I had a fun trip in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA last month. I have tons of cool shots, but really wanted to enter a Mountain-scape in an Ansel Adams style. Here is my entry, which did only so-so, and got a whooping 1 comment :(
Anyway, although orginal is kind of flat and hazy, I still think there is potential here for a better final image if post-processed with a little more skill. Anyone up for giving it a try?
Original JPEG is below. I can mail the raw file if anyone is intersted (or if anyone can tell me how to load a raw file DPC)
i'm in abq. did you take that from the top of the tram or from the plane?
edit: i see where the tram should be so it must be from the plane :)
If I recall correctly, I was about 5 miles West of the airport right near Route 40. I found a high ridge near some new housing developoment that had a nice view looking east-northeast to the base of the Sandia Mountains. The big building is the Sandia Casino and the Tram is out of the photo on the right. I drove around for about 20 minutes before I could find this unobstructed view, as there were lots of houses and high transmission lines all over the ridge that I was on.
I love clouds, first time I see a wisp in the sky, I pack everyone in the Mini Van and go and play.
I love dark dramatic clouds, they are so my thing. I use a lot of selective colour and hue and saturations beofre I turn it into black and white. then do some dodge and burn.
I would love your raw file to play with if you don't mind??
I did a bunch from a similar location when I was there in March. Some of them I could not get what I wanted out of and they are still on my hard drive. Some others became personal faves.
I have your shot open in PaintShop Pro right now and the first thing I noticed was the histogram is severely clipped on both ends, resulting in poor dynamic range. Though I am sure you adjusted this in your editing, I find when my exposure adjustments are good in the RAW converter, that I have to do little (if any) levels adjustment afterwards.
I think you did get a bit of that Ansel-Adamsy look to it, but like many of my own entries, something about it failed to capture the attention of people. It still did way better than the similar Sandia mountains shot my daughter entered in the March FS. I suggested adjusting her WB differently, but she liked it this way.
Here's my edit. I kinda went to town on this and worked it as if I were preparing it for a challenge. Steps are in the notes. I didn't pull as much "wow" out of the mountains as I would have liked, but I was trying to keep it real.
Thanks for all the edits. Interesting that about half of you left in the lower part with the buildings and half used a crop similar to mine. Having the buildings there, while not as striking image (I think), gives a sense of scale that is missing on the croppped version. Also interseting that some went for the wild and edgy look on the clouds and some went softer and more subtle. I am still torn between color vs. B&W and will have to play around some more with the image before I select something that I would hang on the wall.
