Dark, dank and dismal

The kind of weather we are having this month. I took these last evening and thought they looked that way. It was also very cold and windy. They are in a park that had a lot of tree damage from the storm. I wondered what others thought of these. I usually like prettier photos. I cropped some of them into 8x10 format. CC is appreciated.

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The first image has some potential but the last one has loads of it and certainly once it has been processed it hardly conveys the title which you have given to it. Hope you don't mind me altering it.

Firstly I cropped it using a 2/3 crop which removed some of the bottom bringing the waterfall closer to the foreground to give interest. I then used an action (freely available on the web, if you can't find it send me a PM and I'll send it to you) called Contrast Masking to bring out the detail and colour in the shadows. To finish I used a new layer set to Soft Light and then used the Gradient tool to darken the top of the sky to give it more impact. I also used the saturation tool to reduce some of the blue in the sky.

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wow love the last one. We have had alot of stormy weather also, too bad about all the damage to the trees.

Brrr,i wouldn`t like taking pictures in that kind of weather my dear,it really looks dreadfull.

I know the weather that you've captured all too well, and you've done a good job in bringing interest to the photos under these conditions.

Thanks for taking the time to do the edit, David! I am familiar with contrast masking so I will give it a try although I don't have all that much skill at photoshop. I think the crop really looks better. I have always kept my photos in the 6x4 format and recently joined a photo club where they have to be printed the 8x10 format. I feel It ruins some of them
I thought these would be appropriate for the upcoming Halloween weekend.

Thanks for the comments Krista, Dimitri and John.
Krista, I get the impression that you are the only one that actually liked one of these.
Dimitri, I thought you would be used to weather like this in Scotland or is that all hearsay!

CarolP wrote in post #2167695
Thanks for taking the time to do the edit, David! I am familiar with contrast masking so I will give it a try although I don't have all that much skill at photoshop. I think the crop really looks better. I have always kept my photos in the 6x4 format and recently joined a photo club where they have to be printed the 8x10 format. I feel It ruins some of them
I thought these would be appropriate for the upcoming Halloween weekend.

Thanks for the comments Krista, Dimitri and John.
Krista, I get the impression that you are the only one that actually liked one of these.
Dimitri, I thought you would be used to weather like this in Scotland or is that all hearsay!

,No Carol,its not hearsay,we are going through it right now actually.
I just don`t go out for a shoot when its like this,its too bloody depressing.
I hope the winter will be here soon,i don`t mind the freezing early mornings,its the wet ones i cann`t stand.

And btw,you captured the ones i cann`t stand very well.

Looks like a wet weekend in Yorkshire

You have made the best of the poor conditions with some good compositions.

Although weather like this can make for excellent waterfall shots as the tonal range is narrow.

Thanks for commenting Les! Unfortunately there are no waterfalls anywhere close to my home or within easy walking distance once I get there. I wasn't willing to spend too much time out in this awful weather.
Dimitri, thanks for the compliment!

Nice series Carol and like David's edit to bring out the detail too.

Wonderful color and composition. I really like the edited version of the last one. I don't like that weather either. Been out of it for 18 years now (northern NY) and don't miss it a bit.

like that last shot.

I did an edit on the last photo since everyone seemed to like it best. I could not get it to look like David's though. David, I would really like your opinion of the edit and will try and PM you. I appreciate anyone elses feedback too.
I just joined a photo club where they score 3 or your photos once a month and was thinking maybe I should enter this one.

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CarolP wrote in post #2177930
I did an edit on the last photo since everyone seemed to like it best. I could not get it to look like David's though. David, I would really like your opinion of the edit and will try and PM you. I appreciate anyone elses feedback too.
I just joined a photo club where they score 3 or your photos once a month and was thinking maybe I should enter this one.

Looks as if it's almost there Carol, I still feel that you could go a little further with the contrast masking - just before the point where the whites begin to burn out which will help open up the shadow areas for you. It's a nice image and conveys a true feel of Autumn with colour and storm clouds.

If you do enter this to your photo club I wish you the best of luck

Love your version Carol, slightly more menacing and foreboding

Mark