View by the river side

[Ramesh Adkoli]

This is the view of River Arkavathi at the place where it merges with another river. Bird was a bonus;-) This place, called Sangam is about 80KM from Bangalore.

EXIF: Nikon D700, 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/125s, f/14, manual, afternoon
PP: Curves, Cropped (LHS, and bottom), converted to B&W using HSL

Appreciate your comments and views.

regards,
ramesh

[Paul Marcellini]

I would like to see more detail in the shadows here Ramesh, right now it seems a touch dark. The bird is a nice bonus in the sky but I would like a stronger focal point. Would love to see more form this area though.

[Julie Kenward]

I agree with Paul. The first thing I noticed was how "dark" the image felt. Bringing up some of the details in the shadows or doing some selective dodging would help put even more interest into a good composition.

[Robert Amoruso]

Ramesh,

This is what you are looking to do here in post-processing. In the next post is the curves adjustment I did. See that for more discussion.

[Robert Amoruso]

The lower part of the curve which are zero to 1/2 tone values (pixel RGB from 0 to about 150) are increased in gamma (brightness) to open up the shadows and mid-tones. The highlight values on the upper part of the curve are left alone preserving the highlights.

I also did a SHadows/Highlights adjustment in PSCS3 to further open up shadows.

Looks like you need a CCW rotation as well.

Interesting area and I like how you used to tree on the left as a framing element in the image. Thing to watch out for there was the lower branch is interesting with the BG hills. Lowering you vantage point would have solved that moving the branch to a complete sky BG.

[Ramesh Adkoli]

Thanks a lot Paul, Julie and Robert for your review comments. I had done some dodging of the trees to open them up and i guess that was not adequate. Robert, I applied your suggestions to the original image and could get the desired opening up of the darker parts. Tree intersecting with the hills is a good observation and i hadn't noticed that. I agree, it could have been avoided. Appreciate your time spending on this image and guidance.

It is a beautiful area and i have some more images. So, more later;-)

regards,
ramesh

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Ramesh,
Can't add much to the above excellent advice. I do like the way Robert brought up some of the darker areas and agree with Paul that the key is finding a stronger focal point.