Mountain View with a painted look . . . Constructive advice welcome

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Originally Posted by Mike Buckley

Have you ever seen a sky that looked like the results you produced? I haven't, which is why the sky looks so surrealistic to me in the context of the rest of the image looking so realistic.

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I do see what you are getting at but the original photo was pretty dull so I added some pop to it, I am not sure if I was really going for "realistic". I only get to this location once a year (if I am lucky) so maybe next year when I shoot it the colors will be more realistic and I won't have to play as much in PP. Here is the original photo.

http://i63.tinypic.com/359jrzp.jpg

It's fine to add interest to the sky. Just do so in a way that seems natural rather than surrealistic. In other words, don't use the radial filter.

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Originally Posted by Kathy O

I do see what you are getting at but the original photo was pretty dull so I added some pop to it, I am not sure if I was really going for "realistic". I only get to this location once a year (if I am lucky) so maybe next year when I shoot it the colors will be more realistic and I won't have to play as much in PP. Here is the original photo.

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Darn! What a silly place to put a parking lot!

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Originally Posted by Mike Buckley

It's fine to add interest to the sky. Just do so in a way that seems natural rather than surrealistic. In other words, don't use the radial filter.

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Mike thank you for your input.

Here is the photo with out the radial filter
http://i68.tinypic.com/r031jq.jpg

I also included the photo with the radial filter just for easier comparison.
http://i64.tinypic.com/219rt74.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Buckley

It's fine to add interest to the sky. Just do so in a way that seems natural rather than surrealistic. In other words, don't use the radial filter.

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I hadn't realised how much the radial filter had contributed to the original post. There is more to be had from the sky. This is what I thought I was seeing. That light cloud can be brought out a bit more.

http://i67.tinypic.com/34hiclg.jpg

Hi Kathy :) I can see what you were trying to achieve with the radial filter but it made the sky look a bit odd. If you have PS you can use a warming filter with a mask and you can apply it to different parts of the image by using the brush with different opacities. Or by using the HSL sliders in LR you can change the color of the trees from green to warmer tones.

It is a very nice image and should be viewed in Lightbox at a bigger size.

I like the shot without the radial filter...I like the image very much for what you did to it, too...I do not use LR but if LR has a user customized graduated filter, I think this will work more better...and the sky will not be as empty...what do you think? Just a thought..

I opened the image in CS6 with NIK Viveza. I increased the structure considerably, increased the green and blue a bit and then increased the saturation.

https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/photos/i...HdchLvN-X2.jpg

Relax it is a very good shot. Hey if even Dave:) likes it it has to be good. There is for me a problem of seeing two distinct shots. The pink/orange at either side of the sky frame the peak. I see the trees the little mountain and the middle range as distinct?
Brian

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Originally Posted by JBW

Relax it is a very good shot. Hey if even Dave:) likes it it has to be good. There is for me a problem of seeing two distinct shots. The pink/orange at either side of the sky frame the peak. I see the trees the little mountain and the middle range as distinct?
Brian

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THank you Brian, I appreciate your input :)