Serra da Estrela, Portugal!

[takumi_vng]

Hello all,

I like this foto very much, but I think I can give more "drama". Can you please give me some advice to give more "drama" to it?



big size

Thanks in advance,

Adelmo

[larryb52]

I think a warmer cast would give it more drama.

[Hartzler]

The photograph itself is lovely. It's got all the elements. If I wanted to increase the dramatic impact of this photograph, I would look at ways to increase the contrast, particularly in the sky/cloud area, not so much in the foreground.

There's a thousand and one ways to do this. I'm a novice, so feel free to disregard my advice. The easy "fix" I came up with is a quick Photoshop fix. I pulled your image up and made a quick duplicate layer. I then changed the blend mode to soft light.

It wasn't quite the impact I was looking for, so I got rid of that layer made a new duplicate and changed the image mode to LAB. I then used image adjust equalize on the duplicated layer and changed it to soft light.

This made an immediate and dramatic impact causing the blue of the sky and the white of the clouds to pop. It also turned the mountains a deep blue. So I used a hide all mask and dropped a gradient so the "soft light" layer hit mainly the sky area.

I thought the result looked pretty good and that took about two minutes and no skill. In the end, my advice is play around with ways to increase the contrast in this image and I think you'll find it's dramatic impact increases. You have to be careful, because it's very easy to over due it.

Beautiful image in any event.

[windrider86]

Can you post your exif information? Please and thank you

[irieness]

Can you go up there again to do the shot over? If you're answer is yes.... try the following, if not, disregard my post.

On a clear blue day with a few puffy clouds, bring a polarizer start shooting between 11-13 hours and stick with the composition. I would make it just a bit wider. Experiment with the ratio of ground/snow and sky, adding more to the element that is most interesting during that day.

Or

You can shoot during sunset, it can be an overcast day (more clouds) and just when the sun drops under the cloudline and dissapears behind the mountains keep on shooting. If you are lucky you can get a wonderful light, try different sets of exposures (via exposure bias and metering different objects in your scene).

[KansaiGreenie]

Hi Adelmo,

This is a very nice image and I'm not sure that it needs drama. I'm going to agree with irieness, if you can shoot the image again at a different time of day. It would be more dramatic with an orange or red sky.

As for this image, I would increase the exposure/brightness a little bit and try to get the snow more of a bright white.

KG

[EOBeav]

Compositionally, I'm a little distracted by the building in the background with the red roof. Is it a barn? A Pizza Hut? I'm just not sure. Try recomposing to hide that building, possibly moving closer and getting a wider angle shot if possible. These are really interesting buildings and make a great subject!

[takumi_vng]

Originally Posted by Hartzler

The photograph itself is lovely. It's got all the elements. If I wanted to increase the dramatic impact of this photograph, I would look at ways to increase the contrast, particularly in the sky/cloud area, not so much in the foreground.

There's a thousand and one ways to do this. I'm a novice, so feel free to disregard my advice. The easy "fix" I came up with is a quick Photoshop fix. I pulled your image up and made a quick duplicate layer. I then changed the blend mode to soft light.

It wasn't quite the impact I was looking for, so I got rid of that layer made a new duplicate and changed the image mode to LAB. I then used image adjust equalize on the duplicated layer and changed it to soft light.

This made an immediate and dramatic impact causing the blue of the sky and the white of the clouds to pop. It also turned the mountains a deep blue. So I used a hide all mask and dropped a gradient so the "soft light" layer hit mainly the sky area.

I thought the result looked pretty good and that took about two minutes and no skill. In the end, my advice is play around with ways to increase the contrast in this image and I think you'll find it's dramatic impact increases. You have to be careful, because it's very easy to over due it.

Beautiful image in any event.

Thank you for the good advice.

I am a newbie too! Can you show me the result image?

Thanks,

Adelmo

[takumi_vng]

Originally Posted by windrider86

Can you post your exif information? Please and thank you

Sorry.

EXIF information:

Camera: Canon EOS 450D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

[takumi_vng]

Originally Posted by irieness

Can you go up there again to do the shot over? If you're answer is yes.... try the following, if not, disregard my post.

On a clear blue day with a few puffy clouds, bring a polarizer start shooting between 11-13 hours and stick with the composition. I would make it just a bit wider. Experiment with the ratio of ground/snow and sky, adding more to the element that is most interesting during that day.

Or

You can shoot during sunset, it can be an overcast day (more clouds) and just when the sun drops under the cloudline and dissapears behind the mountains keep on shooting. If you are lucky you can get a wonderful light, try different sets of exposures (via exposure bias and metering different objects in your scene).

I am not able to go there... because its ~200 KM from my house!!!

Thanks,

Adelmo