Teresa Gilbert
Well-Known Member
Problem with haze and having shot directly into the sun. Wanting to minimize the haze as much as possible
Monument Valley
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Problem with haze and having shot directly into the sun. Wanting to minimize the haze as much as possible
BarryHamilton
Founding Member
It depends a lot on time of day, of course, but shooting into the sun out there, and especially this scene, haze is part of the landscape, imho. And using it can be a way to keep some detail in MV's monoliths and indicate the vast scale of distance there as well.
Not to hi-jack your thread, but I could show one I got in afternoon light in Dec '15, on my first stop at Forest Gump View.
I like haze, but ymmv!!
Not to hi-jack your thread, but I could show one I got in afternoon light in Dec '15, on my first stop at Forest Gump View.
I like haze, but ymmv!!
Teresa Gilbert
Well-Known Member
I'd like to see your shot. I also have a cropped version where I applied one of the Google Nik vintage filters that seems to work better with the haze in my opinion (although Darcy likes the color version better lol).
Teresa Gilbert
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure I did not, but I don't recall for sure at this point...
The glare on the road is a tell tale sign that you didn't use a polarizer. Especially shooting in midday with that harsh light, you should use a polarizer. Outside of using a Tripod a Polarizer is the landscape photographers most used tool.
Teresa Gilbert
Well-Known Member
Wow. Love the color in the monuments.
Teresa Gilbert
Well-Known Member
I do have a sepia version...
Darcy Grizzle
Well-Known Member
I like your nik filter one too, it came out awesome, but I do like the color better
. I may try this one before I go back to the annoying finger & sun flares LOLOLOL
Oh boy.... don't play hooky too much!I like your nik filter one too, it came out awesome, but I do like the color better
BarryHamilton
Founding Member
Ok, here's my take from a bright winter's afternoon in Dec '15. On the way to Moab but you know I had to stop here!!!
Back up the hill a bit and zoomed in to bring the monoliths closer and larger.
Back up the hill a bit and zoomed in to bring the monoliths closer and larger.
What I did here was to use layer masks.
I first layer masked just the road so I could darken it to reduce the glare separate from the rest of the image.
When I was done with that I made a double layer mask.
I masked the everything above the horizon (Sky and monuments)
Then I masked the Monuments separate.
I then had 3 layers.
The one let me adjust the ground, 20% increase in Sat.
The middle let me adjust the sky, adjust the whites down to darken it, and then a bit of saturation.
The last one then isolated the Monument.
With that one, I adjusted the Color Balance. I took out blue and added Red (10%) and took out Cyan and added Yellow (5%)
Then it was better, but not enough so then I used the Photo Filter and added a Warming Filter of about 40%.
With the color about right, I then used the Contrast adjust and did about 40% contrast while Brightening it about 10%.
It's not perfect, but I think pretty good for the conditions you shot in. Post processing can accomplish a lot, but in the end, you will find that your best shots are simply choosing to be in the right time in the right light. Now a lot of times we are traveling and can't control what time we are at a location, but often for myself, I will shoot it to have it, but then I will make a point to getting back there next time where I make sure I get there at the time of day when the light does compliment the scene.
Here is mine, just using my normal workflow which included a couple of Topaz procedures.
AlanLichty
Moderator
I normally work entirely with RAW instead of jpegs but here is a quick pass from me:
I chose to leave the backdrop silhouettes alone in this case.
I chose to leave the backdrop silhouettes alone in this case.
Darcy Grizzle
Well-Known Member
Here is mine. I actually made 2 virtual copies, over exposed one, under exposed one. On the normal I lowered highlights & brought up shadows, added a touch of magenta and warming, noise reduction & sharpening. Then selected them all and synced them. Opened as layers in photoshop. Put the normal on the bottom, under in middle, over on top. Shut off the over layer & worked on under. Added a mask, image, apply image, then clicked on the mask command "L" and did a level adjust. Then turned back on the over, added a mask and did same. Clicked on all layers except the normal one, went to layers, group from layers. Then did command, option shift "E". Saved and finished a few little things in Lightroom when it put it back in there. Just keeping my blending in my head LOL. That damn finger is pissing me off.
Teresa Gilbert
Well-Known Member
I understand about the
I understand about timing - this was late afternoon on the way home from Moab. If my friend and I hadn't spent so much time in Canyonlands that morning, I still would have been shooting into the sun, but hard to say for sure. (Although if we'd gotten out of Canyonlands sooner, our game plan was to actually return through Zion). I definitely will go back, just not sure when I'll get to accomplish that lol. Not to mention, my current PS skills pretty much suck - I have a LOT to learn about working with layers. It will be one of those things I will definitely be working on though.
Darcy Grizzle
Well-Known Member
I never played with layers till I joined Focal World, but really have learned quite a lot thru the help of Ben & Jim.
Hey Barry, every time I see this I get nervous watching that car driving closer!
Hey Alan, working on these jpgs reminds me of the old days before Raw...