Stark Landscape

[lovelife65]

Took the pups up to Pullman this weekend for Wash State University Vet hospital visit and spent some time exploring. Second time we've been in the area.
It's got some wicked landscape, especially through the Palouse region (working on those photos).

Anyhow, sun was somewhat high, but here's an attempt at a shot of the Palouse Falls area

Stark landscape by sharonkay finley, on Flickr


Palouse. For some reason, i could not get this to where I wanted it. the colors are honestly accurate for this time of year, but ...

Palouse by sharonkay finley, on Flickr

[mugge]

Sharon, the composition in the second image is stunning in my opinion. I think you will get a few comments as to make it even better.
Cheers Ole

[lovelife65]

Thank you as always Ole. I appreciate you taking the time to reply

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, I expected an even longer exposure on the first image, surprised you got such smooth clouds.

[royent]

Second one very much like Tuscany, central Italy
Roy

[billtils]

Like the second one - a lot.

[DanK]

Very nice images. I agree--the second is more striking.

You didn't say what it is about the second that you don't find satisfying. If it were my image, it would be the lack of contrast and texture. This is particularly true because in my mind, the lines are a big part of what makes this image, and they aren't very pronounced.

The image has a somewhat limited tonal range. if you look at the histogram, you will see that while the limits of the histogram extend fairly far out, the great bulk of the photo is in a fairly narrow range. That's one reason it seems so low in contrast.

Not knowing what you want, and not having a large enough image to work on local contrast, I haven't fiddled with this. However, if you have lightroom, you could try these things:

1. Extend the tonal range, using the black, shadows, highlights, and white sliders or the contrast slider.
2. If you want more contrast, play with imposing an S-curve in the tone curve box.
3. To bring out detail, you have three options. One is sharpening. If you use Lightroom's sharpening, be sure to move the masking slider up to black out areas you don't want sharpened. (Zoom to 1:1 and hold the alt key while you move the slider.) A second is the texture slider, which brings out slightly coarser detail than sharpening and will add texture. The third is the clarity slider, which does two things: it brings out detail coarser than that affected by the texture slider, and it adds mid-tone contrast. Without a larger image, I can't see what impact these three would have on your image.

In the case of the first image, I would lighten the shadows in areas where you are losing detail.

[Manfred M]

Sharon - both are nice images but the second one is more unusual and more distinctive.

You could tweak the mid-tone and global contrast just a touch. I would concentrate on toning down the back field so that it is not so bright and get it to look more like the front fields.

[lovelife65]

Thank you all for the great suggestions, they are appreciated.
Dan, I think you are correct, I felt as if the image was too flat, yet I didn't want to make it look like a Kinkaid painting either.
The tonal range is fairly limited given the time of year and the dry wheat fields.
I'll play with it some more given the suggestions, although Manfred's quick edits look much improved.

[pschlute]

Very striking landscapes. Yes the second is my favourite too.