Michael Weatherford
About the Image(s)
This shot was taken just off the Pan American Highway on the “backbone” of Costa Rica about a hundred miles south of San Jose, Costa Rica. It’s in the mountains cloud forest, the clouds created as the warm humid air rises off the Pacific Ocean. Pentax K-3 cropped-sensor DSLR; 100mm; 1/800; f/13; ISO200; hand held. I cropped the original image about 25% to make the boulder and people on top a little more prominent. But the subject is the intense clouds that form along the ridge. I worked the Lightroom sliders to decrease highlights, selectively increase saturation and contrast in the clouds and dehaze. Used my usual sharpening routine in LR “details” by masking to 70 and increasing sharpness to 120. Finished the image in Topaz Studio to increase contrast of fine details.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
9 comments posted
I think the people at the top are vital to the image because they bring scale to the image and one of them is even wearing a red coat to draw the viewer's eye.
I feel the image takes on a static feeling because there is just too much of it. The powerful subject is the large boulders and the more attention you can draw to them the better. I've included a heavy cropped image as an example. I tried to reduce the overpowering foliage in the lower right corner. Since the left side is just an expanse of the same thing I reduced that as well and even brought down the sky into a more panoramic format. All of these crops just draw attention to the large boulders.   Posted: 03/05/2020 18:58:34
The lighting appears to be well maintained as well and not too over highlighted within the sky, so you choice of sliders appears to be well layered. The foreground is a bit washed out with light, so maybe a decrease in highlights here. With the contrast of the clouds it does draw the boulders into the foreground more and you a lot of diagonal lines withe the mountain and clouds. I really like the cloud mist on the right as if I may be looking for a waterfall with heavy mist coming off. Adds a sense of intrigue, at least to me.   Posted: 03/09/2020 22:05:38
(Group 32)