This is a follow up post to the previous post, the “Misty Trees“. In fact the photos are from the same trip. The huge advantage of going out right after a heavy rain is that there is a chance that clouds are just starting to build and grow right at the mountain side. This was one of the first times I explicitly wanted to shoot this scenery! First it was hard to find a proper motive as everything kind of looked the same – no matter where I was looking. Then those two motives drew my attention:
The one was The Ridge that was more or less just visible as a silhouette. With the clouds in the right position it was fascinating how clearly and sharp the shape of the trees were visible. The heavy clouds darkened the sky so that the whole photo was very balances in that way. the fog / clouds in the front offer some depth that can be quite interesting.
The other one was The Flank with all the water evaporating from the forest to build up clouds. I found the mix of sharp trees, fog and cloud formations and the heavy clouds hiding the complete background quite attracting and calm.
The Ridge
The Flank
Luckily, the post processing in lightroom isn’t too heavy:
- desaturate globally to underline the hazy look
- lower the temperature so cool down the image overall
- split tone to push the mid tones slightly into the blue and the lights a bit into the orange / yellow
- a couple of radial filters to increase sharpness at the ridges and increase clarity in the area of the forest to have more drama in the clouds
The Ridge:
- brighten the lower right half of the photo
- additionally brighten the lower right corner so that it isn’t too heavy
The Flank:
- crop to focus on the subject
- add contrast in the upper right to add drama to the clouds
- increase structure and decrease clarity in the flank to underline a very hazy look