Pryor Mountain, Wyoming

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

I took this image from the top of Pryor Mountain a month ago when I had gone up to see the wild horse herd that inhabits the area. Had a fine trip and took this to see if I could convey the vastness of the country. When viewing the image you are looking at the western side of the Big Horn Mountains. I was at about 8000 feet and the top of the Big Horns here was about 9500 the valley below was probably about 5000 feet. The sun was very high in the sky, which is certainly not what you would want, but I wasn't there at sun rise or sunset and I couldn't pull any clouds over head. Just very bright noon sun so I did the best I could. What do you think? I did alot of PS work and the result I feel is pleasing. All opinions more than welcome. It is how I improve.
Mac

Shooting data:
Nikon D700
70-200mm @ 200mm
200mm (in 35mm film)
1/320 sec, f/9
Mode: Program
Metering: Multi-segment
Exp comp: +1/3
ISO: 200
AF mode: AF-C
White balance: AUTO
Flash: Off
File size: 14.1MB
Image size: 4288 x 2844
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal

[Hazel Grant]

Hope you don't mind that "played" with your photo a bit. The histogram shows that it is very light, so I did some color adjustments and slight crop. I'm not sure I like the crop, though. Perhaps leaving the grass in the foreground gives more perspective. Others knnowing more than I do, can tell you that. A good catch of the mtns and that little house nestled the valley. Like that a lot.

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Hazel - Thanks for your work on the image. You really brought the mountain out, I did alot of work on it as it was really washed out and almost indistinct, but you did a much better job than I. I really like the mountains. Now about the crop. I gave that same crop some thought, but decided on the one in the original, but I am still not sure. Like yours alot. Thanks again for the help.
Mac

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Mac,
I do like Hazels crop but the mountains look to have a cyan cast to them in the re-post. I t does appear that the light was harsh...judging by the shadows. Only thing I can think of is to go into selective color......white, neutral and black channel..... give that a go....it may help.

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Thanks Roman, I'll give that a try and repost.
Mac

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

HI all- Here is my latest try. Is there any improvement or have I made it worse? All thoughts are appreciated.
Mac

[Dave Mills]

Hi Wheeler, Some good comments above. To my eye your repost looks underexposed. Hazels repost seemed to have balanced the lighting better but had a cyan cast.
When you have this type of lighting it's difficult to give the image a more dramatic appearance. When I took the image into PS I noticed halos around the tree areas....

[Nick Palmieri]

I think the light is obviously hurting you and I think everyone has commented on the PP. I may have thought about 2 things when shooting this, stopping down to f/16 or f/22, and a polarizing filter, these may have pulled more detail from this scene. I like Hazels re-post. Your composition certainly makes you appreciate the size of these mountains. TFS.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Mac,
Yes you went a little darker......but overall it did seem to improve the colors overall. Here's what I did entire image selective color>white +13 N +12 B+8 Mountain and sky layer W =6 N =22 B =20 LCE of 20/35/0 FG grasses +7 green in color balance.....finally back to sky and mountain.....>Brightness/contrast....-8 B +15 C
Lastly 24 on black slider in levels on treeline up.

Although Nick brings up a good point on the polariser.....because of the sun angle....probably wouldn't work/have any effect.

Let me know your thoughts

[Roman Kurywczak]

You should be a bit more neat than I was with selections:D!

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Hi Roman- You did a great job on the image and thank you for telling me what you did to acheive it, however, I don't know what LCE refers to? . Thanks again for your help.
Mac

[Roman Kurywczak]

Sorry Mac.....local contrast enhancement. Unsharp mask> amount anywhere from 20-40 ( I tend to start at 20 fro landscapes) Radius 20-50 ( around 30 is a good start).....and Threshold 0. Robert has a sticky tutorial on it in tonal range tweaks at the top of the forum.