Castle Mountain

[Rachel Hollander]

Taken from the west bank of the Bow River near Castle Junction off the Bow Valley Parkway in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada in the late afternoon.

Canon 50D
16-35 @ 19mm
1/80
f10
ISO 400
HH, CP filter
Selective levels adjustment, s/h on clouds, LCE

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Dave Mills]

Hi Rachel, Your reliving a great trip I took. I believe this spot is right near a bridge where I shot an Osprey nest. Warm light and nice cloud cover where the mixed lighting(dappling) doesn't bother me. I would wish for more shoreline or none at all...

[Rachel Hollander]

Dave - You're exactly right about the location and the osprey nest. Unfortunately I don't have images with more shoreline though I do have them with less. I thought including the bit of near shoreline at least differentiated that this was a river instead of a lake as in so many of my other images from the area. Glad you're still not sick of the Canadian Rockies images.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[dankearl]

Very nice photo, the mountain is beautiful.
I would maybe try to saturate the sky a bit more on the left, bring out the blue a bit.
Sharpness & exposure are good.

[Robert Amoruso]

Rachel,

This image shows how the right light really makes a difference. I agree with Dave's comment on the FG shoreline - my first thoughts exactly upon viewing the image.

With the right tweaking - suggestions below - you have a winner. I suggest.

1) Luminosity Mask to intensify colors (method below). In high contrast situations like this I will use this method to product a more pleasing, at least to me, image.
2) Curves adjustment to lighten shades only that got dark with the above. You can also paint on the mask created for the blending to lighten the dark areas made darker by the Multiply.

Highlight selection:

1) Channels palette.
2) Ctrl key and click the RGB channel. Photoshop will now create a feathered selection around highlight pixels in the image. Photoshop has selected pixels based on how bright they are. Pure white pixels are selected 100%. Pure black pixels are not selected and pixels falling in-between those two extremes are selected based on a percentage of how close they are to white.

Adjustment:

1) Go back to layer palette - you will see selection.
2) Create BG copy.
3) Create mask on the BG copy from the selection.
4) Selection is grayscale shaded.
5) Change blending mode to Multiply.
6) Adjust opacity.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Robert for the detailed tutorial. I'll give it a try.

Rachel

[Rachel Hollander]

Here's a repost applying the luminosity mask suggested by Robert at 60% opacity.

Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

On route to Lake Louise I guess.

Roberts has just brought it all together, with great detail, however I think the repost is going in the right direction re colour, light & feel, but the detail/sharpness looks lost, as if you have masked it? I might just re check what you did here Rachel.

BTW did you see the little wooden hut at the top?

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve, I'll take another look at it. Didn't see the hut up there but didn't know to look for it.