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Randy Mays
03-26-2009, 08:25 PM
Wanted to see what the fellas / ladies thought about this shot

Shot Date - June 2008.
Canon 40D 24-70 F/2.8
ISO 100 at f/16 for 2 sec.
Post processing - Smart sharpen & .25+ Exposure

http://www.huntel.net/randymays/pics/Img_5931-12x18.jpg

Robert Amoruso
03-26-2009, 09:32 PM
Randy,

Welcome to the landscape forum. Nice image. I really like the balance of the rainbow and the lightening bolt. I also like the layers of colors in the FG leading up to the BG thereby creating depth in the image. Great timing getting the lightening bolt.

The image has a magenta color coast and I felt the FG was to expansive and a bit dark. I reposted a tweaked version. Workflow follows.

1) Straighten horizon using Image > Rotate > Arbitrary after drawing a line across the horizon using the Ruler Tool.

2) Using levels set a white point at RGB=240 in the whitest part of the sky to remove the magenta color cast.I then masted out the correction on the sky to keep the more intense red look of the clouds.

3) Curves selection to lighten the FG and then masked out the sky and clouds.

4) Crop bottom to lessen FG and create strong but minimal anchor of grass along the bottom.

Image size limit is 1024x800, your image is 1080px × 720px. Please observe posting limit in the future. Thanks.

Dave Mills
03-26-2009, 09:54 PM
Hi Robert...Your detailed correction worked very well on this most interesting image.

Randy Mays
03-26-2009, 11:57 PM
Thanks for the input Robert. I'm still learning the post processing. Tips are most welcome. I do like the correction. Thanks !

John Ippolito
03-27-2009, 01:21 AM
Very unique landscape. The proportions are most unusual, and great catch on the bolt of lightning.
Robert's PP has made it even more appealing.

Paul Marcellini
03-27-2009, 09:04 AM
I was going to suggest Robert's crop. Great atmosphere here. I will disagree with him on correcting the cast. I like the original processing better. If you were to remove some of the magenta, (which I know from chasing these skies, can lay all kinds of color casts on the land) I would take just a little out of the foreground only. Great timing, and welcome.

Randy Mays
03-27-2009, 06:00 PM
I was going to suggest Robert's crop. Great atmosphere here. I will disagree with him on correcting the cast. I like the original processing better. If you were to remove some of the magenta, (which I know from chasing these skies, can lay all kinds of color casts on the land) I would take just a little out of the foreground only. Great timing, and welcome.

Hi Paul,
Yea, I played around with post processing. I do like Robert's version better. I was suprised with the local response I got from this shot. I wanted to see what the professionals thought about it. This shot was taken on Boyer Chute NWR. They decided to use this as the inside of their new Brochure. Thanks for the comments.

Dennis "Curly" Buchner
03-29-2009, 06:01 AM
Nice Capture Randy

Roman Kurywczak
03-29-2009, 05:57 PM
Hey Randy,
I do like the crop......and would probably also remove the color cast....but I like both.....so your call there. Very unusual with both the lightning and the rainbow. Quite the spectacle.....nice capture!