Dream Scape

[NWsenior07]

Took me a while to get this rendered but here it is. Let me know what you think.

[old_blaggard]

I really like the mist and the lighting.  The strata look a bit odd - are you using "Through camera" projection?  Try using either XY or YZ planar.

[rcallicotte]

I agree with o_b.  I like the clear water and fog, but the strata have a definite pattern that appears to be out of the ordinary that isn't immediately pleasant to the eyes.

[NWsenior07]

I noticed that myself. I'll see what I can do with the projection.

[Mohawk20]

I saw this one at ashundar, and sent you a PM regarding some postwork I did on this image, however, I could also post it in this thread ofcourse.

I thought the scene didn't look dreamy enough, and decided to use a postpro technique I discovered recently and got nice reactions to on another image I made recently.
Well, here's the reworked version...

[NWsenior07]

I like the post work you've done on it. Unfourtunately I haven't found any free post pro software to do anything as impressive as that with my images. I'm currently working on a second version, trying to tweak the strata so its not so delineated compared to the terrain.

[Mohawk20]

What I've done is pretty simple actually...

Opened in PhotoShop, made the image a bit lighter overal using the levels adjustment, then duplicated the image to a second layer, increased the exposure a bit to make the light part brighter, then blurred it a lot, then changed the blending to 'overlay', and set the opacity of the layer to 60% to dimm the effect.

Overlay mixes the 2 layers, but increases the contrast. On the other hand allows it for the detail of the bottom layer to be visible while adding the blurred edge from the 2nd layer aroung the shapes.

The endresult has the light area's glowing, because of the increased exposure settings and the blur.

Edit

Unfourtunately I haven't found any free post pro software to do anything as impressive as that with my images.

You'll be happy to know I achieved the same result (exactly the same) in the GIMP (just google and download, it's free). The only difference is that the GIMP doesn't support the exposure adjustments, but then change the curves, making the line look like an S by pulling the the middle of the top half up, and the middle of the bottom half down.