Cape Tourville

[mark greenhill]

I slept in my car overnight to catch the sunrise on the red granite cliffs.

 

[horrocks]

This is lovely Mark, though I wonder if you might have just overlightened the foreground a bit.

 

[mark greenhill]

Hi Toby. The foreground was lightened very little, the pebbles are white quartz but it could have been left slightly darker as a matter of taste. Editing I guess will always be subjective.

 

[RobC]

I love the picture, it must be a breathtaking sight and cudos to you for kipping in your car.

I have to agree with what's been said, the foreground does seem a little 'bright' and I'm finding my eyes drawn to the darker parts of the picture in the middleground rather than to the cliffs and sky.

Any chance of seeing a version where the foreground hasn't been 'tweaked' ?

(Hope I don't sound too negative Mark, I'm becomming quite a fan of your work)

 

[mark greenhill]

Hi Rob, Here's the untweaked original as requested. As the first rays of sun lit the scene the overall light was still quite flat.
I have to correct my previous thread, it appears that I may have actually darkened the foreground -
certainly I have added contrast and saturation. In editing pictures I work intuitively and keep no record of what I have actually done.

 

[MisterE]

I personally don't see a problem with the foreground. It looks well balanced. Great picture.

 

[RobC]

Hi Rob, Here's the untweaked original as requested. As the first rays of sun lit the scene the overall light was still quite flat.
I have to correct my previous thread, it appears that I may have actually darkened the foreground -
certainly I have added contrast and saturation. In editing pictures I work intuitively and keep no record of what I have actually done.

You're gonna hate me, but having seen the original I now prefer the edited version.

FWIW I'm the same, if I do edit a shot there's a good chance that 20 minutes after the event I won't be able to tell you what I did.

 

[horrocks]

Mark, further to my earlier comment, and having seen the unedited, I feel that perhaps you overcooked the edit by upping contrast and saturation too much - the colours are too 'dense' and the foreground trees too blocky.

I prefer the unedited, but accept that it is a little washed out. I had a fiddle with it in PS in a spare moment this morning. I built the sky a little, and lifted the foreground foliage before raising the overall contrast and vibrance slightly. I won't post it without your permission, but it is a slightly softer edit than your original and I think works Ok.

 

[mark greenhill]

Sure toby, go ahead and post your edit. I would agree that the trees (particularly the farthest one) is too blocky.

 

[mark greenhill]

You're gonna hate me, but having seen the original I now prefer the edited version. FWIW I'm the same, if I do edit a shot there's a good chance that 20 minutes after the event I won't be able to tell you what I did.

Thanks Rob, I guess if we were to log every edit we did we would end up with terabytes of data. Toby is right about the foliage being too blocky.

 

[mark greenhill]

I personally don't see a problem with the foreground. It looks well balanced. Great picture.

Thanks MisterE, In retrospect I think the foreground in the original looks better than my edit.

 

[horrocks]

'ere tis..

1. A gentle mod of the original, selective levels, overall vibrancy and contrast.

2. Taking the above and further lifting levels on right hand foliage, increase in contrast and sharpening

3. Taking 2 and running a very mild PHDR to try to bring it closer 'in spirit' to your original edit.

I deliberately didn't sharpen in #1, because the dawn light seems to have a lovely softness, which this retained from the original. The other two seem to lose this, I think.

 

[mark greenhill]

Toby, overall it looks Fantastic, I'm impressed with your edits! All I can nitpick is what appears to be a dark outline capping the distant mountain, but that could easily be removed. You're using CS4 I think you mentioned in your last post, Evening Skies; I'm green with envy as I'm still with CS3.

I especially like the way you've lightened the foliage; looks great, and I like your last version best, thanks mate!

 

[horrocks]

Thanks Mark - the quality is in the photo you took in the first place!

The dark line on the mountains came when I selected and darkened the sky. I don't think it would have happened if we were working on the full res original.

I can't imagine that CS3/4 are that far apart. I am only using a trail at the moment, but I love it, and will buy in due course. I find that I still use both Corel PSP and The Gimp for certain things, though the workflow enhancements in CS4 are brilliant as you get to know them.

As a matter of interest, which of the edits do you prefer, the added noise in the PHDR version notwithstanding?

 

[mark greenhill]

I like your last edit best as I mentioned in my last thread, but you may have missed it because I edited the thread a moment before you posted.

Edit: I have been working with Photshops since Photoshop5, through vers.7, Cs, CS2, and CS3., though I admit that lately I have developed a slackness that comes with age!