Don't ride off that cliff.

[romelm]

This picture was taken in Southern Utah. The cliff to the left of the rider was approximately a 1,000 foot vertical drop.

I touched the photo up in photoshop and am displaying both pictures here.
This first picture is edited, the second is the original.


My main issue is getting the cliff ledge to stand out as to better demonstrate the sheer drop off.


Any ideas on the shot in general or on how I used photoshop would be great.

Thanks!

[jkriminger]

maybe layer the foreground and background seperately and enhance the background less.

[gahspidy]

Great looking scene and good shot. i like the original much better than the saturated version. It would have been nice to have caught the action as the biker was a few more feet down the trail to seperate him further from the tree and stand out a little stronger. Still, very good.
I think jkriminger is right about selecting the fg and enhance it slightly while reducing the brightness of the background. Make sure you select the jagged edges of the rocks at the cliffs edge in the process.
nice shot

[MB1]

I like the saturated version. As to how you would get greater seperation between the foreground and background I'd say the correct way would be in camera with focal points and depth of field.

[jkriminger]

ahhh..but then you would lose that beautiful background

[Don Schaeffer]

I like the saturated version much better than the original. It has so much more impact and life.

[fx101]

You will need to mask out the background. If you don't have it already try fluidmask (3 is the latest version I believe). You will be able to select around the trees and the rocks. Then work with both images seperately (foreground and background). Increase the gamma in the background to really bring out the blacks and if you want use curves to tone it down. Then work with the saturation to get the sky just right. Then do what you need to with the foreground. Combine both images and see how it looks. If you require more distinction, try using a lens-blur filter. BTW I like the look of the saturated one more.

[freygr]

This picture was taken in Southern Utah. The cliff to the left of the rider was approximately a 1,000 foot vertical drop.

clip...

Well I'm surprised no one has ridden off the cliff. Where I live the protect the public would try to close the trail as it's too dangerous. Last winter when the three climbers died on Mt. Hood you just could hear why did we let them go there it's too dangerous.

[Mr Yuck]

beautiful shot. I agree with the others that you should enhance the foreground separately from the background, it would give a greater sense of something...depth I think. I do like the edited version though, I'd have the foreground enhanced that much, the background just a little less.