Am I over editing?

Digby Thomas · Nov 20, 2015

I've been doing photography now for 10 weeks, picked up a camera before my backpacking trip and have really gotten into it. I think I am falling into the trap of over editing though and would like some feedback. I have attaché a recent one from India d which I think I have gone over the top on.

Ideally I'd like to take photos like the other I have attached. It is by Luis Cardenas. I just like how both the sky an foreground are exposed the same and the photo looks realistic and not over edited. I don't know how to replicate something similar though in my shots.

I shoot RAW but they ways seems so flat and dull. Also whenever I take a shot, either the sky is blown out or the foreground is completely dark meaning I have to process even more. Any

Parker219 · Nov 20, 2015

Just so you know by shooting in RAW your photos will for the most part ALWAYS look flat and dull when you first upload them.

You are telling your camera that YOU will process the photos and to NOT have the camera make the decisions on processing a JPEG image.

As far as the first photo goes, I don't think you edited it too much. I wasn't there, so I don't know how yellow the trees looked, but if anything maybe tone down JUST the yellow saturation a little.

Also it still looks a little flat, you could try to increase the local highlights a little to try and get light coming in from the back of the photo a little.

Since you marked your photos okay to edit...let me show you what I mean.

1. Your Original

2. My Edit

By the way, I love both photos, very nicely done.

weepete · Nov 20, 2015

If the sky is blown out and the forground is underexposed then there's too much dynamic range (the difference between blacks and whites) in the scene. There are a few options for this, either you can use graduated neutral density filters to even up the difference in EVs between the sky and the ground, shoot to expose one shot for the sky and one for the ground, continue to do as you are doing by editing in post production or wait for a different lighting circumstances where the EV difference between the sky and the ground isn't as much.

weepete · Nov 20, 2015

I dont think your shot above looks particularly over processed, possibly a bit much saturation but its within acceptable limits to my eyes.

KenC · Nov 20, 2015

The first photo strikes me as a little overcooked, but that's a totally subjective impression. There really is no answer to that question. The only thing you need to worry about is whether the processing serves to produce the reaction you want from the viewer.

Digby Thomas · Nov 20, 2015

Thanks for the responses guys they really helped, I appreciate it! I'll keep working at it. Anyone have any advice on how to get shots similar to the other photo I attached?
Cheers!