Quick post from a cold winter day with nowhere to go. I originally posted this photo last year. Thought I’d play with this old image using a few different software combinations.
Here, I’ve posted the final version and have worked back to the original. The artistic possibilities are endless with the latest technical tools thanks to Adobe, Nik, etc.
Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop Final
Nik HDR Efex Pro – Granny Duo
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 – Monochrome
Adobe Photoshop – Original
This High Dynamic Range, “Long Lens Landscape” image is the full frame of a photo that I posted about a year ago. That one was just a little bit less realistic. So, after a year of practice, I’ve decided to do a comparison.
Here is the original from last February.
As you can see in the image at the top of this post, I’ve managed to get the colors right . . . more like real life. And by including the full view, I’ve allowed the total scene to show more visual depth. And a little vignetting on the lower corners doesn’t hurt either. 
To restate what I said in the original post; “The first image was shot with the lens set to 210mm. Notice the beautiful compression of the background and foreground trees; a distance of over 100 yards. With “long” lenses, the compression will distort perspective to a certain extent but the results are very artistically appealing.”
My updated version was reprocessed using only Adobe Camera Raw and a little Photoshop Curves and Hue/Saturation to add depth and winter color, realism.
I must be totally honest though. With the re-process if this image, the monochrome version is my favorite. The texture and more drastic contracts really pop as a black and white work of art.
Nikon D700 camera, Nikkor 70-210mm lens and post processed using Nik HDR Efex Pro, Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop.
Sometimes a traditional photograph can almost pass for a High Dynamic Range image. This image from my first trip to Rabat, Morocco is of a Christian church. At that time, I was told that it was the only church in the city.
This image was originally shot on Kodak Kodachrome slide film using a Contax rangefinder camera. I chose to not correct the vertical tilts since they give more of an organic sense of what a church is all about. Even though the normal method is to shoot the front of these beautiful structures, I was fascinated by the architectural details on the side and rear of the building. And that sky; well it speaks for itself!
As usual, I’ve included a monochrome version of this shot. The sky drama was incredible and black and white seems artistically natural.
Many HDR images have been criticized because of the tendency of lots of photogs to go over the edge in post-processing. In this “How To Do Stuff” post, I’d like to demonstrate one of my techniques for producing realistic High Dynamic Range images that can be enlarged without losing too much visual detail. This image is a result of a bit of fine tuning with Nik HDR Efex Pro, Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop CS6.
I’d like to start with the image as it came out of Nik HDR Efex Pro and show how I use Camera Raw for most of the post-processing.
I started with the Basic panel to modify just about everything that was needed except sharpening/luminosity and correcting chromatic aberration.
As you can see, minor adjustments of Highlights, Clarity and Vibrance can add much more punch to an image. My next step is to add sharpening and noise reduction using Luminosity on the Details tab. I’m using a before and after blowup of the side of the water tower to show the details and the sky.
I’ve found that the settings on this tab are usually dependent on the starting image. With this shot, I was able to get a pretty decent compromise of sharp and smooth. But, as you can see, this was a windy day and some of my branches are doubled from the image blending process. This shot was taken with an old Nikon zoom lens that seems to produce quite a bit of Chromatic Aberration. So, the next step required some automatic removal with the Lens Correction tab.
I realize that most people don’t get too concerned with this level of detail but if you plan on making large prints, things like detail sharpness, luminosity and chromatic aberration need to be addressed. This is usually my final step in Camera Raw unless I want to do some type of split toning or additional color correction.
Now I’m ready to move into Photoshop for some final enhancements and size modifications.
By working with Layers, I made adjustments to the final image. My major effort was to remove the halo effect around the trees and tower. For this I simply used the burn tool at a very light, 3% setting with a soft blend. Slight adjustments to Hue/Saturation for realistic color, Exposure for Gamma Correction and Curves for overall contrast gave me just what I wanted. Here are the before and after versions.
Now that we have a nice sharp and smooth image, it’s time to do the final stage for a large print version.
By using the Photoshop Image sizing tool, I’ll create a larger than final size image for slight sharpening using High Pass filter. I’ve found that sharpening at a larger size and then reducing the size to the final print dimensions creates a more realistic effect. My final size is 36 x 24 inches so I’ll create a copy with a 40 inch horizontal length. I then apply the High Pass filter using 8 pixels and Soft Light at 100% Opacity and Fill. The last step is to reduce the image size. This is a comparison with a small part of the original image.
Not sure where this is? Note the red box in the image below. That’s a pretty sweet rendition for a shot from an old, not so sharp lens.
This is one of many methods that can be used for enhancing an image to produce large prints. I will be presenting a few different scenarios in the future. And I hope this has been helpful.
Today, I’m using a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image that I worked with a few days ago. In that post I demonstrated the film type functions in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. But now, I want to work with the color version to do a very short explanation of how simple masking can save an image from the trash bin. This is another HTDS (How To Do Stuff) post.
For this image, I wanted to preserve the heavy gray sky but make the foreground look like the storm was passing. I thought a brighter effect would accomplish this.
1. I loaded the original HDR image into Adobe Photoshop CS6 and started by duplicating the background layer. This step is essential since I want to preserve the original.
2. The next step is to add a mask to the new layer. This is my working layer for applying the mask to the area that I want to modify, which in this case is everything except the cloudy sky.
3. By using the Brush Tool at 0 hardness for an easy, smooth blend, Mode set to Darken and Opacity and Flow set to 100%, I just brush the area that I will modify. In this case, the sky will be left as is to preserve the tones that will allow the contrast to separate it from the ground.
4. I added another layer for Curves to enhance the tones, colors and contrast on the masked layer. My last modification was to add a layer for Exposure where I adjusted the Gamma and Exposure to bring out more brightness.
I ended by using Layer > Flatten Image to combine my original sky with my changes.
This is a pretty simply method for masking but with the additional layering and modifications, a very dull shot can come to life. Here are the “before” and “after” images, side by side.
Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, 44mm, f/13, ISO 200. Bogen/Manfrotto tripod with ball head.