When Blue Meets Yellow

[Dvir Barkay]

156477

A shot from one afternoon in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone. The blue is 100% real :) I am not quite sure what caused it, there was a lot of low hanging clouds and fog that day, and it made for some cool shots which I will slowly post. I really liked the contrast here between the blue cloud and yellow grass with the green trees in the middle.

1DIII, Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II wit x1.4TC, 135mm (yes I did not need the TC but removing it would have missed the spotlight on the trees and there is so much dust that I already had too many dustspots to clean up) F/5, ISO 200 (Love the sharpness of the 70-200 my first trip with it, and I have to say, it is a phenomenal lens, really almost as sharp as my 300/2.8)

[Don Railton]

Hi Dvir.

I like this the best from your Yellowstone series to date.. The Valley makes a nice lead up to the trees which stand out well in the sunlight, and the intersecting diagonals compliment nicely. So, no suggestions other than maybe trying to make the cloud stand out a little more (maybe using DE?) although I rarely use this so not sure if it would work..

DON

[Diane Miller]

What Don said! Gorgeous!!

I do think it's worthwhile to tweak a little more detail out of that wisp of cloud. I'd try Nik CEP's Detail Extractor or Tonal Contrast, or a stack with a touch of both. That can bring up some tonal magic that goes well beyond contrast. I've exaggerated a bit here to show the possibilities.

[andresleon]

I really like the composition and story this image presents. As Don described, the valley floor leads towards the clouds in a very simple and relaxing way. I think that the soft, almost out of focus, clouds are a really nice way to complete the image. I prefer that to more details in the clouds.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Dvir - As the others said I too really like the way the valley leads us in and the light. I too prefer the clouds of the op. The rp has a grittiness to the sky and clouds. Perhaps some LCE if you want to bring out just a bit of detail.

TFS,
Rachel

[Diane Miller]

Of course the RP is gritty -- it brought out noise in the JPEG, and was exaggerated simply to show what it could do. LCE is a very old technique, and has some drawbacks, including color and saturation changes. I was merely pointing out newer alternatives which are very easy to use and flexible. They are very similar to LCE behind the scenes, but minimize some of the drawbacks.

[Rachel Hollander]

Diane - Sometimes old ways still work. I find for bringing out detail in clouds that a bit of LCE works well. If I use DE, it's a very light touch and usually in areas that have a bit more texture. Personal preferences, of course.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I really like this, Dvir!
Great simplicity, colours and layers. Don't suppose you got another couple of frames either side for a wider/pano view if you stitch them?

[Don Lacy]

HI Dvir, Very nice image good use of tones and elements to build layers into the image

[Andrew McLachlan]

Nice one Dvir...I too like the the layers in this scene and the lighting...I do like Morkel's pano suggestion as it would work quite lovely if the group of trees were off to the right side of the comp!