Landscape for C&C

[dandaluzphotography]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to see what you guys think about this picture. I like the comp but something about it bothers me. I don't know what. I recently began using filters to improve exposures between the sky and foreground, but there is just something that bothers me about this photo.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance!

Danny

 

[reznap]

The background looks dark/underexposed to me. It's minor (can be fixed anyway) and I'd just brighten it up until the clouds looked more white than medium gray.

Beautiful shot btw.. nice location.

I'd edit it and post an example but you've selected the evil "My Photos Are NOT OK to Edit" option.

 

[MissCream]

I like the look of the under exposed background a lot of the time, I think it adds more color. I would brighten up the mountains in the back though if I were you.

 

[dandaluzphotography]

This is what I was thinking...

How does this look?

Thanks!

Danny

 

[reznap]

^ That's a lot better. I actually opened the original in photoshop and made some adjustments and my version is just a little bit lighter than that.

I would mask off the bottom though, the rocks are exposed well in the original. The edit is looking a bit bright on the bottom. Easiest way would be to paste the original over that edit and just erase the background with a large, soft-edged brush.

 

[dandaluzphotography]

Thanks for the tip!

I'm not big on "photoshopping" my images but for this I had to. I'm not really good with layer masks and clipping masks and the like so I try to capture the image as close as possible to what I am seeing. Some of the time, I'm just adjusting white balance, saturation and other items like that.

I also noticed that the foreground now looks a bit blown out, just a bit. I have to continue to play with it.

Thanks for the compliment in your earlier reply. I took this from the side of Mount Scott in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma facing southwest. It was a great trip and I got lucky with a couple of shots!

What do you think of this shot?

Danny

 

[reznap]

I like it. It's really warm but it looks good.

Post processing isn't evil.. as long as it's applied properly. Hell, most of the things you do in photoshop mimic old darkroom processes.

The (bull?) in that photo is a little dark, could benefit from some 'fill light' in the RAW settings. That might bring out some more detail in the darker furry areas.

For selectively brightening and darkening areas, practice with the burn and dodge tools in photoshop. Using them can sometimes increase saturation so you need the sponge tool as well.

 

[MissCream]

I agree ^

You might like Lightroom, have you tried it? I find it a lot easier then photoshop

 

[dandaluzphotography]

I have not tried Lightroom. One of my friends has it and swears by it. I might need to get a copy. I do have Elements and I have to say, I like it a lot.

Danny

 

[mwcfarms]

I have lightroom 3 and finish off in PSE8. Its a great combination.

 

[HikinMike]

It looks like you put the GND too low. Composition-wise, it's okay, but you cropped the bottom off of the foreground rocks.

 

[dandaluzphotography]

I wanted to have something in the foreground but not have it be a focal point of the photo. The hills in the distance are the focal point. The grad is about at the top of the hills. What needs to be fixed is the lighting in this pic and then it I think it will be better. The original pic was way too bright and I tried a couple of things in photoshop to fix it. I think I went too far.



Thanks,
Danny

 

[DogGoneGood]

That edit of the longhorn looks great, better than the original.

 

[dandaluzphotography]

I added some fill light to the Longhorn pic.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Danny

 

[DogGoneGood]

Hmmm how did my reply to the edited longhorn pic get posted 2 minutes before the pic was posted? When I replied, it was already there, and I was replying to it.

Weird, lol.