Mountain Scenes

[JBW]

Brownbear, the first three are way out of my area of experience but #4 is something I have lived with for years. As a lighthouse keeper, a deckhand, and now in the Philippines living at usual level the clouds float at. Why not try to create a magical mystical mysterious mist shot?

Mist, fog, call it what you will has two fabulous qualities (1) thousands of layers (2) uncountable shades of grey. I would suggest either going grayscale or adding a dollop of Blue. The other thing i would suggest is that you try stacking the shot to get 3D effect. Why I think about it how about going with a gaussian blur rather than a sharpening?

B.

[Brownbear]

Kaye, Shane, Brian and Donald....

Thank you to all for your words of wisdom and helpful advice.

Shane - For the past year I've had the luxury of being a part-time early morning warrior (flexible work schedule) but yes I head out many a morning to photograph a landscape and end up photographing something totally different because of the light.

Kaye - Thank you. I appreciate your letting me know your preference for the cooler WB, which is mine, too.

Donald - I'm getting better at being highly critical of my images but find it especially challenging to do so with landscape images and mountain scenery, as I'm easily swayed by the beauty of the scene at hand. Given more time and practice I do know that I will get better at this as I can see this with my bird images from 2-3 years ago. I'm going to peek at your website for some inspiration.

Brian - Your analysis of misty mountain scenes is very insightful and helpful and will be first and foremost in my mind the next time I try a misty mountain scene. Truly appreciated! With respect to post processing, I don't know how to focus stack and even if I did I wouldn't be inclined to try it on an image like this. I've seen that it works well with flowers but I think misty scenes are just naturally beautiful and that I just need to learn how to capture it well in camera, and then post processing will be easy and minimal.

Thank you to everyone for advising and sharing.

[JBW]

Kaye, Shane, Brian and Donald....

Thank you to all for your words of wisdom and helpful advice.

Shane - For the past year I've had the luxury of being a part-time early morning warrior (flexible work schedule) but yes I head out many a morning to photograph a landscape and end up photographing something totally different because of the light.

Kaye - Thank you. I appreciate your letting me know your preference for the cooler WB, which is mine, too.

Donald - I'm getting better at being highly critical of my images but find it especially challenging to do so with landscape images and mountain scenery, as I'm easily swayed by the beauty of the scene at hand. Given more time and practice I do know that I will get better at this as I can see this with my bird images from 2-3 years ago. I'm going to peek at your website for some inspiration.

Brian - Your analysis of misty mountain scenes is very insightful and helpful and will be first and foremost in my mind the next time I try a misty mountain scene. Truly appreciated! With respect to post processing, I don't know how to focus stack and even if I did I wouldn't be inclined to try it on an image like this. I've seen that it works well with flowers but I think misty scenes are just naturally beautiful and that I just need to learn how to capture it well in camera, and then post processing will be easy and minimal.

Thank you to everyone for advising and sharing.

If you have Gimp it is simple. In filters click on 'combine' and then depth merge. Make 3 copies of your shot, number them 1, 2, 3, 4. Desaturate 2 and 4. Go to filters, click on combine then depth merge. in the boxes from top to bottom insert 1 through 4. click ok.

It can bring out some depth.
B.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Brian.

I will give it a try for the learning experience after I figure out how to do it with Photoshop. If it turns out well, I will post and share in a new thread. If not, one day I will post a new misty mountain image, along the lines of your vision and dedicate to you.

If you have Gimp it is simple. In filters click on 'combine' and then depth merge. Make 3 copies of your shot, number them 1, 2, 3, 4. Desaturate 2 and 4. Go to filters, click on combine then depth merge. in the boxes from top to bottom insert 1 through 4. click ok.

It can bring out some depth.
B.

[JBW]

Thank you Brian.

I will give it a try for the learning experience after I figure out how to do it with Photoshop. If it turns out well, I will post and share in a new thread. If not, one day I will post a new misty mountain image, along the lines of your vision and dedicate to you.

[Brownbear]

Hi Brian,

I'm reluctant to revive this thread but felt it was important to follow through on your suggestion.

I tried your suggestion using Photoshop to stack 4 images (2 desaturated) as advised. I didn't care for the results because it simply made the image dark and heavy, and as you know my personal preferences tend to light and airy, and misty. However it was a great learning exercise for me because one day I would like to try stacking a macro image of a flower using different focus points (my understanding of what true focus stacking is used for).

Also since it will likely take me some time to be able to capture a misty mountain peak image that I actually like enough to dedicate to you I decided I will share an image that I took this summer that shows the layers you mentioned (a few instead of thousands) and a wide tonal range. It doesn't represent the dreamy scene I have in mind but it is misty and green. I processed one light for me, and one a little darker than usual to fit your tastes rather than mine.






Until another day...

[JBW]

Hi Brian,

I'm reluctant to revive this thread but felt it was important to follow through on your suggestion.

I tried your suggestion using Photoshop to stack 4 images (2 desaturated) as advised. I didn't care for the results because it simply made the image dark and heavy, and as you know my personal preferences tend to light and airy, and misty. However it was a great learning exercise for me because one day I would like to try stacking a macro image of a flower using different focus points (my understanding of what true focus stacking is used for).

Also since it will likely take me some time to be able to capture a misty mountain peak image that I actually like enough to dedicate to you I decided I will share an image that I took this summer that shows the layers you mentioned (a few instead of thousands) and a wide tonal range. It doesn't represent the dreamy scene I have in mind but it is misty and green. I processed one light for me, and one a little darker than usual to fit your tastes rather than mine.






Until another day...

Beautiful and thank you. I don't know Photoshop but if I can do this in Gimp then I am sure you can in Ps can.... Your shot has 6 distinct front to back zones. The grass, trees, 3 mountains and the clouds. If you were to play with a different gaussian blur in each separate zone in the clouds and mountains you just might enjoy the result.

[Brownbear]

Hi Brian,

I'm glad you like it. Thank you for sharing and for the suggestions in post processing. I'm going to pass on learning about the Gaussian Blur simply because I still have so much to learn and not enough time to fit it all in.

I'm just going to focus on capturing the misty mountain image that I have in the back of my mind, along with the eagle in flight, wild brown bear, head on goose in fight, etc, etc...

Thank you Brian. You've taught me something new and it is truly appreciated!

[purplehaze]

Am late to this thread, Christina, and have nothing of use to add except that I love the view in #1 and hope you keep working it. Methinks there's gold waiting in them thar hills.

[Brownbear]

Hi Janis,

Thank you for sharing. I promise to revisit image #1 to see if I can bring out some gold.

Am late to this thread, Christina, and have nothing of use to add except that I love the view in #1 and hope you keep working it. Methinks there's gold waiting in them thar hills.