I don’t know about you, but the last two weeks went by QUICK! I’m not ready for the vacation to be over. Southern California seems to have turned off the winter switch, it’s currently in the upper 60s (°F) and it looks like the holidays are officially over. It’s so weird how the decorations for December were out before Halloween this year and then *snap*, it’s over… it’s a little hard to get used to.
Well, I guess there is no time like the present…
I have joined a month-long photo post-processing challenge called One Four Challenge, hosted by Robyn at Captivate Me. “This challenge is about processing １ image in 4 different ways over 4 weeks.” Every Monday Robyn posts a new version of her photo and challenges us to do the same each week.
I wasn’t sure what photo to choose for the January challenge… last night I was tinkering with a photo that could probably be used for ABFriday instead, but I’m hoping I can come up with something for the next 3 weeks… I have one other version already… so that gives me a little bit of time to figure out weeks 3 and 4.
Here is my week １ version, at first glance it probably appears that I didn’t do anything… but I think that is the beauty of ‘fixing’ a photo… making it look like it hasn’t been altered. This image is going to require a ‘before’ image I think to show that I did indeed do quite a bit to the image… it took four layers to get this look…
Here is the original (out of camera), Camera Raw fixes, and then this fix… I think you’ll be able to see how much the image changed (click to enlarge)…
Doing the usual fixes to try to remove the blownout sky (tweaking the whites and the shadows, while also tweaking the contrast, vibrance, saturation, and clarity in Camera Raw) seems to have made the leaves more blue, but not really done much to the sky. I also enabled the Lens Profile Corrections, which fixed any warping. But clearly it just wasn’t enough… I had to go into Photoshop and do quite a bit more work to get to my final version.
It seems I have run out of time today… Please come back tomorrow, I will post the tutorial of how I did this version…
EDIT: You can find the Photoshop tutorial here and the GIMP tutorial here.
Until next time…
~nic
Photography by Nic 
Hi Nic, the holidays did go so fassst and I agree with you about the decorations… Here then gone!
I like your choice of image… It makes me feel so tiny!!
Love your edits so far and am looking forward to reading your tute 😃
Happy New Year!
Thanks, Robyn! Happy New Year! I think I crouched down to get a better angle to emphasize just how tall those trees are. 🙂
Nice one Nic. It totally works 😀
Nice work! I almost chose a very similar pic. Glad I didn’t – my camera capacity can’t even come close to yours!
Thanks, TurtleMoonImpressions! I’m not sure what camera you have, but in most circles my camera is outdated, but I love it. I use a Canon Rebel T2i, I purchased it back in the summer of 2010 and loved it so much I bought another T2i body ‘just in case’ when the T3 came out (knowing that it would be impossible to buy again later). I think they are on the T5 now. I keep looking at the 5D Mark III and thinking, “That’s a lot of money ($3500) and it only does a few things better than mine (that I’m interested in). Plus it has different memory cards and is heavier. And all the buttons are in a different place.”
I like to think of Ansel Adams, it is said that he could take those images with *any* camera. While the camera does help, especially the difference in a dSLR to a point-and-shoot (mainly because of the manual abilities and the lenses that can be changed out), it really is more about practice and knowing your camera (and in some cases the lens you use). You will always miss the shot if you don’t know your camera well enough to grab it, set it, and shoot. I *know* my camera and have practiced pushing various buttons with the camera up to my eye so that I don’t miss the shot later. Don’t sell yourself short. Sure expensive equipment is nice, but I’ve seen some bad photography with the most expensive gear… and I’ve seen amazing photography with modest gear.
I agree. Bluing that sky really brings out the trees in a lovely way!
Thanks, Priceless Joy!
Yes, a blue sky through those gorgeous trees is hard to come by! I am looking forward to seeing how you ultimately accomplished this. Gorgeous colors in the branches too. I love trees, especially looking up at them. I am looking forward to seeing where this image takes you this month!
Thanks, Carrie! It took a bit of work, I’m writing the tutorial now. I love trees too! 🙂
Hey Nic, love the job you did on the sky, it totally makes such a difference here 🙂
Thanks, lensaddiction! 🙂