# Sunset barn



## TMorrow (Jun 12, 2017)

View attachment 141500


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## WesternGuy (Jun 13, 2017)

Very nice capture.  My only suggestion would be to try and get a bit more contrast in the clouds and the sky.

WesternGuy


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## TMorrow (Jun 13, 2017)

WesternGuy said:


> Very nice capture.  My only suggestion would be to try and get a bit more contrast in the clouds and the sky.
> 
> WesternGuy



Thanks WesternGuy, I believe you're right. I'll give it a shot.


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## TMorrow (Jun 14, 2017)

With more contrast in the sky.


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## WesternGuy (Jun 14, 2017)

I really like the "more contrast" one better .  Clouds are one of my favourite things to photograph, so it is nice to see them stand out in a pastoral image.  In this case, they provide a nice balance to the barn and silos.

WesternGuy


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## BrentC (Jun 14, 2017)

Like the new edit better.


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## TMorrow (Jun 15, 2017)

WesternGuy said:


> I really like the "more contrast" one better .  Clouds are one of my favourite things to photograph, so it is nice to see them stand out in a pastoral image.  In this case, they provide a nice balance to the barn and silos.
> 
> WesternGuy


It really does help the over all balance. Thank you for the help.



BrentC said:


> Like the new edit better.


So do I!


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## Tim Tucker 2 (Jun 15, 2017)

I'm curious about the colour balance here and why you've chosen it, grey/brown/a splatter of orange, because the grey sky stands out as odd to me.
My edit here is not in any way definitive, only a different colour balance from your edit simply to allow comparison:


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## TMorrow (Jun 15, 2017)

Tim Tucker 2 said:


> I'm curious about the colour balance here and why you've chosen it, grey/brown/a splatter of orange, because the grey sky stands out as odd to me.
> My edit here is not in any way definitive, only a different colour balance from your edit simply to allow comparison:



Thanks for the input Tim.  Here in the Pacific Northwest I'm wondering "what is this blue sky you speak of"? 

In all seriousness  I will try working a little more blue into the sky, but not nearly as much as yours has. I do appreciative the comment though.


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## Tim Tucker 2 (Jun 15, 2017)

TMorrow said:


> Tim Tucker 2 said:
> 
> 
> > I'm curious about the colour balance here and why you've chosen it, grey/brown/a splatter of orange, because the grey sky stands out as odd to me.
> ...



Aye, here is Scotland it is oft a fond and distant memory as well, kept alive by travel brochures and James Bond re-runs on the TV. 

I like the idea of the shot and the rustic quality.

I would ignore the sky on my edit as it is not realistic, it did add some contrast to bring the other colours out, (the trouble was that in your edit although the sky was grey the dominant hue in that grey was pure blue and not cyan,making it near impossible to make it look realistic with some colour). The trouble with computer screens is that they generate their own light, they shine their own colour balance directly in your eye. It is therefore seen by you eye as separate and without reference to the rest of the colour around it, unlike a print for example which you will always see in the same light as the immediate surroundings. The blue in the sky is not really that blue either typically only in this range:





The human eye really only sees relative differences and not absolute qualities or even colours so that you think my blue is a little much is really a comment on just how much less blue your original is rather than the absolute colour of the sky. Hence my original comment because I wasn't sure if you realised just how grey your clear sky was, (not the cirrus clouds):


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## Low_Sky (Jun 16, 2017)

I'm loving this barn.  The light on the grass and the barn says "sunset", the title says "sunset", but all the skies in this thread so far don't really say "sunset" to me.


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## TMorrow (Jun 16, 2017)

Aye said:


> 141620[/ATTACH]
> 
> The human eye really only sees relative differences and not absolute qualities or even colours so that you think my blue is a little much is really a comment on just how much less blue your original is rather than the absolute colour of the sky. Hence my original comment because I wasn't sure if you realised just how grey your clear sky was, (not the cirrus clouds):
> [/ATTACH]



Thank you Tim for the in depth reply.  As I rework this photo I'll definitely keep it in mind.


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## TMorrow (Jun 16, 2017)

Low_Sky said:


> I'm loving this barn.  The light on the grass and the barn says "sunset", the title says "sunset", but all the skies in this thread so far don't really say "sunset" to me.



Thank you Low-Sky. Yes "sunset" was probably not an accurate description  of this photo.   End of the day might have been a better choice. 
The sky is the problem area, but I still have hopes of fixing it! I went by it today to see if I could possibly re shoot it but the grass had been cut.


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## Tim Tucker 2 (Jun 17, 2017)

TMorrow said:


> The sky is the problem area, but I still have hopes of fixing it! I went by it today to see if I could possibly re shoot it but the grass had been cut.



Do you mind posting 50% re-size of the un-edited RAW as a jpeg? See what colour info is on it and possibly help in editing strategy to make the most of it.


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## Peeb (Jun 17, 2017)

I think I would prefer to warm the sky up and drop the contrast in the sky (only), but I've enjoyed all the interpretations seen so far. (rough draft idea attached- still some artifacts in need of cleaning up....)


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## Peeb (Jun 17, 2017)

PS- would clone out the power line in lower right corner, too!


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## TMorrow (Jun 18, 2017)

"Do you mind posting 50% re-size of the un-edited RAW as a jpeg? See what colour info is on it and possibly help in editing strategy to make the most of it."


Here it is Tim.


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## Tim Tucker 2 (Jun 18, 2017)

Ok, bit of a long post here so get comfortable...  

