A Plan That Worked

[nickjohnson]

Some time ago I showed a location that I planned to have a go at – when the light / cloud / sun rise where how I had it all arranged in my head.
Long story short I got up at 03:00 on Sunday morning to get these.

#1 Pre dawn – nice soft light, muted tones, moon visible – but not darkness at all. Pink in the far sky – so the sun is on it's way.



#2 The main event. I have difficulty assessing this since I have so much invested in it. What do you think?



#3 It's all over now – the sun is up and the histogram is out to lunch. Here is an overview of the set-up.



#4 The colour on the sea grass leading up to “that” castle was gob smacking...



#5 .



#6 Now I know that some of our lady contributors are not in such great shape right now – so here is one with extra flowers.

[chrisc]

Oddly enough, while the castle looks appropriate to the scene on all the other shots, on the last one it competes for attention with the foreground flowers, hence the flowers not doing the intent of your message.........sooooo, I removed the castle and did a bit of a crop and accented the flowers just a tad more.

It's just an idea.

[chrisc]

I am curious to the method you use to set your black point because when I use my method, I get a bit of a different image. I am not suggesting it is better, just different.

I am putting this up because I am sorta-kinda questioning some of my workflow.

[jeeperman]

Nice bunch of images Nick and well worth the effort. Stunning colors on the grasses.

Rather than comment on all I will say this about the one Chris has worked with. I like the color red in your clouds better, however Chris's edit does show the sun cascading onto the Island better. Over all I would like to see a mix of the two. Chris's seems slightly bright and yours is not quite showing the quality of lght on the island.

[katynoelle]

Nick!!! sigh.... very lovely!

I like the soft subtle light and colors in the first!

Love the second but, personally, like it better with a crop up from the bottom.

#4.... oh, I just love this!!! blue and yellow are gorgeous together and the tones in the colors are very, very pleasing. What about cropping up from the bottom and getting rid of the scraggly bit of grass at the bottom? would that stunt the composition? Also, how about cloning out the 'stick'? Then, you would just have that beautiful flow of soft grass. I really like this one!

and, the last is lovely, too... I'll let everyone else be discerning about the intricacies.

[chrisc]

As per Paul's suggestion this is a reduction of the sky opacity by 65% (overlay of mine on his).

I really was more interested in how the black point was set on Nick's than making an editing statement, but thought it might look good, so gave it a go.

[nickjohnson]

Jul 16, 2012 12:27:53 GMT chrisc said:

Oddly enough, while the castle looks appropriate to the scene on all the other shots, on the last one it competes for attention with the foreground flowers, hence the flowers not doing the intent of your message.........sooooo, I removed the castle and did a bit of a crop and accented the flowers just a tad more.

It's just an idea.

Yes indeed - for fairly obvious reasons I simply cannot bring myself to do such a thing - clearly there is not hope for me.

[nickjohnson]

Jul 16, 2012 12:38:30 GMT chrisc said:

I am curious to the method you use to set your black point because when I use my method, I get a bit of a different image. I am not suggesting it is better, just different.

I am putting this up because I am sorta-kinda questioning some of my workflow.

Well I'm curious about what you do since I'm not sure I actually set a black point - at least in the way that you mean. Two nations divided by a common language!

Anyway. When I convert from raw to DNG using DXO I do nothing to the blacks / shadows.
When I use the LRv4 develop module on the DNG file I only set the blacks so they don't clip, and alter the shadows slider to suit.
When I use CS5 to finish off I make a layer for the curves tool and set the black input to 8.

Soooooo what do you do Chris?

[nickjohnson]

Thank you – Chris, Paul, and Katy.

Following your kind suggestions I present …...



and …..

[katynoelle]

[chrisc]

I edit in RAW editor for the usual suspects and bring it into CS6. I have LR but have never been overly enthralled with it..probably my loss but I always seem to lose my files somewhere in it's depths.

In CS6, I use the mask maker and set it for "Threshold." Using the color picker dropper and the threshold slider, I first move it all the way to the left until the screen is as white as I can get, then slowly move to the right until a decent sized black area appears (big enough to click on with the eye dropper). You'll note is designates it as 1. next, I move the slider to the far right, then ease back to the left until I have a similar size white area #2 and mark with the eye dropper (color picker).

I discard that layer and bring up my curves adjustment layer and using the black dropper, I plant it in the middle of #1. Conversely, with the white dropper, I plant it on #2, which sets both the black and white point (almost there). If there is a clear gray, I use the middle dropper and set that value as well though mostly I just set that in Levels. You clear the markers by clicking on the color picker tool and at the top, choose slear from the menu option.

