rasraster

Cascades

Lots of shades

Lots of shades
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Oct, 2015

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Awards

Superb Composition

Outstanding Creativity

Absolute Masterpiece

Peer Award

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo from the window of an airplane as I was flying to the Pacific Northwest. Sorry, can't tell you which seat I was in. ;-)

Time

It was 5:30 PM and, incidentally, December 7, 2014. Interestingly, the calendar told me that sunset was at 4:23 PM that day, but being so high above the ground I was able to catch the twilight quite well.

Lighting

Just that it was very diffuse, being cloudy, and fading fast.

Equipment

I used my point-and-shoot Olympus SH-50 camera, with no tripod or other equipment.

Inspiration

The majesty of the scene. I find mountains to be my favorite type of terrain, and the next best view to being on one is flying by it.

Editing

My lord, yes! Because of the airplane glass, the original photo had a horrible cyan cast in every range. It was not a cast that I could remove simply by adjusting the "b" profile in L*a*b*, though I tried. If I recall correctly, I had to blend the red and/or green plate into the blue in RGB to get some contrast and lower the level of the blue channel, just for starters. From there I could do my usual bag of curves, luminosity contrast enhancement, sharpening, etc. Even so, curves on the individual color channels could never get every "section" of the photo in balance - an adjustment for section (e.g., the snow on the mountain or the sky) would throw off the color on another section. Evidently, the color cast was a lot more complicated that just cyan! Ultimately, I did have to do selections of these sections, which I tend to avoid (being a Dan Margulis fan). I made the selections by luminosity, by color, and by both characteristics.

In my camera bag

My Olympus SH-50 (I keep my DSLR at home unless I'm specifically on a photo hunt). I have a remote shutter release but rarely use it. In the car I keep a monopod and a reflector and light attenuator, but I don't use those much. I use my cell phone camera quite a lot, too.

Feedback

Through-the-plane-window shots are extremely rewarding, but under certain combinations of color, light and contrast you can end up with a photo that is a real challenge to correct, like this one. Learn as much as you can about color corrections, especially the various color space methods such as taught by Dan Margulis and others. And best of luck!

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rasraster

rasraster

Cascades

Lots of shades

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow rasraster

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