help with bringing out a color

[james sperry]

okay,
these are some photos that i took a couple of years ago, of the fires in montana. they're more for myself than anything, but if anybody has some ideas that would make the photos better i am open for that also.
anywhoooooo, in both photos, there are patches of blue sky that i would really like to bring out a little more. but when i attempt this ( i'm assuming) the reds are dropping out of the photos and then they feel cold. i tried to adjust them in layers but there is a well defined ring around the blue patch and it looks horrible. can anybody 'school' me on how to perform this procedure so it doesn't look obvious that it was corrected?
oh, almost forgot !!! ... i would like to remove the lense flare also. i tried the clone stamp ... i'm not even going to explain how that looked ... lol.
thanks ...... brad.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi James,

This is worth trying, just we'd need the best files. What is the original form? Is this film or digital? If you provide the original unaltered file we might get interest.

Asher

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Just a thought, but the HSL tool in Lightroom or Photoshop camera raw will let you selectively increase the saturation of the blue sky. In LR2 you can probably brush it in as well - though I've not rtied brushing sat changes so I'm not absolutely sure.

Personally I don't have any problem with the bit of flair you have there - just a facet of the process.


Mike

 

[John Angulat]

Hi James,
I took a whack at the first image. I was able to remove nearly all the flare in the sun using the spot healing brush. The greenish/blue flare in the treeline I cleaned up with the clone tool. I grabbed a section of trees off to the right. As for the blue sky, I didn't have that much sucess. Even with a saturation layer pushing the cyans to nearly max it didn't kick up the light blue very much.
You might get better results that I did since I was working on such a lo res file.
Your thoughts?

 

[james sperry]

Hi James,

This is worth trying, just we'd need the best files. What is the original form? Is this film or digital? If you provide the original unaltered file we might get interest.

Asher

this is a digital photo and i've lost the raw image, all i have left is the jpg copy ( but it is unaltered except for being converted). lol ...... if i provide the original, it would be huge in this thread. do you still want it? ... lol

Just a thought, but the HSL tool in Lightroom or Photoshop camera raw will let you selectively increase the saturation of the blue sky. In LR2 you can probably brush it in as well - though I've not rtied brushing sat changes so I'm not absolutely sure.

Personally I don't have any problem with the bit of flair you have there - just a facet of the process.


Mike

i only have elements 4.0. i don't think i have anywhere near the options that lightroom has to offer. but if it is possible i would still like to try it with elements.

Hi James,
I took a whack at the first image. I was able to remove nearly all the flare in the sun using the spot healing brush. The greenish/blue flare in the treeline I cleaned up with the clone tool. I grabbed a section of trees off to the right. As for the blue sky, I didn't have that much sucess. Even with a saturation layer pushing the cyans to nearly max it didn't kick up the light blue very much.
You might get better results that I did since I was working on such a lo res file.
Your thoughts?

thanks john!!! so, what did i do wrong with my cloning, while on my attempt the cloned areas come out way lighter than the original and it's very obvious that i did some manipulating. i kind of figured i would be stuck with the sky. i knew i should have bracketed when i shot this, but i was in a hurry to get back to work.
my thoughts? ... i like it better without the flare on the right, but .... i'm kind of hung up on the streaking coming off the sun.... i'm not sure which one i like better.

 

[Ashley Sperry]

my favorite pictures!!!! I do like it without the streaking off the sun but like you i'm kinda hung up on the original one with the streaking. nice work john!

 

[John Angulat]

Hi James, Ashley,

Sometime's what you wish for doesn't always turn out to be better! Ahhhh...such is life in general. I also have to agree that once the sun streak was gone the image lacked for it.
My vote would be to let it "shine"!

 

[Asher Kelman]

James,

So people can try their art on your pciture and maybe even give you back the repaired image for printing:

1. Send yourself the full size file using http://www.yousendit.com
   
   
2. Then post the URL the provide you, here.

Asher

 

[james sperry]

James,

So people can try their art on your pciture and maybe even give you back the repaired image for printing:

1. Send yourself the full size file using http://www.yousendit.com
   
   
2. Then post the URL the provide you, here.

Asher

i'm trying to get this uploaded and anybody is more than welcome to do as they wish to the photos. but ........ if others are doing the work for me, how am i learning how to do this? ... lol.
my apologies if i sound 'snobbish' with this statement. it is not my character. i just do not want to come accross as lazy and i truly wish to learn and most of the time, i have to do the work myself in order to learn or understand.
a few years back, i was reading an article about photo bracketing and how to take 2 or 3 photos and merging them into 1 photo to have shadows, midtones and highlights all shown together. as a perfectly exposed image (as one's expertise would allow). i can't remember the term used for the proceedure and i have lost the article. but, back to the story ....... i attempted this several times and still couldn't figure out how to do it ... lol. now i think the same principle is behind the HR images (which i'm also trying but need the correct software to do it .. lol).
anywhooo, it's easier for me to learn it by doing and not just seeing the end result. if there are adjustments to my images, could the editor please be a little specific as to the procedure?

 

[Asher Kelman]

James,

Here's the deal, post the URL. Those interested will try to edit and tell you what was done. We don't teach but try to have fun and share.

 

[james sperry]

James,

Here's the deal, post the URL. Those interested will try to edit and tell you what was done. We don't teach but try to have fun and share.

i'm sorry, but in a way, you are teaching.
what good is it to comment on images if you don't want a photographer to see what they are needing help on? how can one learn without being taught in one way or another ( answering questions is in fact one way of teaching. it just depends on the student to know what questions to ask). if i can't ask questions here or nobody can answer my questions, this might as well be called a museum instead of a forum.
maybe my choice of words was wrong again within my statement. i am not asking for step by step instruction how to do something. in one of the replies above, it was only said that they used the clone tool. i tried to use the clone tool also, but my attempt resulted in an image with obvious editing. so i am learning through attempting and others are instructing me what tools to use.
call me crazy ..... maybe i'm nuts ...... i don't know. seems like teaching to me.