I'm going to be posting a series of images that are more and more outside my usual selection of subjects...so beware :t3...some of them I'm happy with, some of them may be a bit shaky. This was taken in the Chesterfield Valley, near the Missouri River, late afternoon, after the rain had passed. Used the 24-105, f/16@1/320; processed the RAW image in LR, added NIK's Tonal Contrast and Detail Extractor on separate layers, then quite literally played around a bit in Topaz 5...using primarily Clean and Simplify. Hope you enjoy it.
11-22-2011, 10:50 AM
denise ippolito
John, You did a great job with this. I am seeing a very faint halo around the trees lower branches that might be more visible if you printed it. This is beautifully done. The single tree and the moody clouds are great. :S3:
11-22-2011, 12:37 PM
Roman Kurywczak
Hey John,
Awesome clouds and I really like your comp placement of the tree. Very nice colors too!
11-22-2011, 04:27 PM
Dennis Bishop
The clouds are what I marvel at with this one. Of course, they're not the only thing that's good about it. The gold and blue are great together. As Roman already said, the placement of the tree was well done. And I like the way you cropped it.
11-23-2011, 07:33 AM
John Storjohann
1 Attachment(s)
Denise, Andrew & Dennis...thank you for your comments. I'm just starting to play with landscapes a bit...I was somewhat startled to find how easily skies yield noise in an image...and I'm still wrapping my head around the 24-105 and how to get the best results from it. Denise, does the image look better now, RE hallowing? I pushed the envelope a bit on the processing on the the original...here I toned down the color a bit and tried not to go as far over the top...I also left a bit more of the sky in, let's see what people think. Good catch!
11-23-2011, 09:07 AM
denise ippolito
John, I like this version a lot and the halos seem to have disappeared.
11-23-2011, 09:16 AM
John Storjohann
1 Attachment(s)
Thank you, Denise...one more version, warmed up a bit to bring out the gold tones...hopefully the halos didn't come back!
11-23-2011, 09:22 AM
denise ippolito
I think I prefer the cooler version, both are lovely.:S3:
11-23-2011, 10:55 AM
Dennis Bishop
I'm with Denise on this. The first re-post is my favorite of the three. The gold in it complements the blues very nicely without being quite so intense. This version has a different feel -- more peaceful and less dramatic. However, the clouds still have a strong impact, and I think that's one of the key features of the image.
11-23-2011, 11:56 AM
Jay Sheinfield
Hey, nice simple composition. The clouds look great. Very serene feeling about it. Well done.
11-23-2011, 05:31 PM
Hilary Hann
Love your work on this John, beautiful effect and the final image has a lovely soft glow about it. Comp works very well.
