Is this overcooked?

I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

For those who can't read a NEF file, here is the same thing as an
unadjusted JPG.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.jpg

I wanted to make the mountain stand out more, with this result in
Photoshop.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20Object-1.jpg
or http://tinyurl.com/kflzcq6

I didn't like this much: the sky seems wrong so I tried it with
Lightroom (with a touch of photoshop) with this slightly different
result https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...03/LR--1-2.jpg

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other
people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 2015.02.16 19:46 , Eric Stevens wrote:
I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

Could you look beyond those two little pine trees on the small knoll
just to the left of centre of the image? I lost a watch and a really
nice comb there.

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other

It does look a little saturated. OTOH, people love that ****.

people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).

Over sharpened - halo artifacts.

--
"Your net worth to the world is usually
determined by what remains after your
bad habits are subtracted from your good ones."
Benjamin Franklin

On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 20:02:10 -0500, Alan Browne
wrote:

On 2015.02.16 19:46 , Eric Stevens wrote:
I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

Could you look beyond those two little pine trees on the small knoll
just to the left of centre of the image? I lost a watch and a really
nice comb there.

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other

It does look a little saturated. OTOH, people love that ****.

people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).

Over sharpened - halo artifacts.

Nope. It's the edge of a selection.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 2015-02-17 00:46:35 +0000, Eric Stevens said:

I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

For those who can't read a NEF file, here is the same thing as an
unadjusted JPG.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.jpg

I wanted to make the mountain stand out more, with this result in
Photoshop.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20Object-1.jpg

or http://tinyurl.com/kflzcq6

I didn't like this much: the sky seems wrong so I tried it with
Lightroom (with a touch of photoshop) with this slightly different
result https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...03/LR--1-2.jpg

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other
people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).

As to whether you "overcooked" the sky, I would say yes. The blues are
over-saturated. Whether that was due to global
vibrance/saturation/contrast adjustments is hard to say. Perhaps
revisiting it with a more selective adjustment approach might get you
closer to what you want.

I made a down & dirty, quick pass at it, which included a crop, to come
up with this rendition. I am sure that I could come up with a better
result if I give it a bit more time & care.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/DSC2508.jpg

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On Tue, 17 Feb 2015 13:46:35 +1300, Eric Stevens
wrote:

I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

For those who can't read a NEF file, here is the same thing as an
unadjusted JPG.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.jpg

I wanted to make the mountain stand out more, with this result in
Photoshop.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20Object-1.jpg
or http://tinyurl.com/kflzcq6

I didn't like this much: the sky seems wrong so I tried it with
Lightroom (with a touch of photoshop) with this slightly different
result https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...03/LR--1-2.jpg

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other
people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).

I agree with the others that it's overdone. It looks like you used a
polarizer for the shot, and then saturated it more in post.

Eric Stevens wrote:
I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

For those who can't read a NEF file, here is the same thing as an
unadjusted JPG.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.jpg

I wanted to make the mountain stand out more, with this result in
Photoshop.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...Object-1.jpgor http://tinyurl.com/kflzcq6

I didn't like this much: the sky seems wrong so I tried it with
Lightroom (with a touch of photoshop) with this slightly different
result https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...03/LR--1-2.jpg

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other
people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).

The biggest problem is that you've missed the point of
the image! What is the subject, the object of interest?
Try a little Gestalt Theory on it, and separate out the
parts. Then remove parts that are not necessary, but
make sure that necessary parts are retained. Prioritize
everything as an individual symbol, and edit each in a
way the adjusts the priority higher or lower as needed
to give the image more impact when viewed.

The mountain is the main subject. Everything else must
contributes to giving the mountain impact.

So at that point ask yourself just what benefit is there
to the tuffs of grass in the foreground? Crop them out!
But by the same token, you've cropped out the cloud
cover, which makes a wonderful device to direct
attention at the mountain (apparently to make the sky
more prominent, which to a degree is okay, but not when
detrimental to the mountain).

Also, don't sharpen the grassy plain or the clouds at all.
But do select an area around the mountain and sharpen it
significantly.

Here is an example:

http://apaflo.com/misc/_DSC2508b.jpg

You may not like the colors, or a number of other aspects.
Edit to suit your tastes, but edit with a purpose that makes
sense.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

On 2/16/15 PDT 6:42 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On 2015-02-17 00:46:35 +0000, Eric Stevens said:

I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

For those who can't read a NEF file, here is the same thing as an
unadjusted JPG.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.jpg

I wanted to make the mountain stand out more, with this result in
Photoshop.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20Object-1.jpg

or http://tinyurl.com/kflzcq6

I didn't like this much: the sky seems wrong so I tried it with
Lightroom (with a touch of photoshop) with this slightly different
result https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...03/LR--1-2.jpg

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other
people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).

