Fix this Image

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi All,
We want to try something in the landscape forums to spark a little interest and participation. In this image......nothing was done to it...Histogram was where it was "supposed" to be..........just a straight RAW conversion to tiff and then Jpeg to fit our size limitations. I even left the dust bunnies in. You can do any corrections you chose......but here's the catch......keep notes of what you do because we want you to re-post with what corrections you did to achieve the final result! This will help all of us when we find ourselves in a similar situation. There is no right or wrong with this but should show us a few things that we may overlook when making our own corrections. I will post my correction last (it's finished already).

We are starting with this image because it poses ceratain challenges as you will see.......so if you have any image that you want considered for us to help with becuase you had some difficulty...just PM me .....we may do 1 image a week or more if participation is high.

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Hi Roman, I hope you get lots of participation on this as it is a great idea.

I have been really busy this month so have not shot a photo as the fishing season is in full swing. I'm supposed to be cleaning the downstairs for my super bowl party but find this more interesting.

I worked on this image in photoshop, but just used the Nik plugins. I saw some of the work Michael Pancier did with Nik and was impressed.

I first used Viveza on the red peaks using control points and duplicating, the sky on the right and left.

Color effect pro using tonal contrast and brilliance and warmth

then define 2.0 for any noise, then Nik sharpener 3.0 also cropped a little off the bottom

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Curly,
I haven't used Viveza yet but it definitely popped the colors.....for everyone who has been there.......probably too unnatural (although I must admit....It does look pretty cool!). You also have a few halos around the rock formations.....which I also get when I don't use layers adjustments and sometimes get them in the sharpening process too. You also got the same effect I did in my original attempt in the sky...even though it was ISO 200....a bunch of noise in the sky due to PP......another hint of what I had to do. thanks for participating and i hope others chime in. Have fun at the super bowl party!

[Harold Davis]

here's my version. tried to keep it natural with a good feel. totally processed with capture nx2 using control points and contrast adjustment.

dude, if this is yours, please clean your sensor!!!:eek::D

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Harold,
Not too bad! Pretty close to mine.....but as I said....I cleaned up the noise in the sky a bit more.........and hint #2.....middle ground mountains look a bit light/lacking contrast!
As for the sensor cleaning......Don't be afraid of the healing brush:D!

[Harold Davis]

middle ground mtns? you talking bout the red tower thingys?

[David Thomasson]

Thanks for the play! Main steps I took in Photoshop CS3:

1. Levels adjustment layer to set white and black points.
2. Curves adj.layer to darken evergreens in foreground.
3. Levels, curves, photo filter adj. layers to selectively brighten the big rocks.
4. B&W adj. layer to tint the sky blue (applied with a gradient); and curves to darken that.
5. Curves adj. layer to darken the mountains in the background.
6. Sharpen with edge mask/USM.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very nice repost David!

[Alan Melle]

Here is my quick and dirty cut at "fixing" this image.

1. Cloned out dust spots
2. Shadow Highlight adj at 40,40,30
3. Saturation +5
4. Large radius sharpening @ 20,50,0 (unsharp mask)
5. Add layer mask
6. Paint out (black) foreground on layer mask

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi All,
first David.....you achieved some pretty interesting results with the lighting on the monoliths....not what I actually saw......but I like it and find it interesting! You also have nice blues in the sky.....my rendition and what I saw was more purple.....but again.....I like what you did with it. Your FG and BG mountains (sorry Harold!) are a little darker than natural....but having not been there.....I find your version has a lot of appeal and the cleanest edges....so nice job!
Alan...for quick and dirty....your version is the closest to mine.....especially on the monoliths.......you do see the telltale signs of the "dirty" conversion....with the halos......but with a bit more time.....easily remedied!.....so you are the closest so far! I will post my correction later this afternoon......hope you all come back with thoughts and input!
PS Final hint........Jackie posted an image a bit back.....that needed seperate corrections in 3 different areas http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=28752.

[Doug Brown]

Here's my crack at it Roman. I increased saturation and lightness just a little. Removed some dust spots. Sharpened. Boosted contrast in the foreground and mountains.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Doug,
Glad to see one of the AWF guys participating! Your BG mountains are very close to mine........and I may have gone a bit too far.....but you'll be able to judge for yourself a little later......I went a little lighter with the monoliths.....more like Alan and my sky looks quite like Harolds...but all with a bit more pop! No more hints and thanks for chiming in! Stop back when I post my image later and give your critique!

[susanschermer]

Hi Roman, I cropped the bottom (don't like the green) but left enough. Selected the snowy bottom and green and lightened the snow and added green in color balance,
I selected the mountains and added contrast.
Used Viveza to lighten and add a little more color to the monoliths.
Used Viveza to slightly darken the sky.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Susan,
Pretty close to my original version I did last Feb. I think this works very well and I find it interesting that you added green......I did the same in my new version . Here it is.....adjusted the levels with a layer in the sky.......brought up the shadows a bit in the FG....including the monoliths .... with a combo of shadow highlights, screen blend layers in the darkest areas, and levels. did a bit of blue color balnce first (this darkened the shadow areas a bit and provided some depth)........and then darkened the distant mountains some. A contrast boost to all with USM around 20,40,0.........and then selectively did some NR on the sky......just because of the jpeg compression and then blurred.....away from the pink. Final step was to add green....as Susan did....to knock down some of the purple. Clone/patch was used on spots and a few FG elements. My own personal thoughts on this......maybe a bit much or more than what I actually saw.......but the colors definitely pop! What say you all???..... and again, thanks for the great participation!

