[Recovered Thread: 47174]

[brtsergio]

It's midday.
It's a sunny day in the Alps with a few degrees below zero.
The wind in your face is gently blowing while the chair lift is carrying you on the other side of the mountains where the ski slopes are directly hit by the sun.
Nobody beside you, nobody behind you , nobody in front of you.
Just the sun, the wind, the snow and this landscape around you :

[digcamfan]

Whoa, brtsergio...you have captured so well a splendid moment of solitude in the mountains.

Your prose with your photo helps this forum member immerse himself in the moment that you have so graciously shared.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

[brtsergio]

Thanx digicamfan !

Well, youare a good teacher in adding prose to the shots ;-)

Thax for letting me willing to experiment with words.

[thekman620]

Great shot brts!! Love the composure. The curve in the road really adds to it for me. Did you use a cp4300, and or, a polarizer? ......thekman.

[effyman]

All I can say is "WOW!!!" That's an amazing photograph...something I will look up to and try to match it's quality :-)

[brtsergio]

Thank you !

thekman620 wrote:

Great shot brts!! Love the composure. The curve in the road really adds to it for me. Did you use a cp4300, and or, a polarizer? ......thekman.

I just used my Coolpix 4300.

Ihave a Polarizerbut I did not use it that day ( The polarizer requires an adapter whose dimension prevents me to store the cam inthe pocket I had that day while skiing in the Alps :-( ).

Everything has been enhanced at home with Photoshop.

- manual level correction

- dodging of the trees (much more darker than the ones in this picture) with a soft bug brush

- depth enhancement of the snow with a big soft burn brushtool on midtones.

[Tom Overton]

brtsergio wrote:

Everything has been enhanced at home with Photoshop.

- manual level correction

- dodging of the trees (much more darker than the ones in this picture) with a soft bug brush

- depth enhancement of the snow with a big soft burn brushtool on midtones.

Very nicely managed too, I might say. Dodging and burning are not to be taken lightly. Poorly done, they can be like decorating with a sledgehammer. I think you have used these tools seamlessly. We are aware of the scene and not the technique.

Excellent work.

Tom, on Point Pelee, Canada
http://www.darwinonline.org/index.php?cat=11078

[PeterP]

The image is exquisite, makes me feel the chill of the frigid mountain air.

Peter.

[brtsergio]

Thanx !

Tom Overton wrote:

Dodging and burning are not to be taken lightly. Poorly done, they can be like decorating with a sledgehammer. I think you have used these tools seamlessly.

Thanx Tom Overton.

Well, a soft brush with small opacity values helps a lot.

Still, brush dimension should be changed according to the dimension of the elements you want to burn-dodge.

The brush dimension I used for the trees on the left was different than the one for the trees on the right ( more or less the same height of the treesfor the trees on the left, and a muchbigger one for thre trees on the right ).

Still, I found useful to follow the profile of the objects you want to dodge-burn.

And so I used some "S" brushtrokes for the snowy road and a curved C for the snow on its right.

And I also made use of some Ctrl-Z keystrokes from time to time :-)

[Tom Overton]

A trick I learned from one of Scott Kelby's books is to do "dodging and burning" on an overlay layer filled with neutral grey. Technically this is not true dodging and burning; it's painting over the grey (soft brush/low opacity; same as your process) withdegrees of white or black. (or any other colour, I suppose) The great thing about it is this process is completely reversable if you save the layers.

Tom, on Point Pelee, Canada
http://www.darwinonline.org/index.php?cat=11078