Stromboli

[Anthony]

Smoking, as usual.

[atpaula]

This is the place where Patalogika witch lives.

[Randy Stout]

Anthony:

Quite a striking island.  I feel that the haze reduced the contrast so much, that some of the impact of the image was lost. So, a quick tweak of contrast and saturation on the island. Just an option.

Cheers

Randy

[armando_m]

Are those houses on the lower left ?

[pluton]

Good choice to enhance the contrast.  The photo still looks completely realistic, but important details are now more visible.

[Akira]

Very nice!  To me, the seemingly sterile symmetrical composition makes the image somewhat other-worldly.

The low contrast (against the sharply rendered ripples of the sea) makes the island look like a mirage, which rather gives the preferable effect.  This is not a landscape but a nice abstraction to me.

[Anthony]

Thanks, all for your comments and suggestions.

Here is the embedded jpeg from the original raw.  I was bouncing around on a sailing boat, shooting with Fuji X-T2/18-55 at 55, and this was the closest we came.  I would have gone closer, gone ashore, but the rest of the crew were more interested in sailing than in onshore exploring.

As you can see, there was a lot of work applied to the raw file.  Probably I should have applied more contrast, and thanks for the suggestion, Randy.  But haze was a reality, and I decided to leave some trace of it.  I am impressed with the ability of the Fuji kit zoom to capture information.

The next time I go sailing I shall include a longer lens in my luggage.

Stromboli is an active volcano.  There are indeed houses on the island, and there is a population of around 500.

[gryphon1911]

If you are using Lightroom, the Dehaze feature would probably give favorable results.

[Anthony]

If you are using Lightroom, the Dehaze feature would probably give favorable results.

Thanks, Andrew, I used the Dehaze feature in ACR (same as LR).  It helped.  However, I could not push it further than I did because it started to create an unpleasant and unrealistic dark blue tone.

[Randy Stout]

It of course is always about what 'story' you are trying to tell.  So, go with the presentation that tells your story the best.

I created a mask and applied the adjustments just to the island and the clouds, as the water did get unnatural looking with the dehaze filter on the entire image.

I used the Overlay blend mode and a few other minor tweaks in PS.

Cheers

Randy

[Anthony]

Thanks, Randy, when I used Dehaze early on in the process I found that it gave an unpleasant blue tinge to the volcano at settings of over +15.

However, applying it and applying contrast to the final version (as you have, because that is all you had to work from) seems to work well.

A lesson I draw from this is that adjustments can successfully be applied at a later stage in the process even if they have already been applied at an earlier stage.

One can never stop learning with Photoshop.

[Ann]

A most interesting view of a unique volcano which emerges directly from the sea!

Regarding Dehaze:

Dehaze works by increasing Black point and contrast in distant subjects while increasing Saturation in near-by subjects.
It usually needs to be used in conjunction with several other Sliders (including Clarity, Saturation, Vibrance and Contrast) and perhaps with HSL sliders for individual colours as well.

This image is a case where you might find using an Adjustment Brush or a graduation (set for Haze reduction plus some of the other adjustments which I mentioned) on only the volcano and the sky.

Minus values of De-haze increase Whites and add the appearance of mist — which can alo be very useful if applied locally.

I find that I can often use Dehaze, in conjunction with other settings, instead of a Polariser to darken skies and even to reduce over-bright reflections. I usually avoid filters, even a polariser, because of the time it takes to mount and adjust them and the polariser only affects a relatively small arc of the image anyway.

You can also use the ACR Filter in Ps itself to make these adjustments on a duplicate and maskable Layer

Here a very contrasty image of a wet alligator which has been edited with a Graduated Adjustment:

[Anthony]

Thank you, Ann, this thread is becoming very instructive for me.