How To Get Great Color & Contrast With Landscape Shots (not HDR)

[winterminute]

Will a UV filter do anything to help these types of shots? Or is the polarizer still king?

[Nicole]

The polarizer is still king

From Wikipedia:

The UV filter absorbs ultraviolet rays without changing the exposure. With most images, most people will not see a difference when a UV filter is used.

The UV filter is most useful for protecting your lens from scratches and dust and stuff

[aji23]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, and after reading through some posts I thought it might be fun to join in.

I've been shooting for several years now, and while I shoot pretty much everything and anything, landscapes are my favorite. I do a lot of post-production work in Photoshop, and I use a Wacom Graphic Tablet (the Intuos3 for those in the know). I thought I'd dabble with the pictures on this thread and see what you guys thought.

The one thing I have to say about those who feel 'altering' photographs is somehow ignoble or 'cheating', I would like to quote Adams, "You don't take a photograph, you make a photograph". The initial capture is just the first step, in my opinion. The fun really starts once you are sitting down at the screen!

Here are my 5 minute tweaks (not perfect, but hopefully the idea gets across).

In these, I tweaked saturation (do a Ctrl-U and bring the master sat to +15-30); increased the exposure on the tree/bushes (it was slightly underexposed in the original); adding some minor vignettes to bring the eye closer to the subject matters; and did some subtle dodging and burning and each of the three categories (shadows, midtones, highlights), using the pressure sensitive stylus of the graphic tablet (it's almost like painting, those who haven't tried it I encourage you to! It's very enjoyable).





Not sure why these are red-Xs in my preview post. If these still don't show up, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/AJIppo/OnlineForums/

PS There might also be attachments -- still figuring out how to present pics...

[ladytx]

I am not sure about Digital Image Pro but I think it supports layers and blending modes. I use Paint Shop Pro. In the image below I converted the original image to a layer, duplicated layer with a blending mode of "dodge" set at 16, duplicated again with a blending mode of "luminance" set at 92, duplicated again with a blending mode of "normal" set at 84 and beefed up the saturation a little.

Just duplicate your original photo and try different blending modes and visibility levels and you will find what you are looking for and a lot of other kool effects you will find along the way.

[skiernie]

The #1 key to landscape photography is the lighting during the original capture. Mid-day lighting is the worst time. If you can, go back to these same spots and shoot them in the very early AM or near sunset - when the sun is low in the sky.

Jim Zuckerman - a pro landscape & wildlife photographer - has a web based course on Natural Lighting. Do a Google search on him and you'll be directed to all sorts of resources (some free, some not) that will help you improve your landscape shots. There are other pros with similar resources - Brenda Tharp, etc. The first rule is always the same - shoot with a low sun especially if doing vistas.

[Roger]

Your problem seems to me like that of the Emporer's new clothes. If you remember the story...he didn't have any and paraded thru town naked, thinking he did. I suggest your two subjects don't have any..or enough...color to impress me or to satisfy you.

Rog

[winterminute]

subject don't have any..or enough...color to impress me or to satisfy you

You're 100% and that's why I posted here to find out how far post-production can take you. I wasn't 100% sold on the pictures to begin with but they are very inductive of the color most of my landscape shots have and they were current so I used them as examples.

My goal isn't to turn these exact shots into masterpieces, but to be able to judge future shots and have a feeling for the potential. When I’m uploading photos and trying to make a keep/delete decision, it is helpful to be able to look at a photo and know what can be fixed with some post-production and what can’t. If I love a photo and the only problem is bland color, I want to be able to sit down and make it a great photo.

Does make sense?

Also, a couple of people have made comments about not shooting landscapes in mid-day and thought you’d find it interesting that these were shot around 7AM. I guess that’s Colorado for you

[uvsub]

I'm all for the lab technique. There's an excellent book out on this "Photoshop LAB color : the canyon conundrum : and other adventures in the most powerful colorspace".

[ELAY]

Originally Posted by uvsub

I'm all for the lab technique. There's an excellent book out on this "Photoshop LAB color : the canyon conundrum : and other adventures in the most powerful colorspace".

I looked it up a while ago at Chapters (which uvsub will know is a CDN big-box bookseller) -- $70!

[winterminute]

Elay -- Amazon has this book for $35 I haven't bought anything at Chapter's in a long time, but I don't remember it being that overpriced...weird