How would you edit this?

[SomeHitchHiker]

This is straight from the camera, it was shot in RAW but obviously this is a jpg export. There's a little camera shake when zoomed in, it was a very slow shutter speed. How would you crop, if at all? What about colour grading? Let's see your edits.

 

[NS: Nikon Shooter]

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Ok, I'll play…

 

[SomeHitchHiker]

I like what you've done with the colour of the tree trunks and floor covering. I'm not so sure about the shadow on the bottom left of the floor, have you used selective dodge / burn to bring out the middle section of the floor and also darken the left side? That's not something I'd normally think to do, dodge and burn that is.

 

[Peeb]

Honestly, I'd come back on a foggy fall morning. Until then, there's this ...

Lifted the luminosity of the greens, and slid green hue slider towards yellow. Dropped the whites and highlights, moved dehaze slider to the left, threw in a luminar 4 preset called 'foggy morning'. Seriously tho, this scene is begging for some real life fog. If you live nearby, check the forecasts and go back. Very nice scene, and well captured. Crop feels a bit tight, so I might've tried a wider lens, if possible (but you might have needed that tight look to eliminate something undesirable- can't know).

PS- forgot- also got rid of some purple hue in the soil.
PPS- In spite of my artistic left-turn, please don't think I don't appreciate original image- it's a very nice shot! Just throwing in some variety for fun.

 

[SomeHitchHiker]

PS- forgot- also got rid of some purple hue in the soil
PPS- In spite of my artistic left-turn, please don't think I don't appreciate original image- it's a very nice shot! Just throwing in some variety for fun.

Didn't even notice the purple hue myself. And don't worry, both of you have done exactly what I asked. I needed some inspiration and ideas on how to treat my photos which was the purpose of the post.

 

[SomeHitchHiker]

Had another play around myself, taking some ideas from above. I think slightly more muted colours, not so green, works better. Also added a graduated filter from the left side to bring the exposure down on that side.

 

[ntz]

hello, there's C&C section or perhaps this one, both would fit better to this kind of the thread ... I'd vote for C&C ...

but if you ask what I'd do, I'd probably do something simple like this

 

[CherylL]

I added contrast & saturation. In ACR I changed the color, saturation and luminance of the greens.

 

[jeffashman]

I like the original, and the changes made by everyone. I guess I need to dig into PS or LR and play around a bit more than I do. That looks like a path I'd like to walk along.

 

[ntz]

I like the original, and the changes made by everyone. I guess I need to dig into PS or LR and play around a bit more than I do. That looks like a path I'd like to walk along.

My dear Jeff ... tinkering with photos is a broad topic and huge area where there's easy to drown .. as a pure hobbyist and mostly landscape photographer I commit this part of the photography in very calm and steady pace and still yet I am not sure if I hate it or if I like it ... problem here is, that once you get into it a bit you see how huge area is that and it's easy to find yourself caught 50:50% or worse hooked up on it so basically I try to be quick, effective and to do a minimal changes ... this is my trade off now so I feel that like for example my tennis career .. I love playing tennis but I know that I will never become a pro-player ... same with photo editing, no matter that's "soft" skill .. why do I say that ? I do say that because in past I've put much more importance in it and in reality it was taking me away from photography, it sucked my will and volition like some blood sucking vampire, it sat me in the front of computer rather than send me out with camera ... it's dangerous stuff, at least for me ...

 

[jeffashman]

My dear Jeff ... tinkering with photos is a broad topic and huge area where there's easy to drown .. as a pure hobbyist and mostly landscape photographer I commit this part of the photography in very calm and steady pace and still yet I am not sure if I hate it or if I like it ... problem here is, that once you get into it a bit you see how huge area is that and it's easy to find yourself caught 50:50% or worse hooked up on it so basically I try to be quick, effective and to do a minimal changes ... this is my trade off now so I feel that like for example my tennis career .. I love playing tennis but I know that I will never become a pro-player ... same with photo editing, no matter that's "soft" skill .. why do I say that ? I do say that because in past I've put much more importance in it and in reality it was taking me away from photography, it sucked my will and volition like some blood sucking vampire, it sat me in the front of computer rather than send me out with camera ... it's dangerous stuff, at least for me ...

I agree with the sentiment, because there are a lot of bells and whistles to play with, and it does look to be very time consuming, but I think that is a separate art in itself. One is taking a good picture, and the other is taking that picture and rendering it how the photographer would like to see it, or display it.

 

[Peeb]

The good news is that, to my eye, the original image is strong.

You can make a strong image ordinary in post, but you can't make an ordinary image strong in post. LOL, you can quote me on that.

 

[K9Kirk]

I'm leaning heavily toward art with high contrasting colors. I like my forests dark and spooky so I took the liberty to take a little off the top and right side. First of all I use Topaz Studio 2 and I used "reduce lens blur" and sharpen to give the lines a harder edge for more detail and pop. I messed around with lightness/darkness of colors and overall light, color contrast, HSL color tuning, vibrancy, temperature, and luminosity. I tried to keep the green that's in the light on the left side of the picture a little brighter than the green that's in the shade so that it stands out more. I also tilted the pic a little for dramatic effect. My editing is probably not what you expected.