Not an especially dramatic photo, but I'll go with the term "subtle"...
This was taken at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. It was overcast, around 50% chance of rain, unseasonably cool (70's) and a bit breezy. But we had the grandkids for the weekend, and decided to take a chance to show them the sunflower fields. Anyway, once we arrived, I decided to grab a shot of the open bottomlands, with the low clouds skating along. I was even deliberate about setting my zoom to get a 50mm equivalent, just because.... But I realized the "straight out of camera" probably wouldn't meet my expectations, and that notable post-processing would be needed.
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There's actually a fair amount of work here. Starting with a slight leveling, and the normal brightness / contrast adjustments (Levels). Then adjusting white balance. I had the camera set to "Daylight", and there was a distinct blue cast. Then I decided to crop from the starting 4x6 ratio to a panorama ratio. This is 2.44:1, "standard" seems to be 3:1. Oh well!
Once I settled all that, it was time to take the big swing with effects. I use Topaz Simplify for range percentage of my photos, because I like the suite of controls. I usually either tuen off the simplify filter, or tur it way down. It has great ability to to work with dynamics, structure, saturation, etc.
In this case, I couldn't get happy with a single version where the sky and the field suited me. So I did a separate edit for the sky, and combined them in Photoshop (Elements).
Anyway, here's the "Straight From Camera" version:
SO: was it worth it?
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