Critiques please

[Ken Rogers]

This is a shot of Gabriola Island, BC Canada. I like this shot because it's a beautiful island, the horizon has a slight wide-angle curvature, and there is a thin layer of smoke that I think looks neat. I've done all I can with it.

For starters, I rotated the horizon level. Then levels and color adjustment. Next I multiplied the sky with a second layer and a gradient mask. I then applied a 2.0/200/0 unsharp mask. My reason for sharpening was to bring out the foreground detail. But when I sharpened, the sky became filled with noise, so I applied Neat Image to a duped layer, then applied the effect to the sky only, with another gradient mask.

Does the image need anything else?

Ken

[Flora]

Hi Ken,

I think you did a wonderful job on this picture!!! I just love the 'feeling' you gave it! The only thing I would do is (...hope you don't mind my having worked on your restored version...) very lightly increase sharpness and contrast on the foreground to enhance the smoke but also the details under it ...

[Ken Rogers]

Looks better with the added contrast and sharpness. What did you use to apply these?

I still haven't really developed a feel for applying unsharp mask. I understand the different effects of radius vs. amount, but always seem to overdo it. In this case, I applied it very sparingly. Like I said, it noised up my blue sky quite badly.

Ken

[skipc]

Looks good with USM 20, 10, 0...skip

[CJ Swartz]

Lovely image, Ken -- must have been a wonderful trip!

I think landscapes allow more for personal tastes, so it depends on what most appeals to you and your memory of that image in your mind.

Here's my rendition using the adjustment layer, Selective Colors to remove some bits of color cast from the mist and the forest --

my settings were -- on the Red color option: a minus 25 on magenta channel;
on the Whites -- a minus 25 on each of the channels CMYK;
on the Neutrals -- a minus 5 on Cyan/Magenta/Yellow

you can play with the sliders to see what appeals to YOU...

[Flora]

Hi,

Ken,

For improving contrast I loosely selected around the 'smoky' area of the foreground, strongly feathered it (10 pxs radius > Attachment), then I used USM with the values given in this excellent Tutorial:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...ancement.shtml

(the two links at the bottom of this tutorial lead to goldmines on the USM sharpening topic ... particular the second one!!!

For the sharpness, with my selection still active I run USM a second time with the following values:

Amount: 75%
Radius: 1.0 pixels
Threshold: 0 levels

Carolyn,

very nice!!! ... I stop sporadically at the Critique Forum exactly for what you said about personal taste be it for landscapes or for any other kind of picture ....

[Duv]

Ken, in your workflow, you use USM globally. That means your sharpening everything, the sky, the water, the fog..these don't need sharpening. This caused you to add an extra step in applying Neat Image. You might think about creating an Edge Mask and sharpening that only. It will give lots of snap to the shoreline, small buildings, etc. Just a thought.

Dave
ps. Having lots of fun with the pics you sent!

[Ken Rogers]

Glad to hear. Those are yours to do with as you please. I just did a search for the "Edge Mask" technique you mentioned and I came up with all sorts of good stuff. I'll give that a go.

Flora, thank you for the link.

Ken

[Kraellin]

hmmm, everyone is seeing brown and reds on the ground here. i saw green. i havent got it quite right, but there are trees down there.

i used a clarify layer,
fast fix plugin layer,
a fade correction layer,
curves adj layer to brighten and balance clouds to ground,
brightness/contrast adj layer for contrast,
a color balance adj layer,
and some blend modes on the image layers to bring out the greens a bit more.

craig

[anders]

When looking at these different versions of the very same photo it shows out clearly that we see very different things in a photo like this. I see first of all the diagonal coast line and the contast between the warm colours of land, the sky and the cold sea. Starting from Flora's very good work I would suggest to give the picture significant additional amounts of Gamma (1.5) and adjust is by the curves. My modest contribution to this threath you can see below.
Anders

[Ken Rogers]

Yes, your curve has really emphasized the smoke, too. Nice.

Ken