Ode to Guy Tal + 1

If any of you have followed @Guy_Tal’s work you probably have seen the image of snow covered pine trees rendered blue with Gauguin’s quote “If the tree looks blue to you then paint it blue”. So I decided to also take some more liberty with colors with this one. I’ve been drifting more and more from reality recently.

Actually this came about quite by accident this morning. I had a warm sunlit section of the image (which has since been cropped off) which I wanted to cool down to be in balance with the rest of the mostly shady image. Then I changed my mind and decided to delete the layer. But instead of deleting the layer I accidentally deleted the mask and the entire image became blue. That’s interesting, I thought and continued to work on it to come up with this composition of mostly blue with touches of warmth here and there.

What do you think? What do you think of the original vs Bonnie’s rework?

D810, 24-70 lens, tripod (of course).

This is still Alabama Hills, close to the previous post.

Bonnie’s rework:

my rework using Bonnie’s suggestions:

4 Likes

I quite like this one, Igor. The blues are working for me rather well. It is subtle and very much personal taste, but I might boost the reds to give it even more of the warm/cool look. Looks really good.

Personally I think this should be called an ode to Igor Doncov!! I can’t really critique this from a technical point of view, so I wont try. On a completely personal note, it’s slightly too blue for me, but the glimpses of orange show through which balance it out. So, smashing job Igor!

For me, the cool tone is just fine. Much granite can be like that.
I was taken by the composition. While it has been eons since those rocks have moved, I feel kinetic forces down and to the right. I burned a few areas in an attempt to accentuate that, and what do you know… more blue!

What a happy accident here Igor, these blue are simply stunning. After having seen countless cliche-type images of Mobius Arch, it’s nice to see such an original take on the rocks of the Alabama Hills. I love how the oval shaped rock on top seems to be peering down at the round one below. I love the background rocks/colors here, that darker indigo is very interesting. This is a wonderful original take on this location, and is a good example of what you can do with a scene that many people would have just walked past without paying it much attention.

I really like the blues here and how the soft lighting creates just enough shadows here. Nice work. This is not something I would have seen.

Nicely done, Igor. I really like the cool tones, the solidity along with a sense of movement. If feels simultaneously ancient and frozen and recently tumbled. It makes me keep looking, so that’s a good sign.
ML

The soft tones and rounded shapes really complement each other. The blue is pleasing, but it feels a bit too blue, mainly in the highlight areas. I’m thinking that warming up the highlighted areas would give the shapes more three dimensionality and the overall scene more depth. I took a quick stab at that. It’s lovely, nonetheless, and I’m sure Guy T. would approve. :wink:

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Did you warm the highlights by creating a highlight mask followed by a color balance adjustment?

Sure, or you could try the regular color balance without a mask and see if that got your intended goals accomplished by focusing on “highlights” only.

I like them both @Igor_Doncov, but gravitate toward your original…I find myself undergoing evolution as well in my post-processing and have benefited from Alister Benn’s “implicit/explicit” discription on how much to emphasize our intents in post-processing…it would seem he is drawn more towards a subtle or gentle nudge to the gesture, rather than a more explicit or “obvious” communication. I have to say, I’d like to move more toward the imiplicit myself. Thanks for sharing!

I love this composition and the blue tones, but I like what Bonnie added, although I think her addition is a wee bit too strong. Reduce Bonnie’s effect by 20% and I think you would have it perfected. Beautiful scene, Igor.

This comp works for me and I like the colour contrast in the rework

I just bought it into ACR and did a brush adjustment. It wasn’t a very sophisticated attempt.

Igor,

What is compelling here is the composition, not the color. The color can be anything you or anyone else wants it to be; but it is your selection of subject matter and composition that makes this image work so beautifully. Shapes, geology, eons of time stories… I see a reference to the “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (for you Indiana Jones fans…)

My opinion on the color though, I prefer Bonnie’s slant and your second rendition. The warmer highlights make for a nice warm/cool balance and even accentuate the “Crystal Skull” reference - in my own mind…

Pun too obvious here, but this one is rock solid… :roll_eyes:

@Bonnie_Lampley, @Lon_Overacker, @Marylynne_Diggs, @Harley_Goldman, @Ed_McGuirk, @Bill_Chambers, @Nathan_Klein, @Jim_McGovern, @Eugene_Theron, @Dick_Knudson, @Richard_Wong - Thank you for your comments.

The consensus seems to be to either leave the image be as the original or else to warm up the highlights between that of the original and Bonnie Lampley. Here is my attempt to do so. What I discovered is that when I warmed the highlights that seemed to also raise the tones in that area. I’m not sure if it just appears that way visually or the tones are actually raised. The problem is that I don’t want it to get brighter. So I warmed up the brightest of the bright areas to avoid this.

2 Likes

The warm/cool blend is wonderfully complex
It is indeed More Than A Rock.

Igor - I believe it’s real. I’ve noticed the same thing when warming tones - the area gets lighter, also. Perhaps dropping the exposure at the same time as warming will maintain the look you want. Your rework is lovely (I did overdo it on my version).

Igor, I preferred the mood of the original presentation, the surreal-ness of the somber blue tones are what made this image unique for me. The more you introduce warm/cool contrast, the less interesting this becomes for me, it becomes less surreal, and more realistic looking, and it loses it’s unique-ness.

1 Like

I’m way late to the party here and can’t believe I missed this earlier. Been busy I guess. After looking at all three versions (your original Igor, Bonnies redo, and your redo), I much prefer your redo. The warm highlights in Bonnies image contrasts just a little too much with the beautiful blue hues. This is really a pleasant surprise you’ve stumbled on here. I might have to go back through some of my Alabama hills images and try this technique. I totally understand how your processing has migrated over time towards something maybe more artistic (not unreal) rather than reality and I find myself leaning this way much more heavily than ever did in the past.

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I prefer your rework based on Bonnie’s suggestions. I’m with @Lon_Overacker about the composition being king here. The image has great balance with the grasses in the foreground being flanked by the grasses at right and left. The two center rocks pin the eye right where it should be. I like the blue and the tinge of orange in the highlight areas adds quite a bit too.
Super job of seeing and presentation.