Dawn above the Ohio River

[Marie Hass]

I have been working with my tripod and longer exposures.

I shot this, f22 so the lights would "twinkle". I processed using Nik filters, using detail and brilliance and warmth, boosting the perceptual saturation.



Please tell me what you think.

Marie

[Kodiak]

Please tell me what you think.

Hello Marie,

The scene inspires calm & serenity. the light conditions were great, and the
presence of that cloud with the light suggest that most villagers were still
asleep! All this was a very promising take until…

Until rendition IMO. The rich tones colour palette that was present at the
time is not reflected in your over saturated rendition. I would suggest a
less enthusiastic move with the saturation slider.

[chauncey]

I agree with Kodiak...what's it look like without all the PP?

[Shadowman]

I like it, however the brightness factor doesn't quite agree with the starburst you captured, the light sort of diminishes the effort.

[Mike Buckley]

My guess is that the image doesn't convey what Marie saw but it conveys what she wanted the photo to be. If it's at least the latter, keep it up, Marie! It looks like many images in a Disney film, and I don't see a lot of people complaining about them, no matter how unrealistic.

EDIT: Now I realize what the image reminds me of: works by Thomas Kinkade. As I mentioned in another thread recently, when someone produces a photo that looks like this, lots of people question it. When an image like this is made using any other medium, it goes completely unquestioned. Go figure.

[Marie Hass]

Well, actually this is my original. I saved my RAW image as a jpg. Everything in RAW was set to default. None of the sliders were moved. No vibrance, no contrast, no nothing.



Mike, yes, I did have a vision - and you did nail it. Have a look at the EXIF data.

This one is 3 minutes later in the series. Again SOOC.



'Rie

[Mike Buckley]

Mike, yes, I did have a vision

Way to go, Marie!

[deetheturk]

Beautiful Marie

[Marie Hass]

Kodiak, please feel free to edit my image. I can tone it down - but the color palette was so rich to start with. What would you suggest?

John, do you think I should leave the fog the darker color? I think I get what you mean - not enough contrast between the lights and the fog. Makes it more difficult to separate the 2. thank you for your input.

Chauncey? Your thoughts now that I have posted 2 SOOC?

Mike and David, thank you.

'Rie

[chauncey]

Marie, I have the advantage of being a "Monday morning quarterback" and IMHO, you have two things
going for you in these images...the sky colors and the mist from the river.

I might crop out the entire foreground, then maybe...select the sky>invert vertically and overlay it on top
of the mist at maybe a 2-5% opacity. Might look nice or...goofy?

[wtlwdwgn]

I prefer the two original images. I do like the lighter sky in the 2nd but I also like the lights in the 1st. Well, you can never please everyone so be sure to please yourself.

[Mark von Kanel]

Marie, personally i think you cracked it in the first edit, but we cant all agree, its a beautiful image however you process it, well done.

[smcrews]

I honestly love what you did with this shot. The only thing I might consider changing would be to tone down the saturation on the clouds a little, but this is your vision and the PP you chose works for me. Nice job!

[ST1]

Marie I like the first one period. Well done for being there and capturing the scene.

[bnnrcn]

#1 looks very nice Rita

[Stagecoach]

Hi Marie,

Choices, choices, choices here. You had a good scene to work with and then comes the hard part, which way to take it.

If it were mine I would aim (no guarantee of success) to have the clouds/river as you have in No 1 but to keep the sky more as in the original.

Grahame

[ajsmith]

Marie,

I liked your first image when I first saw it. I have looked at the raw files too, but I prefer your first image.