Salvageable?

[DanK]

Was out butterfly hunting with two of my grandkids when we walked out of the woods into the setting below. The sun was harsh (no clouds, mid-day), but I wanted to give it a shot (pun intended).

Here's a first edit. Mostly dodging and burning, with lot of it done with a luminosity blend mode to avoid oversaturating.

What do you think? Salvageable? Or just add to the list of "go back there sometime when the lighting isn't terrible"? Specific suggestions?

Thanks

[Geoff F]

The first thing I would do is to reduce the amount of reflection by about half. It has become confusing.

Then maybe try to reduce the shadows a little to bring out a fraction more detail, but be careful not to let them reach that horrible muddy brown level.

How did you shoot the scene? I use Raw and make a lot of adjustments with ACR. Making one or two copies and adjusting each for Highlights, Midtones and shadows would be my starting point; then merge them as layers.

[DanK]

Thanks for the comments.

I shoot only raw. My most common workflow is to do what I can in Lightroom (the same processing engine as ACR) and then move to Photoshop for things that are done better there or that can't be done at all in Lightroom. The proportion that can be done in Lightroom or ACR grows every year.

In the case of this quick and dirty edit, I did only global tonality adjustments in LR, e.g., pulling down whites. I did use one of LR's new features: I applied a curve with "refine saturation" set to zero, which does a luminosity-only tonality adjustment. Then I moved it to Photoshop for dodging and burning, which I can do much better in PS, for local contrast (unsharp mask, radius approximately 50), and smart sharpen. If I pursue this one seriously, I'll probably skip the USM and use the texture slider in LR, which is more subtle and more easily adjusted.

Re cropping: that's a helpful suggestion. I do think it needs cropping, but less than you suggest. I think as it is, it makes the eye travel too much.

This is a digression, but for most images that have a dynamic range within the capabilities of the sensor (like this one), I've don't understand the point of the three-copy method you describe. For color adjustments, color grading in LR provides separate adjustments for shadows, highlights, and midtones. For other adjustments, I generally use selections and brushes. When I want to work specifically on luminosity ranges, which isn't all that often, I use luminosity masks, which are much more flexible than a fixed tripartite division.

None of which is to day that it isn't a good method, just that I haven't figured out why I would use it. Can you point me to something that explains it?

Thanks again.

[Manfred M]

My thoughts are along the same line as Geoff’s. I would also try to open the shadows to reveal the features of that dark area of the barn(?).

That being said, a reshoot in better lighting should be considered, as “bad light” is impossible to fix in post.

[Rufus]

If you have it in the original, I would consider some additional foliage above the central structure as this might balance the image. This would also allow you preserve the amount of reflection while showing above the structure some more of what is being reflected. You may end up with a fairly square image which may not be a format that is to your liking.

As others have sugegsted, dodging the shaded areas of the barn would increase its interest as it acts as a focus if interest in the image.

[DanK]

Thanks for the comments.

In a couple of them are what I think may make this unsalvageable: the suggestions to dodge the lean-to. I actually did already. There is simply too little detail there to bring out more without turning it to mush.

so perhaps I was too optimistic when I wrote that the image fit within the DR of the sensor. Technically, it did, other than the reflection of the lean-to, but the interior of the lean-to is so badly underexposed that there isn't much one can do with it. I wasn't carrying a tripod and was also following two grandkids, so bracketing wasn't an option.

Thanks again.

[Geoff F]

Regarding brightening of the shadows. For this type of scene I normally shoot three bracketed exposures and do basic editing on each shot using ACR before combining them as masked layers. Sometimes I just use two shots. That will stretch the tonal range of a scene ready for some manual HDR adjustments using layers. Most of my bracketed exposure shots are handheld. You don't have to use a tripod but allow a bit of extra space around the edges for cropping of poor fit areas

If there is subject movement but that movement is contained within a general area of one particular layer I will work with three (or two) copies of the shot. I open the first layer as a Smart Object then do a copy (Creating two, or more, Smart Objects) then individually return them to ACR for editing into highlights or shadows.) This sounds complicated until you get used to the principle when it becomes just a flick of the wrist.

This works in a similar manner to HDR although the available good light range may be reduced. Global adjustments for Highlights/Midtones/Shadows can work with some images, particularly if you use several copies but there is always the risk that your camera has shot for an average exposure which leaves either highlights or shadows over or under exposed.

[Round Tuit]

I would suggest that only you can decide if this is salvageable because it depends on what you want to do with it. I doubt that you could fix it so that you would be proud to hang it on your wall. Depending on the ages of your grandkids, it could make a pleasant keepsake to remind them of their outing grandpa as it is.
In any case, I would be worthwhile to return at a golden hour and re shoot.

[DanK]

For this type of scene I normally shoot three bracketed exposures and do basic editing on each shot using ACR before combining them as masked layers.

Thanks. That's what wasn't clear before. Yes, I also often bracket exposures and combine them in various ways. I mistakenly though that when you mentioned "making one or two copies", I thought you meant virtual copies of a single capture.

FWIW: I often don't merge bracketed exposures manually. I've found that exposure fusion does a very good job of merging without distorting colors the way HDR often does. LR's "merge to HDR" often comes close, but I've done A/B comparisons in which the color rendition is noticeably more accurate with exposure fusion. I may have posted these here before, and if so, please excuse the redundancy. Here's a merge of bracketed shots using exposure fusion (LR Enfuse):



And here's the same shot (albeit not cropped the same) done with LR merge to HDR. Notice the difference in the stone, for example.