Hay Bales & Snow

[Polar01]

Out hunting that elusive shot again, bagged this one. What do you think? I am a big guy I can take it.

[Shadowman]

A very chilling image, captures the frigidity of winter especially with the snow coated trees.

[ScoutR]

I like it Allen, BUT I think I'd like to do a bit of post processing on it to emphasize the snowiness and contrast of the trees. Before I go on with suggestions. What editing software do you use.

[Polar01]

Wendy, I would love that. I have just loved your winter shots, and have been trying to work out how you get the as you say snowiness to your photos. I use CS5 just starting to get my brain wrapped around it, also all the NIK software, as my brain again works better with it than CS5. Please go ahead and maybe you will share your secret with me. I won't tell.

[Shadowman]

I like it Allen, BUT I think I'd like to do a bit of post processing on it to emphasize the snowiness and contrast of the trees. Before I go on with suggestions. What editing software do you use.

Wendy,

When I saw the title for this thread I expected the photo to be yours. This is so your style.

[Maritimer1]

Great minds think alike. I saw one of Wendy's photos on her flickr site that I so admire. It's a winter scene with the goldens of leaves and grasses showing through the snow. Allan, have you thought about leaving the bales and the trees shoots with the colour leaves (over to the right of the photos) with some colour and turning the rest into a black and white with more contrast overall? If Wendy shares her secrets, though, you've got it made

[ScoutR]

Wendy, I would love that. I have just loved your winter shots, and have been trying to work out how you get the as you say snowiness to your photos. I use CS5 just starting to get my brain wrapped around it, also all the NIK software, as my brain again works better with it than CS5. Please go ahead and maybe you will share your secret with me. I won't tell.

Hi Allan, I've done a couple reworks for you which you may or may not like, but that's OK. These are a bit extreme but
I'll go through my thought process on what I would do with a shot like this if it was mine and the settings I changed.

When I look at this shot, I want the snow to be whiter, I want the round bales to stand out more and I want to see a bit more colour and contrast in the forest. I notice that there are a few orange leaves still showing and that would have been something that caught my eye when taking the shot, so I would want to try to make them stand out a bit more.

I did the rework in Lightroom and most of these settings should be similar or the same as what you have in ACR that comes with CS5. When it comes right down to it though the settings are only guidelines. It's the thought process and what you want to do with the shot that matters. For instance you may want to emphasize that it was a very dull day,so you won't like the warm tones that I've added, and maybe you don't like the orange leaves so you may want to de-emphasize them rather than emphasize them. The possibilities are endless - in fact I've worked on them so long, I'm thinking I like your original better than my edits, that happens a lot even with my own shots. Usually what I want is to emphasize what caught my eye in the first place when I took the shot. In this case I can only imagine and to my mind it would of course be the Round Bales, the forest and the snow and the bit of colour present on an otherwise dull day.

Here are two reworks with the Lightroom settings below.

#1



White Balance: +4 to warm it up a bit and bring out some of the colours in the forest
Fill Light: 23
Blacks: 21
Brightness: -28 This is only to darken the trees a bit. If I knew how to do this properly, I would go to Elements and darken the trees while still keeping the snow white. My compromise is to use the Fill light to keep the snow white but go negative on brightness for the forest.
Contrast: 23
Clarity: -25
Vibrance: 20 just to bring out the colours and warm it up a bit. Personal preference, just trying to warm it up
Tone Curve
Highlights: -25
Lights: -35
Darks: -71
Shadows: -19

Orange Saturation: -4
Orange Luminance: 28
Yellow Saturation: 22
Yellow Luminance: 51

#2.



The settings for the cropped shot are pretty much the same, but I turned clarity right down to zero. The only reason I cropped is because the pine tree on the right started to stand out too much. These are pretty extreme edits maybe even overcooked, and I'm sure you can do much better with the original especially if you have the RAW file.

It's up to you what you want to bring out in the final image and then play around with the relevant sliders until you get what you want.

While I'm not that happy with the final results, I thought process and examples help a bit.

Wendy

[ScoutR]

Great minds think alike. I saw one of Wendy's photos on her flickr site that I so admire. It's a winter scene with the goldens of leaves and grasses showing through the snow. Allan, have you thought about leaving the bales and the trees shoots with the colour leaves (over to the right of the photos) with some colour and turning the rest into a black and white with more contrast overall? If Wendy shares her secrets, though, you've got it made

Great minds do think alike. I tried to emphasize the coloured leaves in my rework, and while I was doodling around I was thinking black and white might be nice. I like your idea of B&W with just the coloured leaves though. That would really emphasize the tiny bit of colour in an otherwise cold and bleak landscape which is something that always catches my eye on dreary winter days. Now I have to go and try that, and I'm not sure how

Wendy

[ScoutR]

Wendy,

When I saw the title for this thread I expected the photo to be yours. This is so your style.

You're right, this is exactly the type of thing that I like to photograph. Must be an Ontario thing.

Wendy

[Polar01]

Wendy great minds do thing alike, what you said was what I was wanting to achieve, but could not get there from here. I ran into the same problem you did, to get the snowiness, I would lose the colours in the Beech trees and the green of the pine and the little bits pocking up through the snow. When I shot this, I did not see them because of the distance, however once opened up I wanted them in the shot. To bring them up more the problem was the trunks of the trees come out more than I want. I think as the sun has come out for a while, I think I will try to reshot this with strong light, and see what I can get as the day I shot this it was eraly evening and a very dull flat sky. I am luck as I have an old growth forest about 20 minutes north of me. It is the Beech and Oak leaves against the tree trunks and snow that catch my eye. I posted a shot a few days ago called "Beech Leaves and Snow" that will show what I mean. Just love your winter shots with that "snowiness", before seeing them that is what I had in my mind's eye of what I was wanting for some of my scenes now if I can just get that feel. Looking foreward to seeing more of your photos (it must just be that Ontario thing)

Thank-you for your words Allan

[Kathy O]

Love what you did with this photo Wendy, not that the original wasn't great Allan because I like it alot also . . . but I love how the colors pop!