.
Can't remember the last time I saw a shot from you with sky. Pretty color in the sky, but the comp itself could use a bit more to push it over the top. Still, not a bad image.
The simple comp looks very nice to me, so I disagree withe some of the others about the comp not being enough. Over the top and in-your-face comps are not always a neseccity. Those clouds look very nice, and the details in the mountains are great in the large version.
Tony, the blending looks great. It's a good looking scene with fine color in the clouds. The details in the mountains look good, especially in the larger view. The blues at the top look a bit oversaturated to me.
The larger image is a must see. It brings out the color and detail in the hills/mountains in the foreground. That color and detail really ties the image together.
Looks very Painterly, Tony. The color palette also contrasts well. I'm curious to know if you have a version with some foreground. Beautiful image all in all. :)
The intricate details in the rock show through nicely. Your techniques have brought them to life. It is pretty amazing the amount of information in a RAW file, so blending if needed becomes esier and easier. Beautiful clouds as well. I have been a fan of the clarity contril during Raw conversion and when used sparingly can really help the midtone contrast or help a genreally flat sky. Nice to have this view so close to home!
To me, this is about sky spaces. The mountains add nice context, but the sky carrys the day. Nicely done, and processed, Tony.
--P
Wonderful sky, Tony, and very natural looking scene overall so I guess you did a great job with the blend. I have no idea where this is but that really doesn't matter. Not every place can be iconic!
I like this very much, Tony. In the large version the mountains look really good and that sky has beautiful color with great looking clouds. Very nice!
Nick Bristol