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Author Topic: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands  (Read 3138 times)

Mjollnir

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Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« on: April 24, 2015, 06:56:20 pm »

For most people who know of Monterey County, it's usually Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, Carmel and its mission, Pebble Beach and golf courses, Point Lobos, or where I'm originally from, Big Sur.  It's a big county, though and most of it, easily, is really quite rural, esp. in what's known locally as just 'south county'.  MILES of remote backroads, vineyards, gorgeous California chaparral over mountain ranges on either side of the Salinas Valley.

Priest Valley is about as out there as you can get in MoCo, except for, perhaps, Parkfield.  The oaks and their place in the valley there are exquisite, as they are in the next valley to the west, the one where CA 25 is that leads north, eventually to Hollister in San Benito County.

If you've ever thought about getting off the 101 while driving south of Salinas, there are areas back there well worth the trouble.

Priest Valley Redo (1 of 1) by tanngrisnir3, on Flickr
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sierraman

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2015, 08:22:11 pm »

Very nice. I like the flow and colors. If anything I might crop the left side of the image at the last pole where the sky is bright. Great capture!  :)
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2015, 12:13:22 am »

Good image.

jeffreybehr

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2015, 12:52:05 am »

VERY nice image, jmollnir.  I agree with sierraman about cropping a bit off the left side.

Did you folks know that 'Car & Driver' decades ago anointed CA25 one of the most-beautiful drives in the country?  I've driven it many times on the way from Phoenix to Salinas (Laguna Seca Raceway).  Here's a little way to get from I5 to CA25 in a VERY spirited manner.  


Its exit from I5 (the map's maroon-colored stripe) is labeled Shields Ave. and Little Panoche Rd. and County Rd. J1 (but I don't know which county).  Set my personal hiway-speed peaks on the (slightly uphill, northbound) vertical stretch--152MPH in an '04 Porsche Cayenne Turbo and 157MPH (both speedometers corrected) in an '06 Porsche Cayman S--when I was much younger and even more stupid than I am now.
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Mjollnir

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2015, 01:14:37 am »

VERY nice image, jmollnir.  I agree with sierraman about cropping a bit off the left side.

Did you folks know that 'Car & Driver' decades ago anointed CA25 one of the most-beautiful drives in the country?  I've driven it many times on the way from Phoenix to Salinas (Laguna Seca Raceway).  Here's a little way to get from I5 to CA25 in a VERY spirited manner.  


Its exit from I5 (the map's maroon-colored stripe) is labeled Shields Ave. and Little Panoche Rd. and County Rd. J1 (but I don't know which county).  Set my personal hiway-speed peaks on the (slightly uphill, northbound) vertical stretch--152MPH in an '04 Porsche Cayenne Turbo and 157MPH (both speedometers corrected) in an '06 Porsche Cayman S--when I was much younger and even more stupid than I am now.


Oh, yeah.  I know all about C&D and 25.  They've actually done many of their tests out there, and I know all the back roads.  Trust me, all of them.

I've got a couple from Little Panoche that I've never PP'd.  Here's one from a few years ago.  The area past Mercy Hot Springs is quite out there.

Little Panoche Road by tanngrisnir3, on Flickr
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thierrylegros396

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2015, 03:17:23 am »

Really well done.

Thanks for sharing.

Thierry
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2015, 03:53:30 am »

Very nice indeed. I think I'd try to remove the pole by cloning rather than crop it out, as the tree on the left is good and a crop would leave it too close to the edge of the frame.

Jeremy
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sarrasani

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2015, 06:49:33 am »

good tones (transitions are ok but a little hard for my tastes) but I like much the composition, with that left tree to "give direction" to the volumes on the right.
All the best,
Sandro
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Mjollnir

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2015, 10:03:00 am »

How does this one work?

Priest Valley Redo #2 (1 of 1) by tanngrisnir3, on Flickr
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sdwilsonsct

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2015, 11:16:47 am »

Very nice indeed. I think I'd try to remove the pole by cloning rather than crop it out, as the tree on the left is good and a crop would leave it too close to the edge of the frame.

Jeremy

Yes. Good one.

luxborealis

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2015, 08:26:41 am »

Beautiful as is. I'm a sucker for ground fog in open areas like this.

