Image Help - - How to improve a dull landscape pic?

Mars · #1 06-14-2004, 11:33 AM

Hello to you all,

this is my first post and I hope I don't make any unforgiving mistakes... but I have the following question: Is there a way to improve the picture below, to get more romantic sunset-like colours (as it actually was, when I took the pic) and to get a nicer overall look?

The first photo is the original one, the second is my unsophisticated try playing around with colors and curves a little bit (tried to apply the s-curve). I've read the very helpful book by Katrin Eismann but in this particular case I end up with a not very satisfying picture yet.

Thanks for all hints... :-)

Best regards, Martin

kiska · #2 06-14-2004, 01:11 PM

Martin- this is just a 'quickie'. Hopefully, it will get you in the right direction. I included my layers palette. If you don't have pscs, you can make a color layer as a photo filter. Needs more tweaking to get back shadow detail.
kiska

Duv · #3 06-14-2004, 02:23 PM

Hi Martin!

Welcome to RetouchPro. I think Kiska's pic works nicely. Your picture is very hazy and lacks contrast. The formations lack detail, at least it appears that way with what you have sent. To start, instead of an S curve, try a Z curve, just drag the top corner of the curve to the left and the bottom corner to the right. This pulls the formations to black and creates drama.

Cheers
Dave

Gary Richardson · #4 06-14-2004, 02:32 PM

Hi Martin, I've also had a quick play with your image, what I did is as follows.

1. Create new layer set to soft light blend, radial gradient orange/magenta.
set to about 40% opacity from top LH corner.
2. Create new layer linear gradient black/clear 30% opacity in bottom RH corner.
3. Adjust contrast slightly using levels adj layer.

Mars · #5 06-14-2004, 04:05 PM

Great, only a few hours later and already three helpful answers. Thanks a lot!

Well I tried tweaking it further and the pic keeps improving but I'm probably still not very skillful at it. Somehow the photo still gets a magenta cast, as it seems. (Warmfilter 125%??) Hm, I also tried not to darken the shadows too much, especially the rock at the right.

Gary, do I understand you right with the gradient layers? (-> pdf) Maybe I should mask the curves somehow? (I tried the inverted blurred original picture as a mask but... hmmm).

Anyway, thank you so far, I guess one has no other choice but to try and error, again and again.
Martin

mead · #6 06-14-2004, 06:02 PM

Hi Martin, I tried to get of the haze, and I may have oversharpened in the process. I used the unsharp mask. I started with these settings, 30, 60, 0. I also played with the saturation a tad.
kathy

Gary Richardson · #7 06-15-2004, 01:26 AM

Hi Martin,
What I did was create a new blank layer. On that layer I selected an orange tone as foreground colour, magenta as background colour, and then using the gradient tool created a radial gradient from the top LH corner to the bottom RH corner. I then set the blend mode of this layer to soft light, and layer opacity to approx 40%.
The second new layer had the foreground set to black. Then using the gradient tool I created a linear gradient from black to clear starting from the bottom RH corner and going diagonally towards the top LH. The blend mode was kept at normal, and layer opacity to approx 30%.
Hope this clears up any ambiguity.
By the way, I like your new version. Viel Gluck und Viel Spass

Mars · #8 06-15-2004, 06:18 AM

Hi all,

Kathy, using the unsharp mask is probably a good idea. I'll start with your numbers in the last step of the work.

Gary, ah, now I see. I wouldn't have come up with the thought to use different colours in the gradient layer (orange/magenta). Thank you very much for the very clear description (hey, your German is good!)

Kiska, Dave: Thank you very much for your help too

(i.e. the Z-curve was a good idea), I'll post my 'final' version later on. Have still a lot to learn as it seems...

Best,
Martin

Mars · #9 06-17-2004, 05:22 AM

Okay, enough playing around with that one.

Tried to get rid of the haze and keep the information in the darker part of the pic on the right hand side.

Thanks all again.

Martin

W. Rose · #10 06-18-2004, 09:30 AM

Hi Martin,
Looks great. I played around with it somewhat but never came up with the tone that Gary did. I will have to try his techniqe with the gradient tool. Your final photo looks very good, nice detail in the large rock. Was that the overall tone you were looking for?
W. Rose

Mars · #11 06-20-2004, 03:22 AM

Thank you. Yes, Gary's advice to use a gradient layer with the desired colour(s) was a very good one.

Re the overall tone, well, actually I've shot another picture at the same time and the same place which captures the mood a lot better than the original above. However the cutting and the details in the rock formation are better here. So you see my dilemma. I just tried to emulate those colours somehow (Maybe the left side is still to yellowish/green in contrast to the rather red rocks on the right? Maybe it's just a matter of taste?). If there are any suggestions how to improve my clumsy efforts further, they of course would be appreciated very much...

Martin