Spring Storm

[steveeshom]

I had a chance to travel into the Columbia River Gorge yesterday. The weather was a mix of showers and sun breaks which I was able to capture near Beacon Rock.

 

[Leia]

Beautiful lighting and colors in a beautiful scene. Well done, Steve.

 

[Christena]

The trees just seem to pop!! Is this before or after the storm?

 

[Judy N]

Beautiful. Awesome capture.

 

[arlinescott]

Steve, did you apply an Orton technique to this or is it directly out of camera? It has a very surreal look. Nicely done as usual.

 

[HoedadKid]

Gorgeous, Steve. The warm glow of the grass against the cold blue of the hills is super dramatic. I love the horizontal crop, as well.

Killer

 

[JaniceL]

It's always great to catch those specially lit areas in the Gorge. You hit this one just right.

 

[steveeshom]

The trees just seem to pop!! Is this before or after the storm?

There were a bunch of showers moving south to north. Behind me to the west was a pretty good break in the clouds which let the sun stream through. There was a rain shower just crossing the Cascades and starting to dump on the hills in the background.

 

[steveeshom]

Steve, did you apply an Orton technique to this or is it directly out of camera? It has a very surreal look. Nicely done as usual.

This was developed in Lightroom. Looking at the original it lacked punch so through various experiments I ended up doing a few things:

Temp +100
Exposure +1.11 (this is what causes the trees and grass in the foreground to pop)
Blacks +31 (this is what keeps the darks dark)
Contrast +8
Saturation +6 (don't usually do this but it did look better)
Tone Curve Custom S (brightens the brights, and darken the darks)
Local adjustments on the clouds to add clarity and sharpness. Also on the grass at the river level because it was way too hot with the exposure increase.
Add some sharpening and that was it!