Enchanted Forest

High in the mountains of the Giford Pinchot National Forest these trees are lit by a misty and foggy light. (Philip A. Knouf)

High in the mountains of the Giford Pinchot National Forest these trees are lit by a misty and foggy light. (Philip A. Knouf)

The light for ‘Enchanted Forest’ didn’t last for more than one or two minutes.  I was already set up to photograph with my Canon 5D MKII and my 24mm TS lens.  I was waiting for this beautiful fog light to reappear that I had seen a couple of minutes earlier.  This type of light provides a soft glow to an image as there are no harsh shadows.  Suddenly the clouds opened up at the same time that the fog moved up the hill.  The forest scene before me was filled with this beautiful, vibrant glowing light.  I was only able to get off a couple of exposures before the light and fog left.  I processed this image in Lightroom 4 and then finished it in Photoshop CS5.  Much of the magic of the final result I attribute to the Photoshop actions developed by Tony Kuyper.  He has taken the concept of channel masks, or better called luminosity masks, to the nth degree.  The actions he has developed allow for a degree of control that I could not even dream of back in the days of the optical darkroom.  The results have to be seen to be believed.  You can learn more about Tony Kuyper and his luminosity mask actions at his website,  http://www.goodlight.us/index.html .

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