Editing landscapes can revolutionize an image that didn't quite pan out how you had intended, or bring out all the best features that did. Here are five tips that can dramatically improve your landscapes.
Recently I've both discussed and thought about landscape editing a lot. I enjoy taking landscapes, but I rarely edit them. It's something I'm working on. My primary issue is a lack of direction; I don't know where I want the images to go with regards to aesthetic. However, there's also certainly an element of not knowing how to properly edit landscapes in the way I like. I'm more than proficient with Photoshop and Lightroom, and I use them heavily in my commercial work, but for whatever reason, I'm never quite happy with my landscape edits.
In this video, Mark Denney shows you some of his most effective tricks and tips for transforming any landscape from bland, to strong. One tip I particularly enjoyed was the color shift under calibration. Playing with colors is one of my real joys of editing, and I hadn't used this particular tool for landscape. As Denney says, it's almost a "seasonal shift" with the colors going from spring to fall. It might be time to dig out more of my unedited landscapes.
I like the results and I'm not saying you shouldn't do it but, the problem as I see it is this: when you come upon an extraordinary scene, when the sun and clouds, moon and stars, wind and mist all come into alignment, when God reaches down and blesses you with something that brings tears to your eyes and you get that once in a life-time photo, it won't matter because everyone will assume you hacked it. Of course, that may never happen.
These are some great methods for rescuing a photo from being "ho-hum" and developing it into something that creates a second look from the viewer. Nice...I think it is important to remember Mark's advice that these five methods are not needed each and every time. Especially for photographers new to editing software. They'll want to avoid the temptation to use every slider available turning a super photo opportunity into something that looks like it came from a Disney film.
great result IMO; thanks for sharing . Rather amazing the difference with what was really only basic editing with another modern form of dodge and burn . I still prefer the old fashioned dodge and burn but you have given me a few ideas to try; or try again