Using the curves dialogue box, I move the white line up to the highest set mark, pulling from the middle.

I open Levels and move the left marker to the right where it hits the high black point and move the right slider to a good defined white, but gently so, then adjust the middle gray as needed. I add some Vibrancy, some Hue Sat, sharpen and present....sometimes doing an Jiro, sometimes doing some color adjustment, sometimes....well, this, that and the other.

If this is too complicated, I would be happy to set up some screen shot demos.

[jeeperman]

Good edits Nick although I think there was a slight vibrancy loss. I like Chris's last edit for color and vibrancy which was a mix between both of yours.

[Seri]

Hello Nick

That's a luscious sunset you caught there, and since so much that I agree with has already been said, I just wondered how far you're willing to go?

Would you remove entire land masses? I'm pretty obviously used to seeing islands as opposed to headlands, so to my eyes it looks a bit better if the dark land mass to the right is removed. But you and others may not, of course. And my poor pp skills have made a bit of a hash of it, but it does illustrate the point. See what you think.



As for the others, that place reminds me of one of my favourite places to enjoy in solitude on one of the smaller islands, so I'm automatically biased

I love the way the low, warm light in the sky to the right is not shown, but is reflected in the walls of the castle and on the Marram grass. I could spend all day beachcombing along that shore.

And it was very courteous of you to offer flowers to me and the other ladies here who were suffering misfortune. For myself, I am not a conventional romantic, and had you brought me roses you would have died on the spot But I adore wild flowers, and especially those that grow by the sea, so your gift cheered me up when I was feeling very sorry for myself.

I can't quite be sure of their species. I'm making a guess at dutch clover, red campion and possibly sea thrift too? Lovely, regardless of naming, so thank you, kind Sir

[nickjohnson]

Dear Seri,
You have been poorly. Err.... it's a sunrise – sunsets looking east are a bit …. rare.
Your edit looks fine – but is unusable for two reasons. First, removing islands from photographs is a hanging offence in these parts. Second, your edit makes the thing look like a line of submarines at a fleet review. That's the sort of thing people say when they can't admit to hating landscapes. I've been in a camera club that had over half it's membership of that persuasion.
So glad you liked the wild flowers. No danger of roses – well we wouldn’t what anything coming up ….err.... roses – would we?

[Seri]

Jul 19, 2012 21:35:58 GMT nickjohnson said:

Dear Seri,
You have been poorly.

My dear Nick,

Please. No need to make apologies for me; I’m happy to stand corrected (or in any other orientation, for the matter, but I digress....).

Err.... it's a sunrise – sunsets looking east are a bit …. rare.

Rare indeed, but not impossible. Bertrand Russell illustrates my point with a similar case:

The mere fact that something has happened a certain number of times causes animals and men to expect that it will happen again. Thus our instincts certainly cause us to believe that the sun will rise tomorrow, but we may be in no better a position than the chicken which unexpectedly has its neck wrung."

But to be serious for a moment, you did say ‘pre-dawn‘ in your introduction, and I missed it, but I cannot accept your generous offer of blaming my recent illness. I’m afraid that my concentration has been compromised lately by friends from past forums engaging my mind with all manner of things. This week it’s been a matter of dead gulls, poetry and killing jars

Your edit looks fine – but is unusable for two reasons. First, removing islands from photographs is a hanging offence in these parts.

Goodness! How quaint. If anyone were to devise a way to remove Jersey from our archipelago they'd be made Bailiff!

But of course, I was not suggesting you own up to making it vanish. Artistic licence surely has a place here? And could you not make up some reasonable excuse? Rising sea levels? Or volcanic activity?

Second, your edit makes the thing look like a line of submarines at a fleet review.

So why could you not present it as such at the next exhibition? Really, Nick, I would never have guessed that you were the unadventurous type

That's the sort of thing people say when they can't admit to hating landscapes. I've been in a camera club that had over half it's membership of that persuasion.

I’ve never been in a camera club, and never will, as I’m allergic to crowds. But I’m glad that I can safely assume that you’ve already left that particular one

So glad you liked the wild flowers. No danger of roses – well we wouldn’t what anything coming up ….err.... roses – would we?

Thank you. I adored the wild flowers, Your coyness is charming, and concerning roses, I’ve always admired Morticia’s practical response to them:



Roses are also mentioned in this touching expression of devotion and shared interests performed by my favourite couple:




And thank you for explaining your perfectly valid reasons for objecting to my edit with such good humour. I’ve learned something more about landscapes as a result

Yours sincerely,

Seri