Raw photo to Fine art: Mountain River at Dusk II

Raw photo to Fine art.

   In this edition of my series, I show major waypoints in my edit of the fine art landscape image "Mountain River at Dusk II." I took this image during an amazing walk along the Slate River near Crested Butte, CO. I was drawn to this image by the S curve of the river drawing my eye through the evergreens to the snowy mountains and the pale colored sky; the hint of 'mist' in the distant valley was also a bonus!

   As you remember, cameras "see" differently than the eye. The next image below is the middle unedited "raw" exposure ("raw" images are not internally processed by the camera to try to match what the eye sees) is pretty flat and boring. (To get better data for my edit, I actually combined three exposures for my edit: a bright exposure for the trees and mountains, a middle exposure, and a dark exposure for the sky.)

   The next images shows the result of my 'global' edits that impacted the whole image. As you can see, I darkened the bright sky and river and brought out detail in the trees and mountain sides. In doing so, I was able to increase the contrast in various areas so the image wasn't so flat. I also brought out some of the pink color I saw in the sky, and made the greens and blues more varied and rich.

   The next image shows the impact of my 'local' adjustments. For example I further darkened the sky, bringing out color and details in the clouds, as well as the sky reflection in the river. I also brightened and added contrast to the center to make that part of the image the most important.

   Alas, I was still bothered by the bright sky at the upper left: it draws the eye too strongly, inviting it to leave the image rather than exploring it more deeply. As the clouds were moving slowly (and the night falling quickly!) I wasn't able to get other images with better sky, so I used a new feature of Photoshop to add additional clouds to that corner (fifth image and the final edit). I think it is a worthwhile addition: it makes the image more balanced (symmetrical), and makes a barrier for the eye to flow naturally back into the image.

   Why do I go through this trouble rather than relying on the auto-processed image from my high quality camera? Check out the last image, the one auto-generated by my camera. It's certainly better than the raw image, but lacks the warmth from the sky and the focus to the center of the image, among other things.

   Thanks for reading!