I originally did this under the title of Blacktail Overlook. I had to replace a bald sky and went for contrast but always felt that it ended up looking wrong. I went back and redid the raw files using DxO Pure Raw 2 and processed those in Aurora 2019. That result came into Photoshop where I used the Camera Raw Filter Auto button (ala Bill) to set a starting point and refined from there. This time I went for what feels like something you might actually see rather than trying for as much contrast as I could get. I stayed with that concept in picking a different sky, that also feels more natural to me. Base image was on a Canon 5D MK III with 24-104 at 47mm F16 iso 200 and 1/4 sec. The bracket was two stops to either side at one stop intervals. The Blacktail composite is attached for comparison.
This round’s discussion is now closed! 5 comments posted
Max Burke
Beautiful scene. I have been there dozens of times and never thought about that viewpoint as it has such a beautiful image of the day's first light. Of course, this part of the image was likely normally darker, but you provided excellent detail by lightening and bringing out the colors from top to bottom. Posted: 03/13/2023 15:39:07
Don Poulton
Rick, your improvement provides better detail and color harmony than the original. The image shows the value of getting up early in the morning to capture that first light, and the HDR treatment brings out the detail in the otherwise dark foreground. I might crop a little off the bottom to improve balance between the foreground and background, but on the other hand, this might cause the fog layer to cut the image exactly in half. Posted: 03/17/2023 10:54:57
Jane Ballard
Beautiful! Love the colors - love the contrast - love the texture! Posted: 03/17/2023 16:00:14
Brad Ashbrook
I think the new version is a big improvement, the previous seems to be a bit overcooked with color and contrast. The fog portion is really cool, but kind of gets lost. I would also be inclined to possibly crop off some of the bottom to see how it affects the balance. The orange is really glowing off the mountains, did you enhance that or was that already there? Posted: 03/23/2023 11:57:36
Rick Cloran
Hi Brad, Thanks. The glow was there, but like all HDR processes the blend ends up enhancing the vibrance of the colors. In this case I felt it was actually pretty representative of the scene based on the way the willows came out in the foreground, so I didn't try to pull it back Posted: 03/23/2023 18:09:13
