Glacier National Park

[Optikal iLLusion]

Apologies for not posting the correct info. Picture was shot with a CanonT3 and one of the Kit lenses.. (18-55mm i believe). f/5, shutter speed 1/250, ISO 400 and 18mm focal length. I did edit the RGB scale a bit in PSE8. I recently had the shot printed as a gift for someone and it turned out a bit darker in the actual print then i see it on my screen. still looks good IMHO though. What kinds of things can i do to make colors pop a bit more? How is composition? Other opinions are welcome as well. Thanks for your time




GlacierMountains by ~Prjct86 on deviantART

[windrider86]

Be sure to read the critique sections rules/guidelines prior to posting. There is certain info that you should be including in your posts that we'll need to better help you.
Thank you in advance for editing this post!

[Optikal iLLusion]

post fixed. sorry again for not reading the rules section thoroughly

[RichardTaylor]

It appears that a lot of the ground is under exposed. (check the histogram) as is the sky on the left.

This can be corrected, up to a point although the left hand side sky may be too far gone, when PPing. Try cropping a lot of the black "nothingness" out and lighten up the mountains (try duplicating the layer and blending mode screen (masked) a few times or play with the shadows/highlight command.

Compositionally it is a bit bland, and detached, with nothing to really grab my attention and make me feel I am in part of the scene. It would be a good place top revisit at a different time and weather conditions and maybe shoot with some foreground interest as well...

[Optikal iLLusion]

PP?? Sorry im new to many of these abbreviations. Thanks for the editing tips. I've been searching around for landscape reworking ideas for sometime. I did get there a bit late in the day that time and the reason i shot with no foreground in this instance was because of a car being in the way on the trail. Thanks for the critique

[RichardTaylor]

PP is short for post processing - editing your photograph after it has been taken.

[Krusty79]

When you shoot in the middle of the day, the light is harsh and the dynamic range is greater than your camera can capture. Your camera can only see a range of about 9 stops of light while your eye can see at least 20. So, that's why part of the sky is blown out and you have dark areas with no detail.

That's why most pros shoot landscapes in the golden hours. Other ways to address the dynamic range issue are to shoot RAW and/or bracket your shots so you can make an exposure blend or even HDR or you can also use a graduated neutral density filter.

I agree your shot could use a subject, or focal point also.

If your prints are coming out dark, you might have to calibrate your monitor.

[Optikal iLLusion]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

When you shoot in the middle of the day, the light is harsh and the dynamic range is greater than your camera can capture. Your camera can only see a range of about 9 stops of light while your eye can see at least 20. So, that's why part of the sky is blown out and you have dark areas with no detail.

That's why most pros shoot landscapes in the golden hours. Other ways to address the dynamic range issue are to shoot RAW and/or bracket your shots so you can make an exposure blend or even HDR or you can also use a graduated neutral density filter.

I agree your shot could use a subject, or focal point also.

If your prints are coming out dark, you might have to calibrate your monitor.

This post was helpful. Thank you. I was actually there in the early evening not mid day but i suppose that really isnt to make a big deal of . Ive actually learned quite a bit about the camera itself since that shot was taken as well.

As far as RAW shooting. Im using PS Elements to edit as of right now. I tried to download a plugin so it would read camera RAW but it didnt work (or it just want compatible. I cant remember which). But anyhow I've been shooting in L+RAW on my T3 so i get the RAW file and a full MP high res JPEG at the same time. I figured that way when i upgrade to CS 5 i can possibly re work some of them.

Regarding HDR. I looked up a video on the good ole youtube a while back about creating them. Didnt find very many good ones at the time so it didnt really stick with me. But to create HDR you basically need 3 of the same shot all at different exposures yes?

[RichardTaylor]

That's correct.
Or you can merge them yourself in an image editing program that has layers and masks, if you do not want to do HDR.