Cloudscape - pp help requested

[davidedric]

Hi everyone,

This image was taken in the morning from the floor of the Ngoronngoro crater in Tanzania (the crater is an old caldera about 14km in diameter). The crater rim is about 500m above the floor, and we saw clouds spilling over the rim looking like a waterfall. However, my pp skills in Lightroom just can't recapture what I saw - I suspect that layers are going to be needed. I'd be grateful if anyone would like to have a go (doesn't need to be a finely honed product) and tell me how you went about it.

The first image is RAW ooc (i.e. with LR's conversion), and the second the best I have been able to do.

Thanks,

Dave

[bnnrcn]

Very nice image Dave I prefer the uncropped image or a different crop. Let's see the other comments

[Kodiak]

Hey Dave,

I would not go for any crop because…
• there is nothing disturbing in the take and
• what you cropped out was needed to render the feeling of the 500 m "walls"
and some sense of scale of the whole thing.

If the shot was taken in the morning, I shall then presume that the colours
were somewhat warmer… do you remember the colour of these clouds at
sunrise? The colour temperature appears to be too cold for this time of day.

Since I did not witness the scene, this is all I can tip you without falling
into ungrounded speculations.

All the best

[Mike Buckley]

Nice capture, Dave! I prefer the original crop for all sorts of reasons.

This is the kind of image that can be tweaked in any number of ways, some that may resemble the reality of the scene when you were there and others that may not. If you could explain the characteristics that you saw that are not present in the image, maybe someone can offer some help.

[pnodrog]

My mind reading skills have never been very good so I have just had a play trying to push it the direction I would go. Mostly done with dodging (mainly highlights) and burning (mainly mid tones). Also added a warming photo filter.





I feel you could have made more of the lead in road. Maybe starting over near the left.

[davidedric]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I usually under rather than over crop! I'll have another try.

L.Paul - unfortunately there's only one "road" you can't drive off it and you certainly can't wander about, so I had to make do with where we were.

Dave

[Kaye Leggett]

I think you've got the colours right in the second image as the clouds do look to be spilling over the edge of the crater, but agree with everyone else the crop in the second is too severe. My memory of the Tanzanian landscape is of a red sand but it is not as red as L.Paul has made it.

[ajohnw]

Bear in mind I haven't seen it but I would expect the clouds to be a bit more textured. There seems to be some local work on it already so I have made that a bit more prominent. Also roughly done. It needs more care.



I selectively tone mapped the clouds avoiding the dark stuff at the top as that doesn't need it. There is a video on youtube called gimp tone mapping with layers. Should be able to do the same thing on any layer package. You then need a layer mask to only keep the clouds in the final image avoiding what it does to the rest. I did it with a fairly coarse selection with a higher range edge blend. I simply dodged mid tones on the sand. Then double the whole image at that stage and set the top one in soft light mode. There was some enhancement of barely visible tones above the cloud line so I simply blended them away by using a wavelet filter brush. A blur brush would do the same thing.

This isn't the usual tone mapping.

Another way which has a lot of scope is to use levels or curves and concentrate on the clouds. This means sliding the black point well to the right. The rest of the image will go black. Then do as above using the original image for the rest.

It's going to be tricky in places blending the images but you can go from where you are to well past what I have done. Normally there is a need to check that there is plenty of room at each end of the histogram but this image already has that. It's also best to work on a full sized image and reduce last.

John
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[ajohnw]

Should add if you post the raw file here you might even find Colin has a go. It's an interesting challenge that I wouldn't mind working on.

http://filebin.net/

John
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[davidedric]

Thanks, John, you have nailed what I was trying for. I do have PSE, and I will do some work.

I'll have to look into how to share RAW files.

(edit)

Just re-read your post, double thanks for your help

Dave

[Mike Buckley]

how to share RAW files.

Dropbox and any file-sharing site that offers a free solution (most do) will work fine. Copy your RAW file to Dropbox, use the Dropbox software to create a link to the file and copy that link into a post.

[Kodiak]

…I'll have to look into how to share RAW files.

This is a thought to be reconsidered!

Just as in the film times where the negative (or positive) holder was granted
all rights on a take, the RAW file IS your proof of ownership! Only share with
greatest caution!

[Mike Buckley]

Only share with greatest caution!

I take the opposite view; only share it publicly if you don't care if someone uses it for self-serving purposes.