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Author Topic: Tibetan monastery at sunrise  (Read 4234 times)

shadowblade

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Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« on: January 15, 2016, 01:40:34 am »

Songzanlin Monastery in Yunnan, China. Situated at 3300m on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, it was established by the fifth Dalai Lama. Smoke from wood fires and steam from the surrounding grasslands intermingle to form a haze in the morning sun.

Sony A7r with Sigma 120-300 OS and 1.4x TC.

Which one - shot 1 or 2? Taken only minutes apart, but smoke and steam move fast.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2016, 09:26:32 am by shadowblade »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2016, 02:13:06 am »

Very nice and atmospheric.

I prefer #1. It has better composition, regarding bright parts in particular, as well as smoke in the foreground, on the left. #2 has a rather distracting bright spot right in the middle.

shadowblade

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2016, 02:30:12 am »

Very nice and atmospheric.

I prefer #1. It has better composition, regarding bright parts in particular, as well as smoke in the foreground, on the left. #2 has a rather distracting bright spot right in the middle.

Thought that would be the case.

Although I'm thinking of reprocessing it with slightly less midtone contrast - this scene could really use the haze.
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2016, 04:01:13 am »

Very good images.

marcgoldring

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2016, 06:19:11 am »

WOnderful! Hard to choose just 1 but I do like #2 better although I can't say why... (Maybe it was just the last one I looked when I stopped going back and forth!)

Marco
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Bob_B

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2016, 09:51:51 am »

Yes to the atmosphere, especially on the first. I'd be tempted to clone out the electrical lines at the bottom, although it may be a tough job.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2016, 09:58:06 am »

Yes to the atmosphere, especially on the first. I'd be tempted to clone out the electrical lines at the bottom, although it may be a tough job.
+1.

The PS Healing Brush with a small point and a steady hand could handle those wires pretty well.
Fantastic light!
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MattBurt

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2016, 11:09:56 am »

Really beautiful scene and great captures. I also prefer the first and I wouldn't worry about the power lines myself. They are part of the scene and they are relatively close to an edge. I love the light and atmosphere here. I'd love to shoot such a scene!
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polaris-14

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2016, 01:16:02 pm »

I like #2 better. The highlights on the monastery (and not the city below it) looks amazing. Could use a little bit more burning, though. Such a beautiful scene, almost like a Chinese painting. You are right, that haze brings this image to a different level.
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nma

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2016, 02:14:17 pm »

Wonderful as they are. Truly atmospheric.  And  I do agree that removing the power lines would strengthen the atmospheric feeling. 
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shadowblade

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2016, 06:46:22 pm »

+1.

The PS Healing Brush with a small point and a steady hand could handle those wires pretty well.
Fantastic light!

Reprocessed image 1 with less midtone contrast for smoother haze (around 2 minutes work to adjust a few settings) and cloned out the topmost, intrusive pair of wires (around 4 hours work).
« Last Edit: January 16, 2016, 09:25:50 am by shadowblade »
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Jens Peermann

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2016, 08:50:45 am »

#1 is the picture of choice for me. The palace touched by a cloud of light makes it an iconic image that is on par with Galen Rowel's famous image of the same building touched by the end of a rainbow.

Tip: Healing brush set to "Content Aware" mode and clicked on the wire in sections a few inches long while holding down the shift key. The tool will draw straight lines between the points clicked. Should take less than a minute to take out those lines. :)
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shadowblade

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2016, 09:11:30 am »

#1 is the picture of choice for me. The palace touched by a cloud of light makes it an iconic image that is on par with Galen Rowel's famous image of the same building touched by the end of a rainbow.

Tip: Healing brush set to "Content Aware" mode and clicked on the wire in sections a few inches long while holding down the shift key. The tool will draw straight lines between the points clicked. Should take less than a minute to take out those lines. :)

I'm still using CS3, so no 'content aware' mode...

Also, pixel-perfect at 100% is a bit different to looking good enough at web size.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2016, 09:47:09 am »

I'm still using CS3, so no 'content aware' mode...

Also, pixel-perfect at 100% is a bit different to looking good enough at web size.
"Content aware" is reason enough to upgrade. I have stand-alone CS6, and Content-aware fill and the Healing brush are almost the only things I use PhotoShop for now. Everything else is just in LightRoom.

I well remember spending hours attempting to remove power lines from an image before CS came along. But this Tibetan Monastery image alone would be worth upgrading for, IMHO.
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MattBurt

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2016, 05:39:54 pm »

PS CS5 has pretty good content aware fill too if you need a cheaper option.
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shadowblade

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #15 on: January 19, 2016, 09:06:32 pm »

PS CS5 has pretty good content aware fill too if you need a cheaper option.

I don't need a cheaper option. Just that I have things like NikTools, Alien Skin Blowup and many other plugins already installed, can't find/can't remember the keys to download and activate them again if I have to reinstall them, and don't want to have to pay for them a second time.
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MattBurt

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Re: Tibetan monastery at sunrise
« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2016, 04:54:05 pm »

I don't need a cheaper option. Just that I have things like NikTools, Alien Skin Blowup and many other plugins already installed, can't find/can't remember the keys to download and activate them again if I have to reinstall them, and don't want to have to pay for them a second time.

I think Nik (Google) makes it easy enough to find your key again if you legitimately own it. Not sure about the others.
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