Big Rock Conundrum

[mikemeister_admin]

Hi everyone.  So as you may know, I invented a new way of color correcting using Photoshop’s Linear Light blend mode (several months ago, then I played with it a bit, then set it aside a bit, and have been really trying to push the idea in the past few days), that someone on the Applied Color Theory mailing list dubbed “Jacob’s Ladder”.  Seems like a good name to me. =)

Anyway, I used that technique (along with the shadow/highlight tool, and a bit of sharpening), and I got a result on this image that I like pretty well, but I thought I’d post the original here, to see what you all can come up with.  I’ll post my corrected version in a couple days.

[mikemeister_admin]

Well, just to start the ball rolling - here is a Lab correction with a touch of sky enhance.

The image seems to have halos around the rocks, which I assume is a result of resizing/compression, and gives me lovely green edges!

I only spent a few minutes on it, and at this small size the artifacting is quite large, so I do not think we can read too much into the correction - I would probably be happy with this for a snapshot.  I'm looking forward to a 'proper' correction being posted to compare against.

[ggroess]

using only CM...

Lab with a K mask for the sky.  There is more in there but this is quick and fairly clean...

Greg

[ggroess]

And an CM assisted HDR version....

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

love the texture in the rocks Greg - great

[mikemeister_admin]

Okay, here’s what I came up with (but my goal was to keep it close-ish to what I remembered rather than create a fantastical scene).

[mikemeister_admin]

Threshholding in Lab,then a pass for the sky.A bit more purple for the distant mountains,a bit more magenta for the midground and hold the bone white for the rocks.