Dunes and the Stars

Ben Egbert

Forum Helper
Staff member
Thanks for putting this image here, it's a great example of what can be done on the critique forum.
 

Ben Egbert

Forum Helper
Staff member
Here ya go. I did one full size and one cropped to reduce the oof front dune.

I assume this was shot during a bright moon so I left the bright color on the dunes, I like that effect. The cropped version also has magenta and blue pulled down.

Full size
DSC_0126 ben.jpg


Cropped and color work

DSC_0126 ben crop.jpg
 

PhotoShootGC

Active Member
Ben! wow thats amazing. How did you managed to get the sky so good? I would like to learn :D

It was not the moon, it was the light pollution and lots of light coming from some lanterns near the beach...

I am curious if content fill aware would work good for the clouds.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Here ya go. I did one full size and one cropped to reduce the oof front dune.

I assume this was shot during a bright moon so I left the bright color on the dunes, I like that effect. The cropped version also has magenta and blue pulled down.

Full size
View attachment 16049

Cropped and color work

View attachment 16050
Great work Ben! I think I like the uncropped better, but I am not sure.

And I agree, give some details on how you got the sky looking so good.
 

Ben Egbert

Forum Helper
Staff member
How I processed.

I have a preset in ACR for MW shots. The wb is set to 3200 and +8. Clarity and dehaze are each +40. I adjusted exposure on this one to +70 contrast +50, highlights -33, whites +29 and blacks -17. I sometimes adjust noise but sinece this was a low ISO shots I skipped that.

Once in Photoshop I used Topaz exposure followed by Topaz Studio contrast and color boost. These two steps could probably be done in Photoshop but I could not say how, which is why I use Topaz actions.

The big trick for the stars is a USM trick I learned on line. Go to USM and set the following values, amount 90 radius 50 threshold 1

This will really make the star pop.

After this I did some color adjustment and it probably needs a lot more. I am not happy with the cloud color. Maybe I need to adjust the WB settings in ACR.
 

Kyle Jones

Moderator
Here's my take, using pretty close to my normal workflow (separate edits in Lightroom for the sky and ground, blending them together in PS, levels and curves to add contrast to the sky, color balancing land and sky separately). I don't consider this particularly underexposed for a night shot. My next step would probably be to desaturate the blues in the sky a little bit.
_DuneEditKyle.jpg
 

Jameel Hyder

Moderator
Staff member
Here is my version. Bulk of the work done in ACR. Used GND with luminance filter to affect only the sky to enhance clarity, get the sky color to taste and add some sharpening to the sky. In PS, added some micro contrast and also some selective color to fine tune the sky.

DSC_0126.jpg
 

Kyle Jones

Moderator
Updated to remove the nuclear blues (color balance layer on the sky and a hue/saturation layer to desat the blue)
_DuneEditKyle.jpg
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
How I processed.

I have a preset in ACR for MW shots. The wb is set to 3200 and +8. Clarity and dehaze are each +40. I adjusted exposure on this one to +70 contrast +50, highlights -33, whites +29 and blacks -17. I sometimes adjust noise but sinece this was a low ISO shots I skipped that.

Once in Photoshop I used Topaz exposure followed by Topaz Studio contrast and color boost. These two steps could probably be done in Photoshop but I could not say how, which is why I use Topaz actions.

The big trick for the stars is a USM trick I learned on line. Go to USM and set the following values, amount 90 radius 50 threshold 1

This will really make the star pop.

After this I did some color adjustment and it probably needs a lot more. I am not happy with the cloud color. Maybe I need to adjust the WB settings in ACR.
Ben, thanks for that workflow as I am sure it's helpful to a lot of people.
 
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