[Harold Davis]

honestly, if there was one thing that i dont like about it, it would be too much green in the trees on the bottom, meaning tone it down a little. and it's not that i dont like it. just seems a bit much.

it sure pops! i have studied your version since you first put it up. real nice PP work!!

[Roman Kurywczak]

You know what Harold.........you're right! I didn't notice that I popped the bottom green too.......very un-natural as you normally see forest green/black. Will re-do that area. Thanks!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

It is hard to comment unless you see them side by side which I did in windows picture viewer, and I like how Roman has brought the focal point to the rock monuments with the sun hitting them on the side for more drama and defintion. Also the lightening of the rocks from the middle and background give it a good sense of depth. The colours on all posts are very pretty and it must have been fun to work on them.

[Paul Marcellini]

ok here's my take. I used select>color range to do all my selections this time. duplicate layer, shadow highlight as shown. selected rocks, brought them up with curves. select mountains, darken and add contrast with brightness/contrast. color balance-added some blue to highlights, magenta and cyan for shadows. at this time of day i like the cooler light. and a final brightening/contrast bump globally. sharpened a touch for web. can't help the composition though. =) kidding roman.

ok i don't like the rocks after save for web.

[Rene Quenneville]

Great idea Roman. Good challenge. My version ended-up like Paul's, which, of course, is great!!!

[Michael Lloyd]

Open in ACR (from Bridge)
Spot Removal
Temperature: -13
Tint: -25
Exposure: + 0.5
Fill: 20
Black: 7
Brightness: -5
Clarity: +60 (high because of having to work with a tiny JPG)
Vibrance: +13
Saturation: +7
-----
CS4

dSLR Fractal Sharpen Action: Medium ISO / Medium Sharpen
Kevin Kubota Action: The Edge
Remove The Edge due to halos. Again, with a larger file the halos wouldn't have been there.
Color Efex Pro 3.0 Graduated ND
Upper Tonality: -25%
Lower Tonality: -5%
Vertical Shift: 43%
Rotation: 180 degrees
Blend: 25%
My Save L10 for posting action. Mostly all this does is run three passes of Unsharp Mask and constrain the image to 800px on the long side.


1st pass:
Amount: 100%
Radius: 0.4 pixels
Threshold: 2

2nd and third pass:
Amount: 125%
Radius: 0.2 pixels
Threshold: 0

Had to resave as L8 JPG to come within 200kb site guidelines.

Bummer... it lots some of it's brightness somewhere along the way...

[Roman Kurywczak]

OK...first Paul......looks a bit red/pinkish all around......not bad....but probably just a bit of color correction in either green /blue or cyan. Some more selective sharpening in the monoliths too! Glad you came by to give it a try!
Now Michael.....it did turn out a bit flat.........and this is another reason I posted this image.......in landscapes .....because of the size limitations......I too find I lose a bit of the pop when I do the save for web feature.....as it often loses some of it's punch. I think you corrected the distant mountains correctly....and will probably settle on somewher in between yours and mine (maybe a tad dark on mine). Your FG brush also kept the darker green/forest green color that would be more realistic. Besides some loss of pop.....nicely done!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi All,
this is great! 9 different versions! and all you had to work with was the small jpeg! I guess I'll try this again with another image next week........in the mean time.....feel free to pop in and add others (i'll keep checking in).....and go out with the same enthusiasm on some of the others in the regular forums!
Till next week.........thanks for the participation!

[Michael Lloyd]

Thanks Roman.

The image is better on my screen but still not what it could be. If I could have run "The Edge" on the original first it would pop. The halos are present in some of the other posts too but they were too much for my taste so I deleted the change that The Edge created since the halos cancelled out any benefit.

I think that you would love Color Efex Pro 3.0. If I am not mistaken I got the idea to buy it from one of Fab's posts. It's very simple and quick to use. I think it took maybe 10 minutes to do what I did above (starting with ACR)

[Harold Davis]

hey roman, this is a regular forum!!!! it just doesnt get the traffic of the others and it's a shame, because there are some great people in here. thanks for the time and effort in this! it was a cool assignment!!

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Hi Roman, I did not get the halos till I uploaded to the server. Nik plug-ins create an adjustment layer for every process. Thanks for this thread as I learned alot.

[Don Lacy]

Hope I'm not to late to the party, when I first saw the image I loved the twilight light and the soft pastel colors it produce so I wanted to enhance those aspects with out overpowering them and this is what i came up with using the following steps.
1. Curve layer to set white and black point
2. Curve layer to lighten midtones.
3. Curve layer and S curve to add contrast
4. Curve layer and layer mask to selectively lighten rock formation
5. Saturation layer on reds only a +10
6. USM at 60/10/30 on a separate layer and reduce opacity to 50%
7. Smart sharpen at amount 47 and radius 1.4 then faded the luminosity channel
8. Cropped from the bottom and right.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Don,
I think you captured the subtleness very well! As you can see.......I'm more of the "in your face" school of thought! Maybe a hair scaled back on the reds.....but I think you did very well. Thanks for participating!