It is SOoooo hot out here! So, I decided to stay indoors and get back to scanning old slides that I have. I focused on scanning the "cool" ones that I took while visiting in Colorado a few years back.

Anyway, this one picture reminds me more of the desert scenery I saw while living in Arizona but something about it made me think that someone here might want to play with it. I don't think that the scan quality is very good, but I couldn't spend any more time on it.

For my interpretation, I did a little with it, levels, curves, find edges, crosshatch filter and I think that's it, had to quit, almost time to start cooking supper.

Have fun!

had to quit, almost time to start cooking supper. Sometimes I get way too carried away with this sort of thing. Glad to know somebody knows when it's time to "Say 'when'"! :)

I decided to go for a BW conversion, something of recent interest. The red channel was the most useful, so I started by selecting that channel, select > all, edit > copy, click on RGB composite channel, new layer, edit > paste.

Using Magic Wand with tolerance 10%, (x) continuous I made and saved a selection from the sky area (select > save selection). Rumaged around and found a pic with some pretty clouds and resized it the approx size I needed. Copied clouds into the Colorado image, Select > Load selection (sky mask) and added a Layer Mask to splice in some the clouds. Did some tweaking with Curves for more contrast and finished up with a layer filled with 50% gray set to Overlay and applied the Noise filter (3% monochrome). I can almost taste the dust. :)

Thanks for sharing your pic. Stay cool...

Danny, I love it, it reminds me of an Ansel Adam's picture. Wow! I love what you did with the sky, it really gives some much needed drama and definition to the picture. Terrific job IMHO :).

A quicky water color,

Gerry, your quickie watercolor, sure makes the difference between the original "blah" to "Aahh"; really, really nice.

I was really amazed at what an auto levels correction could do... Then I played with contours and selectively enhancing local contrast and adding noise.

Michel B

Michel, what a neat rendition! It looks like a drawing from a comic book, just waiting for some super hero to come flying in and save someone!

Just a quickie rendition bringing out a little detail.

Steve C.

Susie i love photo's of different places in the world, and i really feel for you being to hot ( not really it is cold and wet here in my part of the uk:) and whats more it is supposed to be summer ! ! !)

messed around with tone mapping and layering

Palms

Palms, you really got the feel of the area. Very nice rendering.

Carole, who spent her childhood in the Montana Rockies.

Palms, you really got the feel of the area. Very nice rendering.

Carole, who spent her childhood in the Montana Rockies.

Thank you Carole, always nice to hear especially when trying something different :)

Palms

Steve - Nicely done. Your rendition reminds me of a particular artist's style, but for the life of me, I can't remember of whom it is that I'm thinking!

Palms - Last month was record rain, this month, record heat. Oh well... If I could, I'd gladly send you some of our sunshine and heat :) . I really, really love what you did with the picture. I've never heard of 'tone mapping' before, but seeing what you have done with it makes me want to look into it. IMHO, you really have a talented "eye" for what and how to transition the ordinary to extraordinary. Beautiful.
As I go through these old slides, I'll try to post better ones of the Rockies, but been having a problem with my scanned quality.

Susie
tonemapping goes with hdr work there are some stunning photo's done with it you will have to google it and have a look
I use a free programme that i heard about from this thread

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/software/17522-qtpfsgui.html

Now i bet you are impressed, well dont be cause i havent any real idea what i do i just press buttons and see what happens :wink: ( honestly )

Palms

Steve - Nicely done. Your rendition reminds me of a particular artist's style, but for the life of me, I can't remember of whom it is that I'm thinking!



Thanks. Funny, but I had the same feeling that it had a look I had seen before. Wasn't trying for anyone's style, it just came out that way. Strange.

Steve C.

Gerry, your quickie watercolor, sure makes the difference between the original "blah" to "Aahh"; really, really nice.

Thanks for the compliment, Susie. I had a nice picture to start with.

Palms, you made me laugh with your comment "i havent any real idea what i do i just press buttons and see what happens' and thanks for the link!:pleased: