Creative Effects Challenge No. 234 - RAW Snowy Landscape

[hmca]

Quoting our photographer:

"This photo was taken on a magical winter drive. Some scenes after this photo was taken had blue skies. This frosty scene with the barn was photographed in the fog. It is lacking something. See how you can improve it."

1. Participants in the challenge may provide a screenshot of their edits within the RAW converter of their choice along with the reasons for their edits.

2. Following their initial edits members may use whatever “tools" they wish to create an image that portrays their artistic vision for the image as long as the character of the original image is not lost. You may not add anything to the image that wasn’t already there.

3. Including information on plug-ins, actions, external editors, textures, sky replacements etc that were used will only help to inform members
of some of the creative options that are available to today’s photographer.

4. Including layer stacks may be something to consider when presenting a final edit.

5.  The Challenge will end on Thursday, Aug. 29th.  At that time our photographer will choose his three top edits.

Here is a screenshot of the image we will be working on:



RAW file can be downloaded here.

[fotofrank]

Cropped, Removed Dust spots, last step processed through Topaz Photo AI to cleanup sky.


Camera raw settings - Custom profile


Selective Masking


Final Image

[hmca]

Really nice start, Frank. When I see how you have used selective masking I think I should spend some time with this. Very nice job cleaning up the sky.

[hmca]

Here's my first attempt. I am including my panel from Camera RAW but after those initial adjustments I did added work in Photoshop and with NIK filters....
Used the polarizer filter on the sky and thought I had removed most of the lens spots but after comparing with Frank's I see I did not. Confined the pro contrast filter to the barn. Used the spot healing brush and cloning to remove the structure on the left. At the end used two different levels adjustments: one for the snow and one for the barn area. Cropped.

[Peterj]

I decided that it was still snowing so added storm clouds with sky replacement in On1, then added a snowy texture.

[hmca]

Nice, Pete. A convincingly snowy scene.

[tonyw]

Snow scenes are always a bit of a challenge and this is a good one. Our eyes and brains expect snow to be white but it usually isn't to the camera so I usually have to desaturate the blue to make it appear whiter. I did it in Lightroom and like Frank used masks to separately adjust the sky, the barn and fence. I did find clarity and dehaze were particularly effective at getting rid of the fog and that the overall look was very sensitive to the white balance going from warm to cool with a very small tweak. Here's where I got to so far.



And to see what a tighter crop would look like I cropped to focus on the barn:



Tony

[Lillias]

After applying the Raw settings I applied a colour curves adjustment followed by a levels adjustment.
I used a gradient layer on top with the Multiply blend mode at 90% opacity.
Finished with a free grunge frame.

[hmca]

Aug 18, 2024 19:52:41 GMT tonyw said:

Our eyes and brains expect snow to be white but it usually isn't to the camera so I usually have to desaturate the blue to make it appear whiter.

Nice tip...your snow looks really good.

I also like the close crop on the barn.

[hmca]

Aug 18, 2024 20:21:17 GMT Lillias said:

After applying the Raw settings I applied a colour curves adjustment followed by a levels adjustment.
I used a gradient layer on top with the Multiply blend mode at 90% opacity.
Finished with a free grunge frame.

A very creative edit...looks like the stars will soon be coming out.

[Peterj]

Day after the storm we have a beautiful sunny day. On1 sky replacement and a sunshine filter along with a sun flare.

[fotofrank]

My artistic version - spring via neural filters.

[hmca]

Nice to see we've started the creative edits.....moving from a winter's sunny day....to a long-awaited Spring. Looking forward to what other ideas people have in mind.

[pontiac1940]

Aug 18, 2024 20:21:17 GMT Lillias said:

After applying the Raw settings I applied a colour curves adjustment followed by a levels adjustment.
I used a gradient layer on top with the Multiply blend mode at 90% opacity.
Finished with a free grunge frame.

Lillias, this looks like a moonlighted scene in winter. Love it. 

[PeteB]

Pure Raw + Camera Raw. Color Efex filters including Midnight and bright Sepia. Added a snow overlay