Ghost mountain

[Oni]

I was trying to capture the ragged and rough lava flow in the foreground while contrasting the misty, cloud covered mountain behind. But I lost the mountain! My photoshop skills are seriously lacking, so would someone show me what could be done with a photo like this? Is this photo even salvageable? Taken at Craters of the Moon. Many thanks.


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/85756543@N00/384827878/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/384827878_ea4085766e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0731.JPG copy" /></a>

[jiminyClickit]

Oni,

Have you got a grasp on that whole layering thing in your edit program? A lot can be enhanced in your mountains and lava by adding two different layers (a dark under-exposed-looking one, and a light, over-exposed-looking one), and have them on "overlay" at 30% opacity to start. From there you can raise or lower the opacity to get that look you want.

There's also a nice horizon line you could use to section off the mountain and up the contrast and darken or saturate as needed. Play some.

(The inexact terms come from not using PS)

[Nicole]

Ok, this is what I came up with using Elements. I'm not sure that this is actually what you were going for, but I thought I'd try bringing out the mountains more:

http://static.flickr.com/101/384862951_566c083d8e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolesphotos/384862951/)

What I did:
1. Duplicate the Original into a new layer
2. Enhance -> Adjust lighting -> Shadows / Highlights
3. Darkened the Highlights
4. Increased the Midtone contrast
5. Used a bit of the Blur brush where there were really noticeable jpg artifacts after the adjustments.

Using different settings would obviously give you a different look, but I just thought I'd see if it was in fact salvageable (and it is :)) Good luck doing some fixes that you'll be happy with.

[jiminyClickit]

Nicole,

Winner of a mountain, now. Was there anything worth saving in the sky?

[Nicole]

Couldn't get much out of the sky, not sure there was much detail in there, though that could be due to the fact that it was a cloudy day.

[Oni]

Ok,

What I did:
1. Duplicate the Original into a new layer
2. Enhance -> Adjust lighting -> Shadows / Highlights
3. Darkened the Highlights
4. Increased the Midtone contrast
5. Used a bit of the Blur brush where there were really noticeable jpg artifacts after the adjustments.

Using different settings would obviously give you a different look, but I just thought I'd see if it was in fact salvageable (and it is :)) Good luck doing some fixes that you'll be happy with.

Holy moley, I have nothing like these features on my iMac. Guess these detailed adjustments mean purchasing some type of photo editing program so I will have to research which is best for Macintosh/Apple.

Nichole, I had no idea there was THAT much detail hidden in the original.....very impressive, but it looks so complicated to my novice abilities. Thank you for taking the time to inspire me. I must admit my "frustration factor" is running a bit high now.

Jiminy, it appears I only have a small "retouch" ability. Certainly nothing with overlays, midtones or opacity levels. So I will be driving this Porsche around and around in my driveway until I can lose these training wheels. Thanks for all your help.

[Oni]

Just for fun, this is the best I can do with my limited photo program. I wanted the ghost mountain to be gray, matching the lava, but blue was the only thing I could do. Plus I think the lava is now too dark, but that was the only way I could obtain any attentional mountain detail.
If I could separate the lower dark lava from the misty mountain and adjust each section individually, that would improve this photo tremendously. Now I see the benefit of the photo shop programs and can justify their expense. Such a complicated world! Whew. :confused:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/85756543@N00/385631375/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/385631375_6cb6ec579e.jpg" width="500" height="369" alt="Ghost Mt" /></a>

[Nicole]

Oni, if you want a good (and free) graphics program to play around with on your Mac, I highly recommend GimpShop (http://www.gimpshop.net/). You should be able to translate the instructions above into that program (or at the very least, you'll have a lot more to play around with :)). It will also give you the ability to adjust different parts of the photo as you were hoping to do.

[jiminyClickit]

Oni,

Look around for those pics done in Nicole's recommended GimpShop. You'll find "free" does not mean you can't do a lot of good work with it. And less complicated will mean shorter time to adapt yourself to its language (we have maybe 5 major dialects here!) and its functions. Have fun!

And when you get a program (you know you are), adding a touch of magenta to your blue will tend to 'grey' it.

[steevdavis62]

Oni,
the biggest problem i found with your original, was the un-even horizon line. Only a tiny thing, but it can make a huge diference. Turn what would have been a WOW photo, into an only average, filler material. but to your credit, you seemed to fix it in the second one. Good job. I like the dark larva, more details. Much nicer

[benttop]

I think you can salvage it, but it will depend on what it is you're looking for. I was able to pull the mountain out quite a bit, but the colors of the rock on the mountain are hard to make look natural if you process it too much. Here are two different approaches that I fiddled with here:

http://www.foto.strayca.com/images/Mountain_1.jpg

But I wanted to set off the mountain a bit, so I substituted some clouds behind. This could have been done better, but you get the idea:

http://www.foto.strayca.com/images/Mountain_2.jpg

I used a combination of layers, and masks to get to these two examples.