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View Full Version : Sedona - C&C please

Mayavi
21st of August 2007 (Tue), 13:40
I went to Sedona last saturday to take some pics of the red rock mountains. On the way I stopped at the Montezuma castle national monument. Posting two pictures here... comments and critique requested.

1. It was a bit cloudy that day and it was pretty late by the time I got there. This beautiful reddish-orange tone lasted for only couple of minutes.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1183/1173628978_f78d7bc274.jpg

2. Montezuma castle
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1048/1172772849_56d524db60.jpg?v=0

Too much contrast on this one?

Note: These are low quality images
Robert_Lay
21st of August 2007 (Tue), 19:02
Insofar as the comment about low quality images is concerned, yes - images rendered in this size are obviously of low resolution. However, their real problems lie in the exposures.

The color shot is exposed almost correctly for the highlights, but the dynamic range of the scene is too great and the mid, dark and shadow areas are too dark. The scene needs Merge to HDR or other HDR treatment. Start with shooting a range of exposures on a tripod and take up HDR processing.

#2 is just underexposed. As a result, the shadows are heavily blocked up. If this were shot in RAW, it may have been possible to salvage some of the lost shadow detail.

Using Levels, it is possible to improve on the mid, dark and shadow range, but it is not possible to recover the blocked up deep shadows.
Mayavi
21st of August 2007 (Tue), 19:40
Thank you for your comments. I shot both images in RAW and the dark shadows is the second picture is a result of PP I guess. I change the curves on all my pictures to the S-shape and don't really know when to stop.

How about the exposure on this one? Very little PP done on this.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1366/1174171155_436859933d.jpg?v=0
strmrdr
22nd of August 2007 (Wed), 03:00
exposure is good with the last one but its over sharpened.
If you want too link a larger version of the first one some PP would make it pop.
Robert_Lay
22nd of August 2007 (Wed), 10:45
Thank you for your comments. I shot both images in RAW and the dark shadows is the second picture is a result of PP I guess. I change the curves on all my pictures to the S-shape and don't really know when to stop.

How about the exposure on this one? Very little PP done on this.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1366/1174171155_436859933d.jpg?v=0

The tonal range of the scene is too great to capture without Merge to HDR or equivalent.