Hey Everyone,

I would like to make this pair of images the next HDR challenge for the site. I really like these shots, but they just don't sing the way that I would like them to, and it might be cool to see what others can do with them. Who is up for the challenge?

Roman and JP, the images are coming. Anyone else who is interested, please post a note here or send me an e-mail/PM.

Cheers
James

Here is my HDR version. i wound up with some sort of halo around the top of the tree on the right side of the image. i confess that after a couple attempts to 'clean it up', i gave up. there is still some stuff left over from my playing around with it, but i didn't see any value in goofing around with it anymore for the purpose of this challenge.

the last one was a lot of fun to see the different results. based on what i wound up with on this one, i really look forward to seeing everyone's results again.

jp

Hi JP,

Thanks for sharing. I still find the shot to be way too contrasty and overly saturated - at least definitely so for the sky and mountains.

James

james -

i think a good share of that is cuz i seem to favor a little more saturation. so just for grins & giggles, i went back & re-did it, & if anything, i DE-saturated it just a tad. everything else i left pretty much baseline - in other words, i didn't do any other tweaking in processing. here is the result. not sure what you felt was too over done in the mountains, but if you felt that my 1st post had an issue there, then you'll probably feel the same way about this one. but i have to think this is pretty close to what was there.

jp

Hi JP,

I am not seeing any images connected to your post.

James

hmm - i must have not done it. sorry - & thanx for the alert.

Ok James...methinks your gonna like it....(nice shot to start with) And if you REALLY like it, I did my "super duper ....shhhhhh...I'd have to kill you if I told you how to do it" uprez and have it in .jpg form ready to print at 30"x45". I will temprarily upload it to my gallery if you want it so you can pick it up. (Check your mail for the link and password)

Here is the edit....

Nice job Roman , definitely brought out that clear blue sky seen so often in the Tetons . I'm just wondering if this image could be a little warmer , cause judging by the shadows I'm guessing this was taken in the hour or so after sunrise..?

Hi Krey,

I was thinking the same thing. I think the rich blues are awesome - but part of me wants the image just a bit warmer. Also, I am trying to figure out what I can do to help with the very slight halo around the tree.

The pp part of this has been very interesting as we have all produced the image very differently from how I initially took the shot other than those two quibbles. Roman, did you just do a curves adjustment for the sky, or did you do other things?

James

Yep...seeing what your saying about the halo....hit the layer mask with a black brush at about 8% opacity....looks like after my eyes adjusted...it needs a touch more.

As for the warmth....just use a filter in photoshop to add a little warmth to it. The ones at the top of the thread on my monitor seem warm to the point of loosing color.

Wondering how warm the scene truly was knowing how well out brains compensate for color casts....I have yet to see that strong a yellow cast except close to tornado weather in Detroit where I grew up....lol.

As for the sky and mountains....and a little of the foothills...I did a very slight but effective curves adjustment (a general adjust, and a tiny one in each color space of RGB)

This was a 3 part blend....mountains & sky/Middle ground/some of the shadows in the grassy foreground.

Roman

Ok...just adding to my thread here. Did a retouch based on your comments.

Here is the origonal:


Here is warmed up a tad....