Amy Nelson
Well-Known Member
Empty coal train returning for another load.
Keeping Our Lights On + Edits
- Thread starter Amy Nelson
- Start date
AlanLichty
Moderator
You picked a nice viewpoint for this shot. Just the right length train for this stretch of track too.
Amy Nelson
Well-Known Member
Thanks Alan!
Good RR shot
This is perfect timing Amy! Love the look and feel of this. Maybe one of the best train shots we have seen here.
I agree with Jeffrey about toning down that road on the right side. The bright sky I think I like, so if you have time and are inclined, maybe tone down that road first before cropping the sky and see how that looks.
I agree with Jeffrey about toning down that road on the right side. The bright sky I think I like, so if you have time and are inclined, maybe tone down that road first before cropping the sky and see how that looks.
Amy Nelson
Well-Known Member
Thanks very much for your input. At first you guys had me stumped on toning down the road, then I realized you were talking about the open irrigation ditch. I was able to tone it down some, but where the water meets the cement causes a light refraction, the same value as a blow out in clouds so I couldn't do much with that. (unless you have some suggestion). I tried using a Level, inverting the mask and painting over the line but that didn't even touch it. I'm including one cropped without the sky and the other with no crop. I think the one with the sky helps offset the white line at the irrigation ditch.
Cropped Version:
No Crop:
AlanLichty
Moderator
I do like the sky crop. I like what you did with the ditch - this tames the water reflection quite a bit. You could use the clone stamp tool with some careful source selections to repurpose some pixels to remove the last bit of reflection but that could be some tedious editing.
I like the crop of the sky too. 
The irrigation ditch still looks like a road.... It looks a lot better toned down. As for the reflection line in it, just use a layer mask, use Color Range and select in the reflection, it will also select the train headlight, so you can either remove the headlight from the selection or make a 2nd layer mask that is just isolated around the irrigation ditch. Either way make a layer mask then from your Color Range selection, then pull up Levels and adjust the whites, darken the whites a bit and the reflection will disappear. It's also a handy trick to deal with blown out clouds if they aren't too badly blown.
The irrigation ditch still looks like a road....
It looks a lot better toned down. As for the reflection line in it, just use a layer mask, use Color Range and select in the reflection, it will also select the train headlight, so you can either remove the headlight from the selection or make a 2nd layer mask that is just isolated around the irrigation ditch. Either way make a layer mask then from your Color Range selection, then pull up Levels and adjust the whites, darken the whites a bit and the reflection will disappear. It's also a handy trick to deal with blown out clouds if they aren't too badly blown.
Like the edit and some good suggestions on eliminating that very bright line in the ditch.