Photoshop snow help please

[nutter45]

Can anyone advise how best to process these images in photoshop?

I've tried messing about with levels/curves/exposure/brightness but can't settle on the best solution. Any help gratefully received :thumbs:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/nutter45/DSC05144.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/nutter45/DSC05272.jpg

[liamail]

I'm no expert - just starting to get the hang of adjustment layers and masking.

I don't think there is any best solution. I just tinker until I'm happy. You could go on forever!

On this one I added a fake ND grad effect, bringing out the sky. Upped the contrast a smidge and darkened some shadow areas with the burn tool to give a better sense of depth*:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/liamail/dvdforums/2009-02/snow01.jpg


For this one I took out some of the blue cast on the snow, then upped the contrast of the trees on the snow. This affected some of the people too, so any areas that lost a lot of detail I excluded by painting in some masking:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/liamail/dvdforums/2009-02/snow02.jpg


Other than the burn tool, everything was done with curve adjustment layers and masks.

* Not sure if I've overdone it - I hardly ever use the dodge/burn tools and it's something I want to try a bit more.

[driver8]

I'd like some tips on processing pics with high contrast, too !

anyone got an easy guide on best things to look for, and best way to do it ?

[Sam]

liamail, how did you do the ND grad? It looks great.

[liamail]

It was with an curves adjustment layer and mask.

Adjust the curves for the sky, then mask the parts you don't want that to apply to (below the mountains) using the gradient tool.

[Psybear]

Tried fiddling with the first one myself.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e105/psybear/DSC05144a.jpg


edit: Thought I might as well try the other one while I was at it...

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e105/psybear/DSC05272a.jpg

[scooby snacks]

Nice work Psybear:thumbs: Could you tell us what alterations you made?

[liamail]

Psybear - wow! :notworthy

I'd also like to know what you did there!

[Psybear]

No expert myself - very much a learner when it comes to PS - but I did a contrast mask first (first saw the tutorial for this on another forum):
- create a duplicate layer and then desaturate it, then invert desaturated layer to give a black & white negative of the background image, then change layer mode to Overlay, adjust to 80% or so, then apply a Gaussian Blur Filter to this layer, about 80 for both images.

The contrast mask technique is much simpler than it sounds. It's supposed to be an alternative to HDR, but I think it's much more natural. I can post a link to the tutorial if anyone's interested, I've used it on several of my images and gotten some very good results.

After that I tried auto colour which brought out the trees well in the first one but I didn't like the sky colour, so I did a feathered selection and boosted the saturation and altered the colour tones. Finished off with a Smart Sharpen. :)

[nutter45]

....The contrast mask technique is much simpler than it sounds. It's supposed to be an alternative to HDR, but I think it's much more natural. I can post a link to the tutorial if anyone's interested, I've used it on several of my images and gotten some very good results.


Wow, thanks guys :thumbs:

Yes please for that link :)

[Psybear]

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=30650

You will need to join TP Forums to view the thread.

[TheFatBoy]

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/nutter45/DSC05272.jpg

http://www.kiruji.net/images/image3.jpg

Is that any better?