Robert H Clark Photography Blog

Entrada Toadstool, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 28mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/30th of a second.

Hi everyone. Welcome to today’s posting. I am going to talk about several things in this post relating to how I shot and processed this image. First a little background. This shot was made in an area called the Toadstools in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The area features a wild landscape of red Navajo formations and white Entrada formations. The white toadstools are hidden in a small side canyon and receive afternoon light. Littered all around the site are dark Dakota Formation rocks and caprocks that sit on top of the toadstools. Sunlight bouncing off the white Entrada surfaces is intense so it is best to wait until the late afternoon and a lower sun angle to shoot in this area. I made quite a few shots around the canyon but I kept gravitating to this amazing Dakota Rock. I loved the color and textures. I spent some time just trying to compose a shot and as I moved around I was able to focus in on a composition with the rock and the toadstool against the canyon wall. In this composition I wanted to capture the implied leading line of darker rocks beginning at the left corner and leading up to the toadstool with the caprock. There are actually two leading lines here; the line of the foreground rocks and the diagonal line formed by the wedge of light leading to the toadstool. To make this work I wanted to achieve sharp focus in the shot all the way from foreground to background.

The final processed image is a merge of three exposures, all with the same exposure, but each with a slightly different focus point, and combined in Helicon Focus software. The focus points were the foreground rock, the group of rocks in the middle, and the toadstool in the background. The three RAW files were processed with the same settings in Lightroom and placed in the Helicon program where the software magically crunched the numbers and blended the files into one critically sharp image. It was saved out as a .psd file for final work in Photoshop.

Entrada Toadstool RAW image before processing in Photoshop.

The image above is the merged RAW file before applying the various layers and adjustments. When comparing the two shots I think it is pretty easy to see the differences between the files. The RAW file lacks the contrast, punch, and color of the final image. But buried within the RAW file is the image I envisioned. It is only a matter of laying out a plan of action to bring out the details. I have outlined four areas within the image that I focused on in processing the shot.

Area 1: In order to make the toadstool standout I would need to darken the canyon wall. This would achieve separation and actually make the toadstool look brighter.

Area 2: This wedge of highlight would need to be knocked back. It was too bright compared to the rest of the tones in the scene. In addition the line of rocks were to hot and also needed to be toned back just a bit for better balance.

Area 3: The left hand fin of sandstone would also need to be toned back to help in framing the toadstool.

Area 4: The foreground rock is one of the most important features and along with the small grouping of rocks to the left form the beginning of the line that leads the eye up and around to the toadstool in the back of the canyon.

So these four areas were the starting point. I want to point out that before you start working on any image it is a good idea to study it and create a plan for how you want to process the shot. What is your vision for the image. What story are you trying to tell. What are the important details about the image that you want emphasize. Look closely at the shadows and highlights, the color tones within the image, and the contrast. Map out a plan and begin first with your global adjustment for shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. This might include setting a white and black point. Each of these adjustments should be made through curve layers. From there move to more localized adjustments. I always have a dodge and burn layer followed by my color correction layers and if necessary a color burn layer. I also apply a mid-tone contrast layer. I have spoken about this before and it is an important step to pop the contrast within the mid-tones. It is basically a highpass sharpen filter appled to a certain tonal range. The screen shot below shows the number of layers I used to process this shot. I employed a number of Luminosity Masks for shadows, mid-tones and brights followed by more focused adjustment for the background, the fin, and the foreground rock. These are indicated in the “A” set. The “B” shows my Mid-tone Contrast layer and Dodge and Burn. The “C” set is the localized color adjustments.

Everything is accomplished in layers and the file is saved as a layered PSD file. This gives you the most flexibility and allows you to come back and make or change your adjustments. Often when you make your first test prints you will see things that need to be changed and it is easy to go back into the layered file to do this.

Two critical steps I want to point out are the Dodge and Burn and the Color Burn layers. These are powerful, often overlooked, adjustments that can really make an image pop. In my darkroom days I used D+B as a way to lighten and darken values within my black and white prints. It is no different in the digital darkroom today. It is a subtle, painterly process that can impart a remarkable depth to an image. Color burn is another powerful layer where you can bring back color to certain areas within the image. Color burn when used in conjunction with D+B can help you bring out the glow. To see the effect compare and contrast the foreground rock in the RAW file with the final image.

Entrada Toadstool adjustment layers in Photoshop.

As always I want to thank everybody for stopping by today. I covered quite a few items in this one shot. If you have any comments or questions just drop me a note in the comments section. I am always happy to tell you what I did to an image. We are all on a photography journey together and we can only grow by sharing our knowledge.

Bob