Brilliant Blues

[Norm Dulak]

D7000 w/Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 vr lens @ 92mm, hand held
ISO 800; f/7.1, 1/640 sec; MM + 0.33
PS CS6 levels, curves, crop, sharpen; Nik Detail Extractor

This ice formation was photographed from the Norwegian polar expedition ship, MS Fram, near Paradise Bay, Antarctica.

All C&C are welcome.

[Diane Miller]

A nice view, with lovely blues and cyans, but the darkest tones have been crunched to black (have a look at the histogram), and some step has given you a dark halo along the top edge of the snow. I'd expect much softer shadows for ice.

[Norm Dulak]

I would have preferred soft, diffuse light but instead had to contend with intense, brilliant sunlight. Under the circumstances, I was happy to be able to capture the colors as I remember them, and to show some of the fine texture of the ice.

[David Stephens]

I see from you comment that you had brilliant light. You pulled the levels down so much that it looks to me that it was taken on an overcast day. I think that you did capture that glacial ice color as I remember it. If it was full sun, why didn't you shoot at a lower ISO than 800? You might have gained slightly more DR at the lower ISO. Still, you extracted pretty good detail out of that snow.

[Norm Dulak]

If it was full sun, why didn't you shoot at a lower ISO than 800? You might have gained slightly more DR at the lower ISO. Still, you extracted pretty good detail out of that snow.

My primary interest at the time was photographing birds in flight following the ship, and I wanted high shutter speed. I saw no reason to change ISO for the ice.

But thanks everyone for your comments.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Norm,

the detail extractor does not good in the darks and shadows in the image. For sure not the underwater parts IMHO. The color is for me a tad to saturated. Did you ever try with Luminosity masks to gain all what you want?
as said above, check your Histogram with the whites on top of the iceberg. The blacks in the shadow area are for me to dark.
If you like PM me

Have a nice eve

Ciao
Anette

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks, Anette. But the dark regions you mention were not caused by Detail Extractor; they are present as well in the original, unaltered RAW file.

[Diane Miller]

A better way of thinking about it is that the tonalities are present in the RAW converter's interpretation of the RAW file, and it is just a generic one to start with. There is a huge amount of leeway in that interpretation, especially with ACR in PS6 and LR4 and later. If it was hugely underexposed they may not be salvageable, similar to blown out whites, but you may be able to bring the blocked up blacks back into the histogram with the Blacks and Shadows sliders, combined with Exposure. I understand the problem with wanting detail in the bright snow, and you did that very well. As you change the darker tones you may need to tweak the lighter ones more, but I'd bet you can improve this image.

If you used the Auto adjustment, I don't recommend it -- it can sometimes give you an idea but often does more harm than good.

Detail Extractor should enable you to pull even more detail out of the darks if you can get them in range.

I'd love to see some tweaking with this image!

[Norm Dulak]

Very interesting, Diane. I've gone back to the RAW file and tried again, with the result shown here. The blacks are better, but maybe the ice texture is not as good. But thanks Diane and Anette for your suggestions!

Norm

[Don Nelson]

Norm
Repost is almost there
With a little NIk Detail extractor, a couple of masks, adjustment of blending and sliders on the blending to keep from applying to the darks where not masked, gives more detail in the snow
A little additional contrast improvement through curves
Here's how I might do it (and wishing I had your raw to start with the improvement in detail in the bright snow area -- this is the best you can eak out on a JPG IMHO)

[Norm Dulak]

Good effort, Don. Thanks.

[Diane Miller]

The darks are so much better handled in pane 9! Don's approach in pane 10 is good advice. Or just layer on your original, with great snow texture, and mask to reveal just those parts (soft-edged brush is fine -- no need to get a precise outline). Maximizing different tonal ranges is frequently necessary.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Personally, IMHO I would not use the Detail Extractor at all in this. And when I would use it, than only selective in the snow, but there is no need for that. This can be done different. Give a try what you have learned!
Last RP from Don just brought back again to much the darks in the shadow areas, IMHO

RP was done in 5min, best I could do with Jpeg. It has halos around the ice-berg on the edges and the little pieces in the BG too. I would not do global sharpening here, only selective with the ice-berg, IMHO.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Norm, lots of great advice in this thread already...I like your repost and Anette's repost best...I do love the Detail Extractor tool and use it often but do think that Anette is right that it may not be the best tool for this particular image. Nice work!

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Norm, lots of great advice in this thread already...I like your repost and Anette's repost best...I do love the Detail Extractor tool and use it often but do think that Anette is right that it may not be the best tool for this particular image. Nice work!

Good to hear from you, Andrew. This has been quite a learning experience!