Sorry for posting 2 days in a row, but apparently I'm really bad with getting good color into my images. I've received some really awesome and helpful feedback last time, so I thought I'd see what suggestions you all have for this image.
My issue is the following: I want to bring out the colors more, but since I have a lot of orange, green and blue in there, simply pushing up the saturation makes the image look too kitschy (I think that's a word..).
Anyway, I'm really lost on this edit, so any ideas are welcome.
Another Color Problem
Try bringing out the individual colours using HSL panel, use grad filters for the skies, increase vibrance, it's actually kinda dull. Make the colours pop a bit
Thanks Arun. Yeah, that dull look is my problem, I want to add saturation without making it look to fake. This is really tough to explain and pobably doesn't make a lot of sense, but when I look at the green grasses next to the red/orange rock it almost feels unnatural already, and pushing the colors there just seems to make that worse for me. I'll try it with the HSL though, maybe that can work. Thanks for the feedback!
Maybe you could create a new more saturated layer then mask out all of it except the main rock in the top right or anything else that doesn't end up looking overdone. Just looking at it makes me think that the blues might already be pushed as high as they can go without looking off, as well as some of the greens.
Have you tried any white balance changes to see if that gives you any more leeway with the colors?
Thanks for the suggestion Collin. Yeah, I've tried changing the white balance a bunch, if I go colder the greens stand out to much, an if I warm it up they turn to yellowish. I agree on the blues and greens too. I'll give the local saturation a try, thanks for the suggestion!
Along a similar theme I think you could use masking to selectively alter a combination of brightness,contrast and colour tone of key areas (im thinking where the warm evening light is hitting) of the image to slightly emphasise these areas and give them a little more punch. alternatively you could maybe introduce a little of the purpley tones of the nearside rocks and sky into the shadows which will also create more colour contrast between the differently illuminated areas of the photo
Hi Mathew, thank you for the comment. I defenitely like the idea of adding cooler tones to the shadows and emphasizing the naturally illuminated areas. Thanks for the feedback!
Are the areas that are lacking color "pop" spots that you brought up the shadows a lot in?
I wouldn't think so. Although I'm not sure which areas I actually want to add color to.. I think I might boost the saturation just in the yellow/orange/reds of the sky, I don't know haha
No I was curious if you are having the color issues in spots that you had to recover shadows heavily in? I have this issue when working on my photos.
Ah, no that's not the problem, there's plenty of data.
Did you get it fixed up?
Hi Jeff, no, I haven't had time to rework it yet
I personally don't think it needs more colour, however think the sky needs some separation from the foreground. Maybe tonal contrast from Nik Collection?
Either way I love the composition and feel to this image, love the light green on the grass!
Hi Evan, thanks for the suggestion! When you say there should be more seperation, do you mean the sky should be brighter? Because I agree that would be more realistic and natural, but I seem to loose the colors if I do that. I'll give the tonal contrast a try though, thanks!
No definitely not that! The sky i think is perfect, however with so much contrast in the foreground and texture, I think tonal contrast will balance the whole thing! :)
Ah, sorry, I was thinking of color contrast for some reason. That makes more sense :)
Thanks everyone for the great feedback and suggestions. I've combined a bunch of your ideas, and while this is probably still not the final version, it's defenitley much closer than before.