Image advice - not happy with result

[Analog6]

Here is a shot I took back in january 2010 when I made a trip to Wollongong. It is down at Coalcliff on the rock platform. I love the clouds, I like the way they have come up but am not sure about the darkness to the right. And should I crop or do somthing else to the foreground?

1DsMkII & 16-35 lans, f5, 1/250, ISO200, about 7am.

Processed
69566

Raw
69565

[dieselpower]

I love the texture in the clouds on the first (processed) shot. It has darkened the foreground though as you have pointed out.

As for your crop question - yes, I'd crop in slightly off the right and the ground.

To fix the darkness - I'd use some local adjustments to keep the clouds as they are but retain the brightness in the ground. In fact, since you've shot RAW you should be able to get the ground a bit lighter. I don't know what you use for editing. If photoshop - an adjustment layer with a mask would be sufficient. If you use lightroom, you could use the graduated filter option, or a local adjustment brush and paint it over the clouds. Push the exposure down a bit on it and push the contrast up (which I expect you've done anyway) - this will only affect the clouds.

For my liking I think the foreground could stand to be a bit lighter. Since you've shot in RAW you should be able to push it up a little. Again, local adjustment brush with a push up on the exposure/brightness should do it.

Do you mind if I have a go at it and tell you what I did?

[Analog6]

I love the texture in the clouds on the first (processed) shot. It has darkened the foreground though as you have pointed out.

As for your crop question - yes, I'd crop in slightly off the right and the ground.

To fix the darkness - I'd use some local adjustments to keep the clouds as they are but retain the brightness in the ground. In fact, since you've shot RAW you should be able to get the ground a bit lighter. I don't know what you use for editing. If photoshop - an adjustment layer with a mask would be sufficient. If you use lightroom, you could use the graduated filter option, or a local adjustment brush and paint it over the clouds. Push the exposure down a bit on it and push the contrast up (which I expect you've done anyway) - this will only affect the clouds.

For my liking I think the foreground could stand to be a bit lighter. Since you've shot in RAW you should be able to push it up a little. Again, local adjustment brush with a push up on the exposure/brightness should do it.

Do you mind if I have a go at it and tell you what I did?

I'd be happy for you to have a go at it, if you want to PM me I'll email you a big file. I am just not sure HOW I want it to look, I sort of can't get inspired yet I love the clouds. Must be having an off day!

[dieselpower]

I'll see if I can do anything with it. It's certainly got some potential I reckon, and might suit a mono conversion well too - will have a go and see what I come up with.

[dieselpower]

Hi Odille,

This is a very quick edit. It may be slightly over the top but the benefit of that is it highlights how far it can be pushed and still look good. I used lightroom 3.3 to edit this.

Here's what I did:
White Balance
Temp: 6500
Tint: 0

Tone (this is applied to whole image)
Exposure +0.75
Recovery 0
Fill Light 0
Blacks 1
Brightness +27
Contrast +57

Presence (this is applied to whole image)
Clarity +61 (mid-tone contrast essentially)
Vibrance +20
Saturation 0

I rotated it so the horizon was level.
I applied a graduated filter to the sky with the following settings:
Exposure -0.39
Brightness -68 (these brought it back darker than original - remember, the whole image has a +0.75 exposure adjustment)
Contrast 73
Saturation 0
Clarity 68

Sharpened
Minor Noise Reduction

I used the camera profile 'Camera Faithful' to start with. I shoot Nikon so not sure what this is mean to be like.

Hope you like it and it provides you with some inspiration on how you might be able to do it.

If you use Lightroom I can send you a copy of the xmp file for it if you like, or I could try and replicate the settings in Photoshop.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/thomasando/100_1546.jpg

[Analog6]

Thanks so much for your trouble, it gives me good ideas. I do like it, I wasn't bumping the contrast that far or reducing the brightness at the start, which may be where I was erring. I don't have Lightroom, I use Capture One and ACr, although I only used ACr on this one as I didn't want to slant it to a tool lots of us don't have. It certainly looks better than mine.

[dieselpower]

I'm not sure how to do it in Capture One - never used it. I'm not even sure what ACr is - Adobe Camera Raw? If that's the case then the settings I've given you here will apply as Lightroom uses the ACR engine for processing, even the graduated filter.