Two different views of Chimney Rock, Sedona, Arizona

[David Eckels]

The first (landscape orientation) is, I must confess and HDR image. Did I overdo it?
The second (portrait orientation) was worked only a little in ACR and PS, incredible sky. Besides being a Dutch landscape any suggestions?

[RSL]

Yes, Contact Arizona Highways magazine.

Nice, David. No, I think you did fine with the HDR. Most people overdo it. You didn't.

[Chris Calohan]

You're on a regular roll these days. I prefer the top over the bottom but both are nicely seen and captured.

[RobbieV]

I like the second. It's lovely to look at and the mountains in the hazy background are wonderful.

[rogerxnz]

Sorry, my theories on sunsets are: you cannot turn a scene into a worthwhile picture by including a sunset in it—you need to have something of substantial interest in the frame as well and sunsets are fantastically colourful and contrasty but they are beyond the dynamic range of most sensors, so, you end up with ugly muddy/blocked out areas and/or distracting highlight areas that are devoid of detail.

So my motto is: watch and enjoy sunsets and only photograph them if they are incidental to a worthwhile point of interest.

I think that the Chimney Rock is too small a part of David's images to suppress the problems I mention with sunsets.

Sorry, again!
Roger
   

[David Eckels]

Sorry, again!
Roger
   

It's an opinion. Thanks for sharing it.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... any suggestions?

Yes: wait.

Wait for the sun to touch the horizon (or mountain top), to get lower in the sky. It loses intensity and creates much less flare and problems in post. The overall light becomes softer as well, reducing the need for (gasp!) HDR.

Then wait some more.

Wait for sun to disappear behind the horizon. Between that moment and the next half an hour, you might get some incredible light and colors in the sky. Much, much softer and gentler than when sun is higher up.

I do not think HDR was necessary in the first one. It introduced some weird elements in the sky (as it usually does). What you could do instead is keeping the sky from the shot exposed for the sky, and hand-blanding it with a shot exposed for the shadows (ground). A GND filter in LR might do the trick with a single exposure as well (combined with some Shadows, Highlights tweaking).

[David Eckels]

Yes: wait.

Wait for the sun to touch the horizon (or mountain top), to get lower in the sky. It loses intensity and creates much less flare and problems in post. The overall light becomes softer as well, reducing the need for (gasp!) HDR.

Then wait some more.

Wait for sun to disappear behind the horizon. Between that moment and the next half an hour, you might get some incredible light and colors in the sky. Much, much softer and gentler than when sun is higher up.

I do not think HDR was necessary in the first one. It introduced some weird elements in the sky (as it usually does). What you could do instead is keeping the sky from the shot exposed for the sky, and hand-blanding it with a shot exposed for the shadows (ground). A GND filter in LR might do the trick with a single exposure as well (combined with some Shadows, Highlights tweaking).

Thanks for the suggestions SB. I will give some of this a try with one of the suitable captures from the SD series. I als have a slightly later capture of the vertical. I will have to develop my patience too! But I was trying to get off that butte before it was totally dark and I no see so good! I am still reeling from the demo of LR's power you set for me! Lot's to play with, lot's to learn.

[David Eckels]

So I tried Slobodan's suggestions and reworked two exposures from the landscape orientation HDR series above, the 1/250 and the 1/25, both at f/8. I used LR4.3 and several GND "filters" to get each just right. Then I opened them as layers in PS CS6. I set the 1/25 exposure as the background and slowly erased (10% O/F) through the top layer to bring out some of the detail highlights in the rock cliffs. I did add a SEP2 luminosity layer masked to lighten and bring out some extra texture in the top row of clouds (upper 20%). I lost some of that lovely blue in the OP and will have to figure out how to find it again.
UPDATE: I added a 50% blue filter and masked it only to the sky. Better, but not what I'd wanted.

[David Eckels]

I know I am being obcessive about this but I bumped up the yellow saturation and luminosity, then added my blue through another blue filter set as a clipping mask. And I also bumped up the first blue filter to 75%. There's gotta be an easier way or unlike Hansel and Gretel I forgot to leave bread crumbs.

[Chris Calohan]

One of the dangers in using SEP2 for contrast control is the loss of saturated colors. I generally don't give any image more than a +4-5 bright, +5-7 contrast and +5-7 structure. Only on rare occasions do I use any of the presets if I'm making a blend layer for color. You can always just give that layer a mask and paint back in the colors you feel were lost.

Another way you can do some color control is to make a HSB adjustment layer and change the blend to luminosity then adjust your colors as you feel is indicative of the scene you thought you recorded. I'll often isolate those area so as to only make adjustments there and no to the overall image. Just remember to add a secondary mask and blend back any edges you might create.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Have you tried a different white balance (more blue)?

[David Eckels]

Chris, thanks for the guidelines; I have been using the presets and will try some of your suggestions. HSL with a luminosity blend, I will have to experiment with.

Slobodan, bam! Graduated filter applied over the bluish part of the sky did it. I hadn't thought of WB as an approach; makes sense in retrospect! Might be a little heavy handed--what do you think?

Thanks, guys! Appreciate your willingness to critique. Roger, you too!

Finished project below

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

The transition between blue and yellow WB appears too drastic. You might want to try the following:

1. Single WB for the whole image

2. Slightly less blue WB for the sky gradient, plus a new gradient, starting at the bottom, with less yellow (more blue) WB

Also, the overall image appears too dark and muddy. A bit more exposure and contrast perhaps?

[David Eckels]

One of the dangers in using SEP2 for contrast control is the loss of saturated colors. I generally don't give any image more than a +4-5 bright, +5-7 contrast and +5-7 structure. Only on rare occasions do I use any of the presets if I'm making a blend layer for color. You can always just give that layer a mask and paint back in the colors you feel were lost.

I have a new preset, I call it the Calohan layer!

[David Eckels]

The transition between blue and yellow WB appears too drastic. You might want to try the following:

1. Single WB for the whole image

2. Slightly less blue WB for the sky gradient, plus a new gradient, starting at the bottom, with less yellow (more blue) WB

Also, the overall image appears too dark and muddy. A bit more exposure and contrast perhaps?

Thanks for the feedback. I am going to start from scratch again and try to incorporate all of this again. I will post the result later today, if you're interested. My wife's gonna kill me; she has a long honey-do list!

[David Eckels]

Ok. Went back to the blended, sharpened image. Flattened it to a tiff and worked on it in LR with the adjustments you suggested, Slobodan. Opened in PS and added a Calohan SEP layer to lighten just the top clouds a tad and desaturate the yellow a bit just right of the Chimney Rock.

I really am done this time! And I bet you're glad!

[Chris Calohan]

I have a new preset, I call it the Calohan layer!

Call it the Jiro Effect as he is the one who taught me how to use it and Rob Ashcroft added using some presets...it works on some images but not on all.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... I really am done this time!...

Or you can send me two DNGs and we can see if we are really done with this image

[David Eckels]

Or you can send me two DNGs and we can see if we are really done with this image

OK! They are on the way to you.