More Ridgeline Stuff

In this post, I discussed using attenuation to help highlight ridgelines, particularly those that run nearly parallel to the viewing direction. While this is generally an effective technique, there are occasions where you get some undesirable results.

Take, for instance, this (no attenuation) image with Keystone ski area in the foreground and the Tenmile Range in the background (click for high res version).



I really like the crispness of the background mountains, but the ridgelines to the right (West) of the ski area don't "pop" as well as I'd like.

So, let's try distance-based attenuation (click for high res version):



There's better ridgeline definition, but the background peaks get washed out by the attenuation.

So, what if we "cleared the air" at higher elevations, still keeping the distance-based attenuation? I then got this result (click for high res version):



I still get good ridgeline definition, but much greater clarity in the high peaks!