Lake Cascade Waiting Room

[Tom Gresham]

Lake Cascade, Idaho.  Working with the Fuji kit.  It just calms me to look at that picture.  Sit with your feet in the water and gaze across the lake at the mountains.

[Tristin]

I dig it, though it is a hair overcooked.  The halos detract from the image for me, too much sharpening perhaps?  The chair also seems a bit un-naturally separated as well.

[Tom Gresham]

Tristin, I know what you mean.  I go back and forth about this one.  I like the higher contrast, but it's probably a bit too much.  This one is a bit smoother.  I'm pretty clumsy with post processing.  Have never used curves, for instance.  It's one of the areas I am trying to improve on.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I see nothing wrong or unusual by the treatment your pictorial idea has been subject to, Tom. It works well for me. However, in order to convey the notion of serenity and contemplative mood, the sky area should not deviate by being so noisy. Also, the b/w rendition would benefit from some adjusts of the middle tones to make the overall impression more compelling. As of now the image looks a little dull and drained of life as it were.

[Tom Gresham]

And that's one of my shortcomings.  I'll need to go back to the color original and start over.  Have to figure out how to adjust middle tones, etc.  But, the learning is a big part of the fun for me.

[Tristin]

I think lightening up on the sharpening could do wonders.  This image doesn't strike me as one needing any at all honestly, with it's intended serenity.

I would also focus on the banding in the sky and the halo on the horizon.  Looking forward to more go arounds of this one as I feel the image deserves it!  I know the feeling of wanting to overcook the sky to get the deep tones and striking clouds.  That typically happens when I didn't carry a CPL with me, which I always do now! 😉

Btw, my favorite way of inducing contrast is using channel mixer layers.  Put a channel mixer adjustment layer on, switch it to one of the mono presets (or tweak your own) that represents the tonal shading you would like.  Then switch it to either overlay, soft light or hard light, turn opacity to 0% and slowly bring it up while keeing your eye on the image.  It's great for increasing contrast in a way that shapes the tones of the image instead of boosting it globally.  You can also use a mask on the mixer in case you want to shape specific parts of the image, like the shadows, etc.

[Tom Gresham]

Tristin, I appreciate the suggestions.  But . . . you lost me when you said channel (?) mixer (?) layer (?).   I honestly have never used any of those.  I need to take a "Basics of Photoshop" course. 

[Tristin]

Go to Layer > Add adjustment layer > Channel mixer.  There will be a list of monotone presets to give a whirl.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Much can be done in a good modern RAW conversion program, but doing the final touches in Photoshop can be a life-saver.

Layers or plugins or third-party software are different approaches to solving the same problem.

[Tom Gresham]

I very much appreciate he help.  I have the NIK filter package and use that.  "Adjustments for Dummies," I guess.  I'll give these suggestions a try.

While I did do a fair amount of b/w printing back in the 1970's, I shot transparencies after that.  Get it right when you shoot it, or throw it away.  I'm a beginner at the digital side of things.