Siena

[Ian Cassell]

I was poking through some images I took in Italy in the fall of '08 and never processed. I liked the mood here.


Canon 30D
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ 50mm
1/125 sec f/9 ISO 100 HH

Levels and crop for composition in CS5

106663

[Robert Amoruso]

Ian,

The image has some nice lines in it - the valley floor arcing right as are the upper row of homes on the right. I reposted with the following in PSCS5.

1) Shadow/Highlight adjustment to open shadows.
2) Local contrast enhancement using USM at 20/50/0 to reduce fog effect in the middle ground.
3) JPG sharpened.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Robert. I like the effect of the S/H change, but not wild about the increased sharpening. It sort of had the feel of the Hudson-River school greens in the FG to me, and the sharpening takes that away.

[Robert Amoruso]

Ian,

That is AOK with me.

I am a f/64 Group kind of landscape photographer - maximum sharpness FG to BG.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Robert, and I usually agree. This one, however, appealed to me with muted tones. I appreciate the work you did on it.

[Don Railton]

Hi guys

This image is a lot more appealing than its thumbnail would suggest...Its a lovely scene full of details... I do like the extra pop Roberts adjustments have made, but I agree that it does remove a lot of the sombre mood present in the OP...

Ian,
If you just sharpened the OP would this retain the mood you seek while improving the image? just a thought...

DON

[Rachel Hollander]

Ian - I like this and the s/h adjustment that Robert did has really taken this up a level IMHO. I would be curious to see a repost with the s/h but without the sharpening.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Interesting scene, Ian. I am normally a fan of landscapes that include minimal human elements and ideally included none of it. That said, this is a "cityscapes and travel" forum as well and I do appreciate one who can make a scene like this work.

I like Robert's repost for the increased detail in the shadows but would back down on the sharpening a tad, though I think my ideal would be somewhere between his post and your OP :S3:

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks for commenting, folks. I'm going to go back and experiment a bit with different degrees of sharpening and building on Robert's idea of S/H adjustments. I have a few more images from that trip that I never got around to messing with and it looks like I should. I've learned a lot about PP in the intervening past 3 years.

[Don Lacy]

i Ian, Somewere between your and Roberts version would be ideal, nicely seen and composed.

[Valerio Tarone]

I made some research and I've learned about Hudson river..and f64 group. I like the Robert's version.

[Chris Korman]

A little late to the post, but I just saw this thread, here's my take on the scene, while trying to retain the "mood":


http://webs.lanset.com/hypoploi/jpeg/MG6824-XL_edit1.jpg