Shenandoah

[Peter Farrell]

This was taken from Skyline Drive in Shenandoah NP in Virginia. The mountains are the Blue Ridge Mountains, named that for the blueish haze seen so often. I tried to catch some of that haze as well as some of the fall colors that the area is also known for. I debated about including the lone evergreen tree in this composition; but I decided that I liked its wind-blown shape and felt it added some scale to the image.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq128/peterf/Shenandoah.jpg

Sony A700, Sigma 24-70 f2.8 @24mm, f11, i/250, iso200, monopod

[John Ippolito]

Peter, I think the evergreen serves to anchor a nice composition. I might be tempted to add some layers and selectively darken/saturate the colorful distant forest and the lovely sky to add a bit more drama. Also tempted to crop a bit off the top and LH side to remove the partial evergreen there. I like it.

[Robert Amoruso]

Peter,

Good looking scene and I can see what attracted you. Overall, the harsh light is hampering this image. I tried some tweaks that I outline below and repost for you to consider. Information on them can be found at the following link for my tutorial.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20434

Processing in PSCS3:

1) Reverse S-Curve to lower contrast
2) Lowered Saturation
3) Shadow/Highlights Correction using the following Settings:
Shadows, 25/25/0 (Radius at 0 to increase the affect)
Midtone Contrast, +15

This lowers overall contrast and opens up the shadows. It also makes the image look a bit flat. I then ran Local Contrast Enhancement on a BG copy using USM at 20/50/0. That image I posted in the next post.

[Robert Amoruso]

The above makes the image look a bit flat. I then ran Local Contrast Enhancement on a BG copy using USM at 20/50/0 and posted here. What I did not like most about the lower contrast version, was the flatness of the bear trees in the middle ground. I like what the LCE did with that portion but feel other areas can be painted to black on a mask to remove the LCE affect from there.

For the repost, I did not mask any areas.

[Robert Amoruso]

I then took a crack at a recrop. Here I took a que from John above and eliminated the left cut tree. Also cleaned up the right side cuts and cropped closer to a Rule of Thirds (grid retained to demonstrate).

You do lose some sky though in my recrop. Again, I did not more for the sides then getting a ROT crop so you be the final judge.

Including the haze as you mentioned helps to impart depth in the image and that is a good decision.

[Peter Farrell]

I then took a crack at a recrop. Here I took a que from John above and eliminated the left cut tree. Also cleaned up the right side cuts and cropped closer to a Rule of Thirds (grid retained to demonstrate).

You do lose some sky though in my recrop. Again, I did not more for the sides then getting a ROT crop so you be the final judge.

Including the haze as you mentioned helps to impart depth in the image and that is a good decision.

Robert,
Thank you for spending the time that you did re-working my image. I like your final product especially for how it lightened the lone evergreen and picked up the saturation of the blues in the sky. I post process with PS elements 5 (hope to upgrade to ver 8 soon) so some of what you did I will not be able to reproduce. I need to spend more time in learning my PP software to improve my final product.
Thanks again,
Peter

[Ed Cordes]

While I like both re posts a lot, I might consider using the first re post and cropping a bit of sky and making a pano. This seems to my eye convey a sense of vista for which Shenandoah is famous.

[Stu Bowie]

Its always great to learn about other countries, and why certain places are called what they are. Interesting and informative reading from Robert. I like the layered BG, and overall colours.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Peter,
I like the final re-post by Robert as that strengthens the comp IMO. I also lean towards more contrast, so the contrast boost to the mid-tones really gives this more impact. Nice use of the layeing and good choice including the lone pine as Robert showed in the ROT grid.