Lets play #1 3-30-2018

[Ben Egbert]

This is a complex image Each exposure consists of 4 frames stitched. So 3 brackets x 4 equals 12 images worth of data. Of course I did the stitching and I aligned and sized them so they should overaly fine for you. They are also downsized to 3000 wide. The originals are of course imense.

The issues here are two.

1. The lightest image almost works by itself save for the blown out area at center right. In this case, even the dark image is slightly blown, but has teh detail needed to fill in that area. I included the middle image also in case you wanted it for smoother transistions.

2. The final color balance. I ended up too red.

I would love to see what the wonderful people at Focal World would come up with.

180413-4402-4414 St2 Lt

• Ben Egbert
• Mar 27, 2018

180314-4401-4413 Gv St 2 Med Copy

• Ben Egbert
• Mar 27, 2018

180314-4401-4413 Gv St 2 Dk Copy

• Ben Egbert
• Mar 27, 2018

 

[JimFox]

Here is mine Ben. I had a tough time with that bright area. But I did the blend evened out the light. Desaturated the Red a lot, added a bit of a cyan cast to the red. And then I did a crop, as the rock on the left distracted me too much.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Jim, this looks great. I also had a tough time, with thart area. I used a 10% brush and just kept working it until I got some clouds in there without a tell tale dark halo.

Looks like this forum is not to popular.

 

[Darcy Grizzle]

I will be trying my hand at it this afternoon after work

 

[Ben Egbert]

Looking forward to it Darcy and thanks.

 

[Darcy Grizzle]

Looking forward to it Darcy and thanks.

Welcome . I was going to play yesterday but just ran out of time!

 

[JimFox]

Thanks Jim, this looks great. I also had a tough time, with thart area. I used a 10% brush and just kept working it until I got some clouds in there without a tell tale dark halo.

Looks like this forum is not to popular.

It was probably the Easter weekend Ben, I know I didn't have any time to work on this until 1am Sunday night. We should have thought that lot's of people are just out busy with families.

 

[AlanLichty]

It took me a couple of times to get past the bright area on the right but in the end this is a single frame shot based on the medium exposure Ben posted. All of the exposure work was done in Lightroom. I kicked up the exposure to bring up some more light in the bulk of the scene and then used a brush tool to isolate the bright area. I ended up desaturating that area to -32 with exposure set to -1.07 and feathered the edges to smooth out the boundaries. I used another brush along the rocks at the bottom to tame the reds by dropping the saturation to -39. Finally there was an area in the clouds just above and to the left of the bright area that felt a little too dark and too much blue. I set the brush for -24 on saturation, bumped the whites to +44 with shadows set to +10. Temp was set to +10 and tint at +2.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thats a very nice job for a single image. I think the first one I posted here was a single medium, but I left the bright area cloudless.

As you can see, without cranking up the reds, it's not really much of an image. At least to my taste. But seeing what others like is very informative to me.

My goal is to find a way to post images to the general taste of the forum and save the cranking for personal consumption.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Definitely went with drama for mine...

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Kyle, now this is keep worthy.

 

[Darcy Grizzle]

Ohhhhh I can't wait to try now but it will have to be tomorrow, as I am running out of time again LOL. Don't give up on me, I WILL DO THIS hahahah as I love these Let's Play's.

 

[Darcy Grizzle]

Well I finally had a little time to play , here is mine!

 

[JimFox]

Well I finally had a little time to play , here is mine! View attachment 7710

Hey Darcy, you did good with recovering the blown out area in this. I see you went for a softer contrast look similar to what Alan did.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Nice job Darcy.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Hey Darcy, you did good with recovering the blown out area in this. I see you went for a softer contrast look similar to what Alan did.

I do like the soft treatment of the landscape. This attempt does provide a good example of the dangers trying to recover blown highlights though. If it is truly blown (no detail), then recovering the highlights just leaves that area looking grey.