Fogbound Sunrise #2

[ccphoto]

[Shadowman]

I see where you are heading with this one but just like some images need selective sharpening I think this image needs selective contrast just in a few areas.

[ccphoto]

I was trying to keep as true to the scene as possible but did do one contrast adjustment but this one is probably too far.

[Shadowman]

I was trying to keep as true to the scene as possible but did do one contrast adjustment but this one is probably too far.

I think you applied just enough.

[Manfred M]

Chris - A foggy scene like this works as it is. You definitely do not want to sharpen it; no global contrast, no mid-tone contrast, no micro-contrast (i.e. clarity or dehaze). Adding any of those will take away the mood of the scene.

The edit that you did just crisps up the shot; are you sure you want to do that? It really doesn't look like a foggy scene any more.

If I were to so something with it, I would probably go for more of a pano framing and concentrate on the trees that are not reflecting in the water.

[ccphoto]

[Manfred M]

That's working better in my view.

[casper]

hi Chris,
The original is my preferred interpretation. Fog is vague and mysterious and adding any clarity could detract from the mood.
- Noel

[ccphoto]

hi Chris,
The original is my preferred interpretation. Fog is vague and mysterious and adding any clarity could detract from the mood.
- Noel

I liked John's suggestion and even tried it but while he did like the contrast shift, to me, the original still evokes a far more mysterious mood. The little bit of sunlight filtering through the pea soup thick fog was just exquisite and I had to use every trick in the book to make the shot sans a tripod and ND filter. Now I am glad I had neither and just relied on tweaking the EV with a lower ISO, lower shutter. Fence posts make great tripods. I am going to make a platinum print of this later this week if we finally get electricity to the lab as promised.

[Manfred M]

Chris - I would be very interested to learn how your print turns out. I have been never been happy with the ones I have printed and have tried all sorts of post-processing tricks to soften the shot but the outcomes have never been what I was looking for.

There is obviously no comparison between a platinum print and an inkjet print and based on the little I know about the process I am trying to figure out how you are planning to pull that off. Platinum is well known for having a high Dmax and high dynamic range; basically the opposite of what this image holds.

[ccphoto]

I can lower the contrast by either adding more palladium or use a softer paper like Arches Platine and cool the developer down by a minus 10 F. I've always had good results with softer tones using a Pt/Pd process and minimizing the amount of ferric oxalate. We'll see as I am somewhat new to Pt/Pd though have pretty extensive experience in the silver salts processes.