Make It Pop

[deeky]

Found only a bit of the falls flowing in the open yesterday and liked the contrast of the frozen and liquid. Here's the best of the two together, but I'm not happy - would like the flowing water to pop a little more. It's a bit of a tough set up - I was there early enough to avoid harsh light on a clear day, but the river at this point flows directly north so gets little direct light. My angle on the open water is also fairly limited without risking life and limb.

So, recommendations on getting the flowing water to pop?


IMG_1587a by breckmiller, on Flickr

 

[ceeboy14]

Easiest way is to duplicate the layer, change the blend mode to soft light then give the layer a mask and "paint" in some of the detail which may have been lost in the contrast boost. I'd start with a soft brush at about 18%.

 

[deeky]

All right, here's what I got - basically it lightened up the water. Although I'm not sure I've got the brush right. I got the duplicate layer with softlight blend, set the brush at 18-20%, but then what? All I ended up doing here is flipping over to the layer mask and masking out most of the duplicate layer, which did brighten the water. But I don't think that's what you meant. How exactly are you using the brush to add back detail?

Here's the update:

IMG_1587b by breckmiller, on Flickr

 

[Rick58]

I played around with this and liked the results by cutting back on the mid tones. It increased the contrast and better defined the flowing water, at least in my eye.

 

[deeky]

Thanks. I'll play with that... and the other post too.