Heading home

[P Plates]

Processed another of my smokey sunset shots

[Alan]

Great sky.

Thinking I'd like to see some pp (dodge), on the cows and maybe parts of the middle hills to make them stand out more.

The sky is nice but you've called it, 'Going Home'

I opened it in PS, and it does look better than it does here. Not sure why?

Cheers

[P Plates]

Thanks Alan. Actually I often notice my photographs are darker when uploaded to the forum. I used 'save for web' to resize as shown here. Is there a better way?

[Alan]

I can't see your exif data. 'Save for Web' is probably striping that out - there is a check box in there somewhwere to tell it not to do that. I have a screen grab somewhere if you can't find it

I have no idea why it looks darker Gabby, (I always thought that the photos Charles posted were too dark as well)

Are you using sRGB as your colour space?

I don't use 'Save for Web'.

I just resize to about half the image size > then do an unsharp mask on that image, and then resize again to 1024 pxls on the wide size or 800 pxls tall if it's a vertical.. I leave it at 300 dpi

A quick and dirty edit

[P Plates]

Thanks Alan, tried your method and could see no discernible difference in brightness on my screen. I always lighten slightly if I want to print so maybe will just have to do it for web as well. Have had another play with some dodge and burn (probably could have gone further) and a curves adjustment to lighten around the cattle. Oh and I named it 'heading home' as this was the tail end of a herd trotting back to where they spend the night.

[Gaz]

Ok...I wanna have a go as well (After last nights rain there is little I can do today but sit back and watch the grass grow)
I really like the composition of the image with the leader and that tree lining up with the sun, timed that well.....

- I've used a 'Curves Adjustment Layer' to adjust exposure concentrating only on the foreground.
- In the 'Layer Mask' that was created I grabbed the 'Gradient Tool' "Foreground to Transparent" and pulled from the top down.
- A very rough 'Quick Selection' along the horizon then used the 'Radial Gradient Tool' on the Sun and the 'Brush Tool' (Adjusting the Opacity) to bring out a little more in the clouds.
- Inverted the 'Selection' and blended the hills in with a 'Large Soft Brush' working from outside the selection

My layer mask ended up looking like this...


My attempt.... "Maybe a little to bright at the bottom?"

[P Plates]

Thanks Gaz. This is a tool I've never used in PS but think I must learn more about it. Ironically I was reading an article about it being used as a mask to blend two images last night. Your result looks really good.

[operative]

Ive not tried on your photo but you should be able to isolate the sky quite easily with a luminosity mask. would make doing a seamless edit on foreground or sky really easy!

[P Plates]

Thanks Operative. You're right there was a perfect 'darks' mask which worked. I'm still very much in the learning stage with luminosity masks and need to experiment with them more.