Presage of Snow

[aprilS]

(click image to view large)

Too subtle, or does it work?

[eob]

The general composition definitely works for me. However, I would try to accentuate dry grass blades by enhancing the contrast (either globally, or selectively - whichever method works better in this particular case). Lightroom makes this kind of enhancements particularly easy with its local adjustments. Which application do you use for your photo-editing?

[aprilS]

Thank you for your (swift!) feedback, eob.

I agree a selective contrast enhancement would be ideal, and if you wouldn't mind posting a Lightroom adjustment -- I'd love to see!

I use Photoshop, and attempted with a grayscale masking technique. It helped but...not so much. The background blacks kept going too dark.

[eob]

I tried both global and local correction in Lightroom. I agree that local one is the way to go. I would like to post both of them - for comparison - but I am not able to post images to the forum any more (problem with the private 3rd party server I am attempting to link to). I will have to resolve that problem, or find another way... Sorry for that...

[Ernest]

You can use www.imageshack.us for image uploads.

[aprilS]

Thank you, eob, for taking the time to try some adjustments and help me learn with this image.

I'll look forward to seeing more of yours when you get the linking issue sorted!

[eob]

I took a hint from Ernest and went and created an account at ImageShack. Let's see how that will work...

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In both cases I increased contrast and added a touch of saturation. OK, so first goes the version with global adjustments:



And now, localized adjustments:



The global adjustment seem to be too heavy-handed. I prefer the localized one. Actually, now I think it would be a good idea to also locally soften peripherals, but I haven't thought about it before...

So, what do you think? Is this too much intervention or not enough?

[aprilS]

So, what do you think? Is this too much intervention or not enough?

I think I definitely need to revisit the processing on this image.

I like the slight boost in saturation plus local contrast, as you have done. The peripherals were softened a bit in the original, but I agree could be pushed more.

The difficulty, for me, was to retain the suggestion of soft falling snow yet avoid a muddy composition. A little "sparkle" suggests the flakes, and helps refine the composition.

Thank you, eob, for posting those adjustments for comparison! It gives me good direction for trying to balance those elements in a way that I couldn't quite see before.