Kanheri caves 1

[Anuj]

Kanheri caves is 11th centure structure carved in mountain face dedicated to Buddha
I have experimented with luminosity masks quiet a lot in both of them( thanx to marko's podcast).
I intend to go there again with a borrowed tripod!!!
Any critique , comment , interpretations is more than welcome. thank you
Regards
Anuj

[Marko]

Glad you are playing with luminosity masks Anuj - so have I.

I find both these images are lacking in contrast. I'm not sure if you purchased Tony's action/panel set or not, but a few minutes of play with it would bring out the tones here much more easily.

[Iguanasan]

I've been playing with the luminosity masks as well but not successfully. :( Maybe you are having some difficulties with it as Marko is saying the images lack contrast. I wonder, though, what the original looked like. Do you have a shot that you would have processed the way you normally would have done so for comparison?

[Marko]

"I've been playing with the luminosity masks as well but not successfully. "

I know you use GIMP Iggy...have you thought of trying CC? The luminosity mask panel that tony created (about 40 bucks I think) is simple to use by experimentation alone. It is a game changer. Perfect feathering 100% of the time - no seams, you target only the tones u want through a mask.

I have recently been milking tones from highlight detail that i thought was permanently gone.

I do believe it was my best find in all 0f 2013.

[Anuj]

Hello,

Nop not purchased tony's actions panel. After seeing these images many times i realized that salvaging too much = loss in contrast!! even after flattening image post masking i added reluctantly added some contrast , i really wanted stone texture to look , may be too much. attaching both images below,jpeg from camera(yes i have cropped too severely )
thank you iggy and marko. regards
Anuj

[Iguanasan]

I need to upgrade my laptop first. My current laptop is a Dell I bought about 7 years ago with Windows XP on it. I can't run much of the newer software just because it's too under powered. That may be my purchase this year and then maybe I'll switch over. I was able to create the masks, the problem was I wasn't sure what to do with them after I created them. I would adjust one layer thinking I was bringing up the details in the darks and even though I would move the slider all the way to one end I would end up making virtually no change in the image.

Obviously, I was doing something wrong but I haven't figured out what it was yet and haven't spent enough time trying.

"I've been playing with the luminosity masks as well but not successfully. "

I know you use GIMP Iggy...have you thought of trying CC? The luminosity mask panel that tony created (about 40 bucks I think) is simple to use by experimentation alone. It is a game changer. Perfect feathering 100% of the time - no seams, you target only the tones u want through a mask.

I have recently been milking tones from highlight detail that i thought was permanently gone.

I do believe it was my best find in all 0f 2013.

[Iguanasan]

Anuj, those look like very challenging exposures. You are going from really bright light to very dark areas. You might have had more luck had you composed the second shot without the doorway in the photo. And the first shot might have been better from the other side of the pillars where there was more light. Your profile says we can edit so I tweaked your second shot a bit. Far from perfect, especially on the work laptop but is this closer to what you were hoping to achieve? If so, you need to look at brightness/contrast adjustments in your software and figure that piece out. Try not to learn everything at once. Adjust the brightness/contrast until you get familiar with it then figure out the next piece.

[Anuj]

Thank you Iggy and marko again,

Ill visit the place soon and keep these things in mind, luminosity works nicely till some extent. Apart from exposure problems, i really wanted to show 'from inside the cave' kind of feel rather than just another building and the largeness of the chamber in 2nd picture.
I welcome any tweaking by anybody who can show a different take on things. i do like your cropping Iggy, including just a little doorway to give a feel of scale. It was an invaluable lesson. thanx

regards,
anuj.

regards
anuj

[Marko]

'Apart from exposure problems' IS the problem.


When the exposure is poor, the workload increases and the potential for a fine image drastically decreases.


You cannot easily save poorly exposed images with luminosity masks. Your files should be rich with tones to start. Then and only then can luminosity masks bring out those tones.


So step 1 is proper exposure. Get the exposure right in the camera.
Hope that may help

[Runmonty]

This must be an amazing place to visit.

I really like the shot with the columns. I looked at the original on Flickr and the one here appears to have softened with compression. I suggest in future (as you have Flickr) to post a direct link from there as it is so much easier and overcome the compression problem.

To me this shot is all about the contrasting light, the textures and motion. The sharper (Flickr) version shows these off so much better. I agree that if you had shot without the brightness of the doors fooling the exposure metering you would have a had an image that was easier to work with, but I think you have done well with what you had.

Like Marko mentioned in you other post, I would be interested to know how you used the luminosity mask??