PP my image - Ruapehu over Waiouru

[sheepie]

OK - thanks to Stubbsy and a few others, I think we have a good idea going with this PP My Image thing - time for me to make a contribution, and get a few pointers from the PP wizzes out there

This pic I took in August in NZ (der!) and I think we can get something worthwhile out of it, but I haven't worked it out yet...



You should be able to get at a DNG file of the original here (9meg):
http://www.divshare.com/download/3291962-453

I want show the way Ruapehu dominates the skyline in this view - which is on the main road (SH1) through Waiouru in the Central North Island.

So let's see what you guru's can come up with - pointers to how you got to your end product are a must, as this is a learning exercise rather than a pissing contest.

Thanks all

[stubbsy]

Bloody difficult one to work on this. First I did an Auto Levels, then added a grad ND to lighten the bottom and darken the top. Next some dodging on the foreground and some burning on the mountains. Cropped to pano layout.

Finally some cloning - got rid of the powerlines, that bloody great VW in the foreground that kept grabbing the eye then moved a few pine trees to make more mountain and also ditched a few streetlights. Finally converted to B & W then added a 15% sepia photo filter to warm the image a touch.

Click the image for a larger version.

[phillipb]

Hi Leon,
I just worked with the low res file. I tried to bring out the mountains and the clouds, but it seemed to stuff up the rest of the photo. In the end I turned it to B&W but I'm not sure if I've made any improvement to the original.

[Killakoala]

I'll give this a go, but I think you've given us a huge challenge Leon.

Hmmm, so how do I convert a DNG into something I can use in PSCS2? There is the first challenge.

EDIT: OK, newer version of Camera Raw and away I go.

This is what i did to PP it.

1. Adjusted white balance.
2. Cropped the top, foreground and sides.
3. Cloned some of the remaining powerlines.
4. Cloned out all the distracting street lights and power poles
5. Cloned out both cars ahead
6. Cloned out a tree above the directions road sign
7. Cloned out the Subway as I don't like them and wouldn't eat there
8. Cloned out the ICE sign and some more trees
9. Got tired of cloning.
10. Adjust contrast to +15 and brightness to -10 (This darkened the foreground and lightened the mountain)
11. Burnt-in the darker clouds to match the foreground
12. Cloned out the toilet sign as the blue was annoying me and was the only blue thing in the image.
13. Saturated the tiny bit of blue sky
14. Adjusted colours to make it a bit more blue and cold looking to match the weather.
15. Cloned out the road sign at the end of the road.
16. Used Nik Effects Pro Bi-colour Filter to add a little bit of blue to the sky and some grey to the road and buildings. (Kind of like an Grad ND filter but with colours) (Idea stolen from Stubbsy)
16.5 Got tired of editing and decided to stop and upload it.
17. Reduced to 1500Px and sharpened USM to 105% at 0.3 radius

Click on the image to view at full resolution 1500x695px @ 290Kb

[stubbsy]

Hmmm, so how do I convert a DNG into something I can use in PSCS2? There is the first challenge.

EDIT: Looks like I can't. Oh well, too bad.

Steve
CS2 definitely supports DNG files via ACR - although I now use CS3 I was using DNG with CS2 for some time before that - maybe you have an old ACR - my recall is DNG has been supported since PSCS