Here's a picture I took from work this morning. The sky was cloudy and somewhat depressing, before a gentle glow appeared over the mountains. I grabbed my FZ5 out of my bag and waited patiently. The glow lasted only 3 minutes, but I managed to pop off a dozen shots at varous exposures. I picked one favorite, and tossed the rest.

I'd like to know how to really bring this picture to life. I want it to describe how the moment felt, the sky was practically dripping with color. I've added a curve to darken the foreground terrain and intensify the red. I also cranked up the yellow and red saturation. I sharpened, and lastly I applied NeatImage to smooth away the noise.

Please critique.

Ken

Hi Ken,
Lovely sunrise photos,i love the colors...i am the same, always have my camera to hand at sunrise and sunset, hva taken many pics and not one sky color is the same..I am soory i cant give you a how to do as its only my hobby..

Kind regards PatriciaKay

just one possibility of many... this is a high contrast, lower light, high pass sharpen, version.

i think your corrected version is headed in the right direction. i basically just did more of the same, especially the contrast.

craig

It is surely very beautiful but I would suggest to crop it. I think that there are great parts of the sky that do not actually add to the beauty of the view. Why not cut it down to the one third down to the right so that you get the light coloured mountains together with the major red shades. I have made the traditional photoshop enhancements. Which are those mountains ?
Anders

Thanks all. Anders, I hadn't considered changing the crop, thanks for the suggestion. You've somehow brought back the beams of light, which aren't as obvious in my version. In real life there were beams, as if from the heavens.

These mountains are part of the Coastal Mountain Range in western Canada. This shot was taken from Abbotsford BC, about 1 mile from the Canada-US border, facing east. If I'd aimed another 10 degrees right, you would also see Mount Baker (had it not been obscured by the cloud base).

I will take both your advice and give the reds a little more punch (and make the terrain darker for contrast).

Thanks,

Ken

Hi :)

This is my first post, so hello, and the picture is screaming with potential to me. I think you've managed to capture in it some very real possibilities to create some very different approaches with the final outcome.

If only I had a camera that picked up colour properly.....lol

Ken
like Aylaah i think this photo has a lot of potential, and hopefully you dont mind that i have done a painting of it. (but if there is a problem at all please let me know and i will remove it asap)

Palms

Personally.. I like the original. :tongue:

Ken

I agree that this image has a lot of potential for quite a range of treatments, but is also a very nice shot untouched.

I have had a go at getting more of a warm glow to the sky and have darkened the foreground to help with the sense of depth. I generally go on feel with these sort of images, having an idea of where I want to end up, but no set course.

I primarily made a various selections from the red channel (one as is, and one with a high contrast so as to be able to isolate the lighter areas of the sky or inverse to select the mountains), and on new layers, filled these selections with deep orange/red tones sampled from the image. I set this on hard light, colour burn and multiply etc. Basically just having a play, and masking different parts to get more of a glow bottom right .

Lastly i cropped off the top part of the sky as i thought 2 thirds sky and 1 third mountains was more balanced.

not a very detailed explanation i know, but thanks for posting this image.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carl.mckendrick/

carlos,

welcome to RP.

i like that. it has pop but not overly so. and i think you're right about the crop.

craig

Coming from the flatlands of Florida, I don't have any experience with mountain sunrises, so I just went into a fantasy world. :-)

Carlos,

I've cropped mine slightly, not quite as much as yours. One thing I've tried to enhance are the "rays" that really existed, but weren't apparent in the orig. Let me know what you think. Thanks Swampy and everyone else so far. I like the "painted" versions of this image, too.

Ken

ken,

i like that one MUCH better than your first. it's got some pop without going overboard. the crop works better and the colors and color blending are great. very nicely done!

craig

Ken,

Very nice. It bring out all the right parts of the original picture. i.e colour, mood and light. good job.

Carlos