sledding hill

[n8]

I'm sure the subject/composition is weak here, but what I'm looking for is c&c regarding my tone mapping and other pp such as removing power lines and a bit of the lens flare. Yup...sun is blown out. HDR, yes...and I don't mind if they look it as long as it's not too much. I must say, photomatix really impressed me with it's de-ghosting considering she was in three different positions as I shot.

[n8]

sharpened...
by the way, can anyone tell me how to edit my photos in my posts? Seems like the ability has gone away (using Chrome).

[wfooshee]

It seems very . . . . blue, to me.

I downloaded it to see how playing with color balance might play out, added a good bit of yellow and a tiny bit of magenta (to counteract the green hue resulting from the yellow, and while the snow looked better, the rest of it didn't. It made the sky gray, and even greenish around the top right. It also lightened the picture considerably so I brought out levels and reduced white significantly. I ended up liking the snow better, but that was all I liked better, so I didn't bother uploading the result.

[n8]

Blue indeed.
I kind of took your advice, just did it in a different manner. It sounds like with what you were doing you may have just needed to mask some areas out.

[wfooshee]

Ooh, I like that much more! When I was playing with it I didn't bother trying to protect the sky, I was just trying to fix the sno2,

[hminx]

This image has really piqued my interest though I think it still looks a wee bit soft Nate, I think there is still quite a bit of detail left in that snow yet, and it looks a bit on the grey side. I tried an edit using LAB to sharpen the greys only and adjust levels then used selective color in RGB. Can post if you like.

[n8]

Go for it, I'd like to see how that worked. I don't work in lab too much, so it may be something for me to explore

[hminx]

As described......

[Ctn]

I like what hminx has done to it. The added detail makes the photo more interesting for me.

[n8]

Hmm...
I'm wondering if I need to look at my resolution when I downsize for the upload. Pulling up my full size tiff, my image is much sharper than what's posted here. I still want to give the LAB technique a shot, although this almost puts too much contrast in it for me.

[GB1]

N8 - personally, I don't think it's a great candidate for HDR. Yes, you want her to have some detail, and that's where HDR would be beneficial, but the tone mapping here as removed all contrast and made the image very blase (at least, that is, in my opinion).

Maybe if you got a tad lower and used one of the top folk's head to partially block the sun, then added about 2/3 of a stop to the exposure that it would have created a more dramatic shot.

I did a quick edit and added a little contrast, and also cropped it to emphasize her and the line of people at the top of the hill. I think it has some symbology myself, like she's trying to reach the same level as the others :idea:

GB

[n8]

I like the crop, and I never thought to use a person to block the sun...good suggestion. Even the symbolism you elicited is beyond what I was going for, but good none the less. Really, I was only looking for an excuse to hdr something with my new uwa and to see how much flare I was going to get.