Can I post a Raw and ask how you would PP?

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #15979224
My attempt. I just warmed it up a bit, and opened up the mid tones.

Can you explain in settings terms what you mean by warmed it up a bit and opened up the mid tones? This is the stuff I don't yet understand.

By "warm it up" I mean I set white balance a little warmer than it was shot. 5200k if I remember right.

For the midtones move, I simply pulled the middle handle in the Levels panel to the left. This opens shadows, without blowing highlights.

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #15979294
I didn't add anything, that's the second shot the OP posted a link to. I picked it because it didn;t have the wide expanse of blown out sky.

Oh crap .. I didn't see the link .. lol!
I was like .. holy wow!

Dropping in a sky can be a pain, but it is doable. The lighter the sky (the drop-in one), the better in many cases. Sometimes you need to adjust the levels in the new sky to fit. This is a quick edit. More time spent on it would have given a better result. I also cropped out as much sky as possible.

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For dropping in sky what did you use? An existing sky picture you had, and photoshop?

Yes, exactly.

M_Six wrote in post #15979687
Yes, exactly.

great job ...

With a blown out sky, it's fairly easy to replace using photoshop's 'select > color range' tool. You may need to play with the 'fuzzyness' and 'range' sliders to create a good mask. I'd say the hardest part is to find a sky to add as the replacement that fits the foreground in terms of light quality.

Here's my try. I tried to give the image an early morning light feel to it.

Nice job, Navydoc.

You can also put the "new" sky in a layer beneath the original image, then go to Blend Modes and use the "Blend If" sliders. Works very well if the sky is all white or gray and you don't have too much white or gray in the rest of the image.

And I agree, finding a sky that actually fits the image lighting is the hard part.

Thanks. On the original image layer, the blend mode can also be changed to 'multiply' which, in retrospect, actually works better than my solution in this case. Of course, this only works if the sky is white as you mentioned .

ACR:
Recovery 100

PS CS 5:
Insert triplanes
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2-Film Noir 2
Filter>Noise>Add Noise>28%, Gaussian, Monochromatic
Dodge triplanes to make them less black
Blur triplanes to make them softer
Erase Noise from perimeter of image

Furinox wrote in post #15982327

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/groyar/88914403​08/
Edit1 by groyar, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/groyar/88914401​80/
Edit2 by groyar, on Flickr


Lightroom:
Cropped, Kodak Portra 160 VSCO preset, warmed a bit
Photoshop:
Clone out sidewalk
Nik Color Efex Pro 4 - Custom preset to warm and add contrast
Red Giant Knoll Light Factory to add Flare
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 - High Structure BW

The VSCO presets really worked out for this image.

Furinox wrote in post #15982327

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/groyar/88914403​08/
Edit1 by groyar, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/groyar/88914401​80/
Edit2 by groyar, on Flickr


Lightroom:
Cropped, Kodak Portra 160 VSCO preset, warmed a bit
Photoshop:
Clone out sidewalk
Nik Color Efex Pro 4 - Custom preset to warm and add contrast
Red Giant Knoll Light Factory to add Flare
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 - High Structure BW

Thank you specifically for the list of steps.

navydoc wrote in post #15982243
With a blown out sky, it's fairly easy to replace using photoshop's 'select > color range' tool. You may need to play with the 'fuzzyness' and 'range' sliders to create a good mask. I'd say the hardest part is to find a sky to add as the replacement that fits the foreground in terms of light quality.

Here's my try. I tried to give the image an early morning light feel to it.

You did a good job getting the Morning Light feel because when I look at the picture (being the only one familiar with it) I get a weird feeling that it's dawning from the wrong direction. Interesting how different morning light is from sunset.