Dramatic Landscape Processing?

[ShaneS]

How would you process this image to take it to the next level?

I've been sitting on this one for quite some time and I really like it but I think that it needs something to make it stand out.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about vignettes and I wonder if that would help this image?



Any and all C&C welcome.

[pnodrog]

Shane I do not think auto vignetting will do a lot for this image. It would help reduce the brightness on the right hand side but be detrimental to the rocks detail along the bottom. In this case I think you should burn the right side and in particular the highlight in the sky at the edge. I often apply a manual vignette by burning around the edge of a photograph but the amount of the burning is not consistent like that achieved with an auto vignette. The second thing you could try would be to slightly lighten and add a bit of local contrast to the front edge and cliff face of the island. (drag our eyes to it)

P.S. It is a shot worthy of getting perfect (if there is such a thing)...

[IzzieK]

Shane, just a thought -- maybe you can composite a person sitting on one of the rocks looking at the large island to give it a bit of oomph...something dramatic to my mind if you have a human element added to it.

[FootLoose]

The first thing I would try - to get an idea of where I might want to take it - would be to duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to multiply and hard light, and adjust opacity to taste.

If you want more drama, I would be thinking about a bit more saturation, and gradients to darken the sky and foreground.

[lukaswerth]

The sky looks great, as does the color of the sea: blue-green on the left, and those warm-yellowish highlights on the waves on the right. The sky reflects this division of colors. This is what I would concentrate on to get a romantic drama into the image.

What I don't like at all: the many black shadows in the foreground and also the undifferentiated blackness of the rocks in the right middle-ground. For me, this spoils the picture; I would do my best to lift those shadows.

These are the considerations from which I would start to develop/improve the image: a mask for the sky, one for the sea and the island, a third for the rocks. Perhaps make groups. Drama into the sky with curves, enhanced midtone/highlight contrast, a white layer with soft light. The silver lining of the clouds in the bright area on the right must be emphasized, and ths bright area itself should contrast as much as possible the dark areas. Those vertical streaks above the island need enhancement, perhaps with a separate mask under the sky group. Perhaps emphasize the color split. Some enhancement of contrast for the island, emphasize the dark green tinge on its left. The same for the sea: on the right side the shadows are greenish, the highlights warm yellow. I would emphasize this. Another curves layer. This wonderful blue-green on the left must be emphasized. It needs to be seen whether further contrast is needed.

As for the rocks: keep shadow color cool, but lift it! Enhance the warm highlights.

This picture deserves delopement with the paintings of Mallord William Turner or Caspar David Friedrich in mind.

Lukas

[dje]

It's a lovely image as it is Shane. If it were mine and I wanted to give it a bit more "spark", I'd probably try Nik filters such as ColorEfex and Viveza to target separate areas of the image (sky, island, rocks) using control points and bring up things like contrast, saturation, warmth and structure. There are many things that could be done in PS as Greg and Lukas indicate but I've become lazy since I got the Nik suite !

Dave

[JR1]

There is such a thing a over doing it

[Kodiak]

How would you process this image to take it to the next level? Any and all C&C welcome.

Very good shot Shane… but your rendition doesn't help the capture.

Your title says everything… and you should stick to it!

Dramatic is the mood and should remain by rendering more impression
and less information.

The island is too light, the foreground too dark… I think you put your
efforts at the wrong places.

Here is a suggestion that tries to come back to the dramatic mood of
such scene. Of course, you saw the spectacle and should know better
than I.

[John 2]

................duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to multiply and hard light, and adjust opacity to taste. ..........

Tried that and it is definitely one for the tool box. Thanks Greg

Shane, IMHO Kodiak has it about right perhaps with a small (very small) boost to the saturation for cyan and yellow. but don't overdo it.

[chauncey]

I would go back to square one and reshoot the scene...your exposure is a tad on the low side and the
island is somewhat out of focus and muddy looking.

Yes, you know what it looked like but, IMHO, that matters little when you're PPing an image...what does
matter is your emotions and feelings during that PP. Do you have an image in mind during that
processing or, are you winging it as you go along?

Ansel Adams is reputed to have said that the image is like a musicians score and the print is the symphony...he never processed an image the same way twice when he made a print.
That's where emotions/memory come into play. What do you want from that image when
your processing it?

Assuming that you're using PS...you have a ton of different blending modes and adjustment layers, there's no reason not to treat this as a learning experience and try them all.

[Mike Buckley]

My guess is that it really comes down to what your vision is. Kodiak's treatment is certainly one way to go but there are so many other ways as well. I realize that that's not particularly helpful but attaining one's vision generally is not something that others can help with.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Shane . You can duplicate the image and change the blending mode to overlay. The foreground will be darker then. So, you can brush out the foreground water and rocks by adding a mask to the layer.

As Mike says there might be a lot of ways of editing such a nice image

[ShaneS]

Thank you everyone! I am going to take this one back to the raw file and start again with all of your input in mind.

I really appreciate the time you took to offer suggestions on how this could be processed as this one has been nagging at the back of my mind for some time. I will be sure to post what I come up with in the thread but it may take me a few days.

As far as my vision, well that is a work in process and hard to put into words. I continue to struggle with what the right amount of processing is for an image. As an example I will cite the filming of the scenes for the current incarnation of Hawaii Five-O. The scenery seems to be shot in HDR and looks just stunning but I can't help but wonder if people who get excited about visiting Hawaii because of the scenery highlighted will be disappointed in reality...it is a beautiful place but really doesn't look that stunning most days So is this false advertising?

To use that analogy, I don't want to be accused of false advertising in my imagery and would prefer to present something that is a bit more subtle and closer to reality than the over saturated and high contrast imagery that seems to be so 'liked' by popular culture these days. This is a balance that I am struggling to find and achieve.

[pnodrog]

Shane below is the result of a quick play following the approach I outlined above.




However although it achieved most of what I had envisioned it still did not look balanced and I suspect the main problem is that it ends up with two areas of interest (the island and the rocks) stacked. To make it work from a compositional point of view you need to make one area dominant. Below I used a crop to insure the island was dominant. Kodiak with his approach reduced the impact of the island and drew more attention to the rocks. As the photographer you have to decide which one you wish to be dominant and preferably at the time you take the photo make a deliberate choice regarding the composition.



P.S. The image file used was over processed and your idea of going back to the original RAW version should produce better results regardless of what you decide to do.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Shane,

I suspect the variation in replies gives a good clue as to the problems you are up against, there is no straightforward solution

It would be interesting to see the original.

On another note I have seen a similar shot to this before and wonder if this specific scene is one that would benefit from shooting farther back with a longer focal length, getting a small portion of rock in focus and the island larger, if possible.

Grahame

[Wayland]

Something like this?



90 seconds work after half a bottle of wine.

I'll try to explain what I did tomorrow when I'm a bit more sober.

[Mike Buckley]

after half a bottle of wine.

I'm convinced that should be part of every post-processing workflow.

[ShaneS]

Maybe that's what I need! I'm working in this one now and am completely sober so stay tuned...

[ShaneS]

Here is what I came up with...no wine involved...I'm waiting to hear what you think to see how much is required



Like Dave suggested I used the ColorEfex and Viveza tools in Nik filters to make most of my adjustments and then did some fine tuning in Photshop CS5.

Any and all feedback welcome

[Stagecoach]

Hi Shane,

Looking at the heavy cloud cover to the left and what appears possibly a rain shower over the island I'm wondering if the water towards the horizon should be darker with the foreground lightened. I know this goes against the grain but it certainly makes it all look more dramatic and threatening if you do this, in my opinion

Grahame