Arrakis

DUNE by Frank Herbert was on my mind when I tried a sensible HDR version of our local dunes.



I guess the unprofessional use of the circular pol Filter ruins this attempt to a degree, but I still like it for the reflections that I tried to put in scene here.

Hey Georg, #1 is getting close. I would be looking for a bit more drama in the sky & getting those dunes to glow a bit.
# 2 is flat overall. no strong focal point. I think I can see where you were trying to go though. Once again Georg, a photoshop landscape expert could probably make it sing

Hi Georg,

Could you give your workflow from the RAw image in the first picture to the final result. The result is imressive. Your sharing might spur some interesting comments.

Asher

Hi Asher,

But of course I can try, I never shared a worflow of a picture before, I have to switch back to my other puter and right down all the steps! The screenshot would burst the acceptable size here at 3840x1024, although I tried one and resized it, but then the zoom doesn't provide enough details anymore for you folks to look at.

- aperture priority, 3x exposure bracketing @ -1,0,+1, ISO100, 14mm, f11,
-> 3 Raw's to ACR, all auto settings unchecked, linear curve, saved as 16bit TIFF
-> This was the look of the RAW ->

-> 3 RAW's -> CS2 -> Noise Ninja, ISO 100 denoise, using Olympus E-1 specific profile
-> Safe as 16 bit TIFF and overwrite originals
-> Photomatix, generate HDR, Strength 75%, L-Smoothing +1, luminance 0, safe TIFF
-> TIFF-> CS2, RAW Presharpening
-> Crop
-> Selected dunes, selected sky
-> Layers: 3x Levels adjustments with different blending modes, mulitply, overlay, softlight at various fill levels from 5%-80% on sky and dunes seperately, 1x Photofilter Warming81 as overlay on dunes @45%, 1x Saturation +20 as overlay with 10% opacity and 30%fill
-> shadow/highlights filter only highlights: tonal width 70, amount 4%, Radius 30 pixel.
-> resize and frame
-> final sharpening

Hey Georg,

disregard my first comments. Firstly, i viewed it on my laptop, totally different. Second, I did not see the before shot..........Greta job Georg.

Best ,

Paul

Awww <smiles> no no, you are right there is much that can be done so much better in deed. See, I have the advantage/diadvantage to be still a rookie in CS2, and this picture was from last year where I did not even have much needed literature for CS2, so I just fiddled with it until it was pleasing on my eyes.