As to whether you "overcooked" the sky, I would say yes. The blues are
over-saturated. Whether that was due to global
vibrance/saturation/contrast adjustments is hard to say. Perhaps
revisiting it with a more selective adjustment approach might get you
closer to what you want.

I made a down & dirty, quick pass at it, which included a crop, to come
up with this rendition. I am sure that I could come up with a better
result if I give it a bit more time & care.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/DSC2508.jpg

Very interesting! I'd combine the nice work of SD in bringing out the
green on the foothills, and would put a gradient in the sky, very blue
at top, bringing it down to SD's color near horizon. I like the original
foreground grass.

On 2015-02-17 02:42:26 +0000, Savageduck said:

On 2015-02-17 00:46:35 +0000, Eric Stevens said:

I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF

For those who can't read a NEF file, here is the same thing as an
unadjusted JPG.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.jpg

I wanted to make the mountain stand out more, with this result in
Photoshop.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20Object-1.jpg

or http://tinyurl.com/kflzcq6

I didn't like this much: the sky seems wrong so I tried it with
Lightroom (with a touch of photoshop) with this slightly different
result https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...03/LR--1-2.jpg

The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I have but other
people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).

As to whether you "overcooked" the sky, I would say yes. The blues are
over-saturated. Whether that was due to global
vibrance/saturation/contrast adjustments is hard to say. Perhaps
revisiting it with a more selective adjustment approach might get you
closer to what you want.

I made a down & dirty, quick pass at it, which included a crop, to come
up with this rendition. I am sure that I could come up with a better
result if I give it a bit more time & care.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/DSC2508.jpg

This time I went at things a little differently making all adjustments
selectively to the appropriate areas. All processing was in ACR & PS
CC, with som assistance from NIK Color Efex Pro, & NIK Viveza.
I cropped to 16x9 and resized, to get this.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/DSC2508-Edit-2.jpg

--
Regards,

Savageduck

Savageduck wrote:
On 2015-02-17 02:42:26 +0000, Savageduck said:

On 2015-02-17 00:46:35 +0000, Eric Stevens said:

I came over a rise early(ish) in the morning, and there was Mt
Ruapehu. There was no visible volcanic activity but the air streaming
of the mountain left a most spectacular plume. I couldn't resist it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.NEF
For those who can't read a NEF file, here is the same
thing as an
unadjusted JPG.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/_DSC2508.jpg
I wanted to make the mountain stand out more, with
this result in
Photoshop.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20Object-1.jpg
or http://tinyurl.com/kflzcq6
I didn't like this much: the sky seems wrong so I
tried it with
Lightroom (with a touch of photoshop) with this slightly different
result https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...03/LR--1-2.jpg
The question is, have I overcooked the sky? I think I
have but other
people don't want me to touch it. (Please don't tell me about the line
at the edge of the foreground where I selected it fo different
treatment. I know about that).
As to whether you "overcooked" the sky, I would say
yes. The blues are over-saturated. Whether that was
due to global vibrance/saturation/contrast adjustments
is hard to say. Perhaps revisiting it with a more
selective adjustment approach might get you closer to
what you want.
I made a down & dirty, quick pass at it, which
included a crop, to come up with this rendition. I am
sure that I could come up with a better result if I
give it a bit more time & care.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/DSC2508.jpg

This time I went at things a little differently making
all adjustments selectively to the appropriate
areas. All processing was in ACR & PS CC, with som
assistance from NIK Color Efex Pro, & NIK Viveza.
I cropped to 16x9 and resized, to get this.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/DSC2508-Edit-2.jpg

"There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a
fuzzy concept." -- Ansel Adams

You have a technically very well done image that is an
artistic disaster area.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

Tony Cooper wrote:
Everyone's going to have their own opinion on the best composition,
but I'm with Floyd on this about the foreground. The picture is about
the mountain, and too much foreground - with all that detail in the
grass - makes the mountain second fiddle. Floyd's version is far too
dark for me in the lower part, though. Too much contrast between the
foreground and the background.

Did you actually look at it with the foreground lightened up?

It just doesn't work.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)