Haloing

[carlywarly]

Hi Damien, 

I took your RAW and levels classes years ago when I did family photography. I had to give up photography for a while, and am now back at it, but have transitioned to landscapes, which have always been an area of supreme difficulty for me. I remember the gist of the classes pretty well, but have been finding landscape photography to be an entirely different beast with completely different challenges, the biggest of which for me so far is haloing. 

As you can see, the haloing in this image is atrocious. I have tried to fix it for HOURS. I have made my mask selections incredibly carefully, but no matter what I do it persists. Any suggestions? 

Also, is this photo enough of a disaster that you recommend taking the classes over again? I've been considering it for a few months now. 

Thanks for your help, 
- Carly 

 

[Damien Symonds]

Hi Carly, do you mind sending me the raw file?  https://spaces.hightail.com/uplink/BellePhotography

Just to check - you're not sharpening during editing, are you?

[carlywarly]

Nope, no sharpening. 
Just sent the RAW file. I apologize in advance if the RAW processing is horrendous. 

To clarify - Just realized that the uploaded file to this post is the JPEG image, which does have some sharpening. The TIF image has no sharpening, and no sharpening was performed until all other editing was done. 

Edited September 6, 2017 by carlywarly
clarification

[Damien Symonds]

Right, can you post up the non-sharpened version?

[carlywarly]

[Damien Symonds]

I don't have any tricks for you, sorry.  When you make such aggressive edits, halos will always stalk you.  You just have to be very patient with your mask corrections after the adjustments.

[Damien Symonds]

You should find, though, that if you do let the mountainsides have some light on them, the problem will be easier to manage.

[carlywarly]

Wow, that's loads better. I'll go back and try to be a little bit less aggressive with it, and take a little more time and patience to correct it. Thanks so much for your help!

[Damien Symonds]

I look forward to seeing.

[Damien Symonds]

I urge you to consider the Channel Mixer Class.  It's amazing for landscape stuff, if you want to get creative with it, and also if you do any of it in black-and-white.

[carlywarly]

Will sign up now! Have always wondered what the hell the channel mixer actually does.