Joshua Tree National Park

When the clouds appear, it is time to head into the park, capturing sky and rocks in more even, subtler tones, where you don’t have dramatic hot spots, or high contrast. Next comes translating those images into something pleasant to the eye, and the Fujifilm X Pro 1 provides a wonderful camera to work with. When you get the exposure right, it just doesn’t over expose, and the blend of sharp pixels and gradient tones reminds me of the performance of medium format film cameras of old.

Next comes Apply image command

The now seldom used Apply image command creates a mask of the selected channel, whether you are working in RGB or LAB color space. In RGT, selecting the red channel, for instance, will darken skies, as you can see below. The green channel will enhance almost all skin colors, no matter of race or ethnicity. You must, of course, go to the blend modes tab and select luminosity, so that you get the proper effect.

It takes some doing

It takes some doing to get the look and feel you want, but you can see a rather plain image below compared to the final, and, well, if you agree with me, you too will declare the images demonstrate an improved look and feel, with some texture.

And the last move is Render Lighting effects

This creates a chance to direct light where you want it, as if you had a crane with a overhead beam light, as if you were Steven Speilberg working with gaffers, and million watt bulbs, and you have your lighting crew direct that lights where you want it directed. The end result is a photo with clear theme, and point of interest. And you can sharpen that area as well, thus eliminating the need for for any post sharpening.

And these are the results