Alabama Hills with Storm, #5

Here's a shot I made in the Alabama Hills, a couple years ago.



The light during this storm was quite wonderful, with dark storm clouds in the near distance, and bright, harsh late-afternoon sunlight, where I stood. Combined with the geological formations in this landscape, it made for quite an ominous feel, and so I tried to capture this experience in this photo.

This was shot with a 1Ds Mark II camera and a 24-70 f/2.8 lens, set to 24mm. My exposure was 0.3 second, at f/22, at ISO 100.

This was a picture that I put aside for a long time, while I figured out how to process is, as desired. I wanted to make it black and white, and – well... I wanted to make it look as you see it here. I've recently been learning some more about post-processing, and learning how to use actions, so I could finally make this picture with the black and white treatment I wanted.

I hope you enjoy.

This is my favorite stop on the trek from Boise to L.A. I have many images from there...none to compare with yours.

Thanks for sharing.

Mike Spinak said:

This was a picture that I put aside for a long time, while I figured out how to process is, as desired. I wanted to make it black and white, and – well... I wanted to make it look as you see it here. I've recently been learning some more about post-processing, and learning how to use actions, so I could finally make this picture with the black and white treatment I wanted.

I hope you enjoy.

Click to expand...

Hi Mike

Firstly I enjoy it very much, it's wonderful, you've managed to make the rocks come to life, which I know is difficult to do. This shot is of particular interest to me - I came back from the far north west of Scotland a couple of weeks ago with loads of shots with fantastic rock formations.... Having just taken delivery of my new Mac today I need to settle down in the next few days and do some serious work on the shots I came back with, can you expand on the way this shot has been processed?

Thank you, Winston. And, you're welcome.

Thank you, Janet.I would be happy to expand upon what I did, but I need to better understand it, myself, before I explain. I will get back to you, on this.

I like it!

Mike Spinak said:

Thank you, Janet.I would be happy to expand upon what I did, but I need to better understand it, myself, before I explain. I will get back to you, on this.

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, look forward to it....

Hi, Janet.

First I applied an unsharp mask, with an amount of 20%, a radius of 20 pixels, and a threshold of 0%. Then I did a brightness/contrast adjustment, with a brightness of -7 and a contrast of +12. Then I used the history brush to selectively paint some detail back into the highlights which were now blown out, and back into the shadows which were now blocked up.

Hi Mike

Thank you, I'm working on some shots with rocks right now, I'll give it a go.....

Janet,

You're welcome. I look forward to seeing them.

Daniel,

Thank you.

Mike Spinak said:

You're welcome. I look forward to seeing them

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, I'll post some as soon as I can, I'm still working my way through all the shots I came back with, but I'm getting on well with my new Mac, it's so fast in comparison to my poor old PC, I'm already wondering how I managed without it!