Arizona reloaded

[armand]

With a little time on my hands I'm going through older shots that are waiting for some love. These 4 are in the Sedona area.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I think these image have potential, but need some more love in post.
They have this shadowy, diffuse light in common, which is all good, but needs a bit work.

#1: I'd crop away a part of the sky and work on the tones and colors.
#2: Needs a tighter crop on the flower and maybe a little warming.
#3: I'd crop away a bit from the bottom and work on the colors.
#4: My favourite. Some local contrast, color work and maybe local slight burning on the background for threedimensionality would work better - the ridge between fore-and background should be more pronounced.

All subjectively my view only, of course.
Cheers
~Chris

[armand]

I think these image have potential, but need some more love in post.
They have this shadowy, diffuse light in common, which is all good, but needs a bit work.

#1: I'd crop away a part of the sky and work on the tones and colors.
#2: Needs a tighter crop on the flower and maybe a little warming.
#3: I'd crop away a bit from the bottom and work on the colors.
#4: My favourite. Some local contrast, color work and maybe local slight burning on the background for threedimensionality would work better - the ridge between fore-and background should be more pronounced.

All subjectively my view only, of course.
Cheers
~Chris

This goes to show that my postprocessing skills are still sorely lacking as all these shots have some decent time in post from my part. For whatever reason they loose some contrast and color when I convert them for the web. Time to recalibrate my monitor and give them another try!

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

This goes to show that my postprocessing skills are still sorely lacking as all these shots have some decent time in post from my part. For whatever reason they loose some contrast and color when I convert them for the web. Time to recalibrate my monitor and give them another try!

I'm sorry ...
The good case always is if we need not much work in post.
But the reality is, post is essential and in these digital time its even more expected.
Viewing and judging conventions change with the course of technological development.
But even Saint Ansel did a helluva post in the old darkroom days.
Cheers
~Chris

[shutterpup]

I have many photos from Sedona, the Grand Canyon and Zion Nat'l Park. They all have the same lighting problems. I haven't worked on mine for more than a year; the oldest ones were taken back in Sept 2009. I've been learning about Levels in Aperture and have managed to bring out the beauty in some non-southwest photos. It's time to try Levels I think. Maybe that's something you might want to look into?

My favorite of yours? I love the sky in #1, hopefully that's a natural and not fictitious sky. My skies are frequently washed out, no matter the time of day.

Looking forward to seeing more of these shots as you work with post. For me, post feels like hit and miss sometimes. Sometimes I nail it right away, and sometimes I never come close. ....the nature of the Beast 

Lorraine

[armand]

First shot will be difficult to work with. I rarely use levels as in LR using first the highlights-shadows-whites-black gives me even finer control. Unfortunately here the D90 sensor it's really pushed, the plant was in the shadow and I exposed to keep some detail in the sky. For the sky the blue luminosity is decreased (I think I went up on the saturation also) and there is a highlight recovery graduated filter over it.
I probably have to go in photoshop and use some more local contrast, maybe in Nik Viveza.

Here are quick reworks of the last 2.

[armand]

And the first one

[shutterpup]

For your revision of #1, I really like version 1 best, because I think it's truest to reality.

Lorraine

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Don't mess too much with global contrast - these images have mainly a local contrast problem, though a little global contrast can't hurt.

The easiest - dirtiest way to work on that is an Unsharp Mask with a large radius.
You can also use Highpass filter sharpening.
The most artistical way is to use local dodging and burning.
There are many ways, but in the end it comes down to edge and shape enhancement in a sensible way such,
that the eye can better recognize the features of the image.
Cheers
~Chris

[David Eckels]

With regard to post #6, I like the treatment on the agave; why not just bush on the adjustment to it? I think the more global approach de-emphasizes the cactus.

[armand]

few more

[Riaan van Wyk]

I'm quite fond of the original "Arizona"

[armand]

And some from Grand Canyon, all shot with a Canon S100.