Ship Rock, New Mexico, USA.

[JeffreyS]

Stunning image. Gonna pic a nit/spit a hair with you though. To me color _correction_ means setting white and black points neutral so that all colors fall in line representing them accurately. Color _adjustment_ on the other hand is subjective and what I think you probably performed and would be more accurately descriptive of your process. Color correction would likely not have rendered such a spectacular photo. Good work!

Thanks Russ. I used to do more white/black point 'corrections'. But I observed that many images do not have any areas of true black or white, and they shouldn't be forced into it. So, making the darkest point black (or white, white) gave me an unnatural look that simply didn't represent the scene properly (or how I wanted to present it). After decades of doing this, I still try that method, and sometimes it works well. Each image is unique in what it tells me to do. I work the curves/levels layers to achieve the right contrast and don't worry about the extremes. YMMV! BTW, I may have used the terms correction and adjustment interchangeably. To me it's all the same.

 

[RussOnTheRoad]

Thanks Russ. I used to do more white/black point 'corrections'. But I observed that many images do not have any areas of true black or white, and they shouldn't be forced into it. So, making the darkest point black (or white, white) gave me an unnatural look that simply didn't represent the scene properly (or how I wanted to present it). After decades of doing this, I still try that method, and sometimes it works well. Each image is unique in what it tells me to do. I work the curves/levels layers to achieve the right contrast and don't worry about the extremes. YMMV! BTW, I may have used the terms correction and adjustment interchangeably. To me it's all the same.

Thanks Russ. I used to do more white/black point 'corrections'. But I observed that many images do not have any areas of true black or white, and they shouldn't be forced into it. So, making the darkest point black (or white, white) gave me an unnatural look that simply didn't represent the scene properly (or how I wanted to present it). After decades of doing this, I still try that method, and sometimes it works well. Each image is unique in what it tells me to do. I work the curves/levels layers to achieve the right contrast and don't worry about the extremes. YMMV! BTW, I may have used the terms correction and adjustment interchangeably. To me it's all the same.

Not all or even perhaps many images can be corrected via white and black point neutralization because as you pointed out appropriate subject matter is absent. Color corrected images aren't always the most pleasing either. They may be accurate but lack artistic interpretation. Your Ship Rock wouldn't be nearly as lovely if the colors were correct. Your subjective color adjustment, your judgment, while less technically correct as to the rendering of colors is far superior in terms of achieving a beautiful artist's rendering. I was only fussing over your choice of words for the sake of discussion and stubbornly stand by my distinction between corrected and adjusted. While the two can be the same they seldom are Anybody can learn to correct colors via white and black point neutralization using PhotoShop's sensitometer, but to bring beauty to a scene such as you have with Ship Rock takes a sensitivity and skill that comes only from years of experience...but it's color adjustment, not correction! Hahah.

Photos of nature are seldom as impactful as the experience of being at the location so I justify adding impact in post processing as a means by which to replace that sense of awe that is lost via the medium. It's art, not science, after all.

Keep up the good work!