I'd be inclined to remove both poles, but that's me. Rather than cropping, try taming that bright sky with careful use of a radial grad mask.
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Mjollnir

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2015, 01:01:05 pm »

Beautiful as is. I'm a sucker for ground fog in open areas like this.

I'd be inclined to remove both poles, but that's me. Rather than cropping, try taming that bright sky with careful use of a radial grad mask.

You know, I tried that with both the native LR one and NIK stuff, and it just muddied the sky around the blown out area at the extreme frame-left, which usually means going back and cooking the thing up from scratch.

Not that I'm opposed to doing so; I love PP!
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John Poirier

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2015, 02:19:50 pm »

One way of dealing with the bright sky could be to use the Curves function in Photoshop.

Most of the sky has a strong yellow colour, but the bright corner is very close to neutral and is essentially blown out with levels around 253 for all channels.

I experimented with selecting the blue channel in Curves and adjusting the highlight output.  I adjusted the output levels for the top of the curve from 255 to 245.  Simply dragging the top of the curve down would affect the colour balance for much of the tonal range as the curve would change in a straight line, so I added two more points to hold most of the curve in its original position.  This limits the effect of the adjustment to the brighter highlights.  

This dropped the blue value in the bright sky from about 252 to 232, which gives that area a yellow tone that blends better with the of the rest of the sky.

I also did very slight midtone dodging of the darker cloud areas.  Below is a screen shot of the curves adjustment as well as the adjusted image.
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Mjollnir

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2015, 07:52:07 pm »

One way of dealing with the bright sky could be to use the Curves function in Photoshop.

Most of the sky has a strong yellow colour, but the bright corner is very close to neutral and is essentially blown out with levels around 253 for all channels.

I experimented with selecting the blue channel in Curves and adjusting the highlight output.  I adjusted the output levels for the top of the curve from 255 to 245.  Simply dragging the top of the curve down would affect the colour balance for much of the tonal range as the curve would change in a straight line, so I added two more points to hold most of the curve in its original position.  This limits the effect of the adjustment to the brighter highlights.  

This dropped the blue value in the bright sky from about 252 to 232, which gives that area a yellow tone that blends better with the of the rest of the sky.

I also did very slight midtone dodging of the darker cloud areas.  Below is a screen shot of the curves adjustment as well as the adjusted image.

Nice!  Thanks!
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luxborealis

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #14 on: April 28, 2015, 07:45:20 pm »

One way of dealing with the bright sky could be to use the Curves function in Photoshop.

Most of the sky has a strong yellow colour, but the bright corner is very close to neutral and is essentially blown out with levels around 253 for all channels.

I experimented with selecting the blue channel in Curves and adjusting the highlight output.  I adjusted the output levels for the top of the curve from 255 to 245.  Simply dragging the top of the curve down would affect the colour balance for much of the tonal range as the curve would change in a straight line, so I added two more points to hold most of the curve in its original position.  This limits the effect of the adjustment to the brighter highlights.  

This dropped the blue value in the bright sky from about 252 to 232, which gives that area a yellow tone that blends better with the of the rest of the sky.

I also did very slight midtone dodging of the darker cloud areas.  Below is a screen shot of the curves adjustment as well as the adjusted image.

Also possible from within LR with Tone Curves.
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2015, 04:08:09 am »

How does this one work?

Priest Valley Redo #2 (1 of 1) by tanngrisnir3, on Flickr

I think the left-hand tree is now too close to the edge.

Jeremy
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stamper

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #16 on: April 29, 2015, 06:02:49 am »

good tones (transitions are ok but a little hard for my tastes) but I like much the composition, with that left tree to "give direction" to the volumes on the right.
All the best,
Sandro

I agree about the transitions, they seem a bit odd. However the image has good potential. Maybe start over again with respect to processing in a few days and you might get a better result?

Mjollnir

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Re: Priest Valley Sunrise, Monterey County Hinterlands
« Reply #17 on: April 29, 2015, 12:27:51 pm »

Also possible from within LR with Tone Curves.

I tried that (I almost never use PS) and the problem is that it applies it universally, not locally.

I'm going to dig a little deeper into Viveza and see if that doesn't clear it up.
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