Before I start I would like to make it plain that I'm making no real interpretation of the image only editing for colour.

The main problem you are facing is clear when you open the image in Camera RAW:





If you look at the histogram you see two main areas of image data, the sky is most of the peak to the right and the foreground mostly the peak to the left. So whatever global changes you make to one area will not be optimum to the other.

Now I'm guessing here but if I follow the common path and explain what is happening perhaps some of it will resonate. In introducing a warmer colour balance you do two things, you enhance the look and feel you want in the foreground,  but a warmer, more orange, colour balance has a detrimental effect on the blue. Being it's complementary what it does is to de-saturate the sky, turning it more grey. If you then tone-map to bring the two areas of exposure closer together the effect on the colour is to push it towards grey. Your already greyer sky is pushed further towards grey and begins to lose the dominant hues of blue/cyan and a yellowish tint awards the lower left.

There are some ways of getting around this in camera RAW. I'm using CS6 which will have some tools that don't exist in Elements, but you can do work arounds. It's the principles that I'm working to that may provide the difference:





With CS6 you can work with Smart Objects, which means that you can keep going back and adjusting the raw file at anytime through the process. This allows and interesting option, that you can change the raw file, copy it, then rasterise it, (then the changes are permenant). You can then layer these changes and blend them together in the final image. I use a combination of different masks.

So to start I've made an edit for the sky only deepening the blue/cyan and exposure and using the tone controls to increase contrast. I've copied and rasterised the layer then gone back into the original and put it back to normal. Making my copy layer invisible I can then see and work on the foreground. What I did here is to create two separate colour balances, one warm and one cool, again copying and rasterising each change, returning the base layer to original. By using the colour channels as masks I can blend these different colour balances together. This allows me to bring up the warmer foreground without unduly affecting the sky, the sky will be kept cooler because of the bluer colour balance. Because I've used the colour channels as masks the blue does not unduly affect the warmer tones and vice-versa, but it also means that the gradations between colours are faded and more natural. Unlike the saturation slider that tends to remove these gradations and make the transitions more abrupt.

This is the result, the darker edit for the sky is still invisible:





Now if I then add the darker sky which I masked by using a modified copy of the blue channel, (copied, then apple a levels adjustment to the mask and faded the "inconsistencies" in with a brush):





What you have now is a start...  This does not represent any finished image, it only represents a better starting point with more colour and if you look at the histogram you'll see that the big gap is now almost gone. You will not need to process this as much and so will retain more of the colour, and find it easier to achieve the result you desire.

You can of course go nuts and end up with a layers panel like this representing layer upon layer of small adjustments all blended:





Which is not a definitive edit but just to show how far you can go without touching the  saturation slider and only having one curves adjustment to lift the whites of the clouds. It's probably not exactly how I'd do it when working with the raw data, and you can see that with the jpeg some posterisation is creeping into the sky:





Compared to the original:





Hope the above helps and gives you a few more options/directions to try.


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## TMorrow (Jun 18, 2017)

Peeb said:


> PS- would clone out the power line in lower right corner, too!



Thanks Peep, I like the direction you went with here. Warming up the sky also brings out the blue.  The power line doesn't bother me but you are probably right that it should go. My thinking at the time was that it brings a bit of reality back into the picture. Or maybe I was just being lazy?


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## TMorrow (Jun 19, 2017)

Tim Tucker 2 said:


> Hope the above helps and gives you a few more options/directions to try.



Thank you Tim for taking the time to post this. I am just starting to learn to use layers in photoshop. Your  write up will be very helpful as I lear, and rework this photo.


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## kerria (Jun 26, 2017)

I really, really like the picture. 
@Tim Tucker 2 's post is a really interesting and useful contribution. The result is impressive and gives a whole different feel. Nevertheless I like the original picture more, with its grey sky... looks truthful to me, more realistic. I would say the sky to the West is burning and to the North it's slowly dimming, but still transparent.


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## vintagesnaps (Jun 26, 2017)

I think it's too much messing with it! lol not that I haven't done that myself, then scrapped it all and started over. That time of day here anyway it wouldn't be all that blue but getting grayish as it's getting darker so I would use a light touch if you brighten or adjust contrast to keep it slight. Maybe the whole photo not just the sky. 

It's a really nice photo, I wouldn't do too much to it.


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## BananaRepublic (Jun 26, 2017)

I like the image but I do prefer the non grey sky versions. The only thing that I noticed was the pattern/halo thing around the top of the dome.


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## TMorrow (Jul 1, 2017)

vintagesnaps said:


> I think it's too much messing with it! lol not that I haven't done that myself, then scrapped it all and started over. That time of day here anyway it wouldn't be all that blue but getting grayish as it's getting darker so I would use a light touch if you brighten or adjust contrast to keep it slight. Maybe the whole photo not just the sky.
> 
> It's a really nice photo, I wouldn't do too much to it.



Thank you Sharon. That's some good advice as I often get heavy handed with PS.  Right now I'm going to let this one set, and come at it at a later date.


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## TMorrow (Jul 1, 2017)

BananaRepublic said:


> I like the image but I do prefer the non grey sky versions. The only thing that I noticed was the pattern/halo thing around the top of the dome.



Thank you BR.


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## peaceangel83 (Jul 3, 2017)

Very peaceful picture. Like !!!


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


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## TMorrow (Jul 6, 2017)

peaceangel83 said:


> Very peaceful picture. Like !!!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app



Thank you Peacangel.


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