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

[winterminute]

I'm still in the stage of taking photos of everything and haven't really found what I like or what I'm good at, but my landscapes are getting better (I think) in terms of composition, but I can't get great color out of them. They seem muted. Is this a problem with the way I take my shots or is this a post production trick?

Here are two examples where all the colors just don't pop out. I'm a very very green (no pun intended) behind the ears when it comes to post-production, so I have to admit these have had the "Auto" treatment from Microsoft Digital Image Pro, so the images are slightly better than the unaltered image, but not by much. I know what HDRs are and I'm not looking for that kind of effect. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I'd like the sky bluer, the grass greener, etc.





This isn't a critique topic, but if you have feedback on either photo I'm always up to hear feedback.

[Jargon]

My camera has a "Landscape" picture style setting that makes blues bluer and greens greener. Maybe your camera has a similar setting.

[Nicole]

Have you tried a circular polarizing filter? Since both of these are landscape shots that were taken during the bright part of the day, you might find that using a polarizer is useful. What polarizing filters do is darken the sky, reduce reflections, and generally increase contrast. You can read some more about polarizers here or here, and there's a good example of the difference a polarizer can make that I found over at Flickr.

I'm in a bit of a minority I think, that I prefer filters over photoshop, so I will say that it is possible to replicate some of the effects you can get using photoshop, but not all

[matthewchj]

Using filters is better than photoshop, as you'll spend less time at your computer, giving you more time to shoot, etc.

[ELAY]

I defer to those who went before on the use of filters...but if you want to/have to give it a go in post-processing, here are a few things to try:

1. Judicious increases in global contrast and saturation can help.

2. Local contrast enhancement helps too -- there are a few ways to do it, but the easiest is to use unsharp mask (lots of tutorials out there -- here's one).

3. If your software supports layers and blending modes, then doing a duplicate layer and blending down on multiply can work wonders -- you can use the opacity slider to fine tune the effect. There is a variation on this, which some people call the Orton Effect, which involves blurring your duplicate layer a bit first, thereby creating a bit of a glow around your subject).

4. If your software supports decomposing into LAB space, then you can try this trick, which I find works really well. Don't worry, you don't actually have to understand what LAB space is to make it work. .

5. You can also use the Channel Mixer, like so.

You can also tweak the individual channels in levels and curves, but I have not had a lot of success with those approaches -- requires too much skill maybe. Here's a tutorial from a photographer who seems to have mastered this technique.

Good luck,

EL

[Nai no Kami]

By using the Lab color correction (enhancement) technique, I achieved this results:

[Teewinot]

ELAY, just poking my head in...nice tutorial links. Thanks for sharing!

[winterminute]

Nai no Kami >> Now we're talking! Those look so much better. When you say LAB color correction are you referring to #4 in ELAY's list or something else?

I haven't tried a polarized, but I just bought an adapter for my P&S which allows me to use standard filters and (not suprising, my wife has a good polarizer). Would it help to use a UV filter and a polarizer?

[Nai no Kami]

Sorry for the delay. By Lab, I'm referring to this post: http://digital-photography-school.co...-in-photoshop/ which links to a youtube video anyway. Nevertheless, as you said, #4 of ELAY's list covers the subject (I just checked to see if it was the same technique). The reduced images you provided, as you can notice, suffered from some "artifactism" in the sky. You should always check how subtle color transitions in great "surfaces" (such as a sky) behave.
Try and experiment with your photos.
Another tip: If you are on a Mac and use iPhoto, the Adjustments palette can be of great aid to do some color correction (I have rescued very bland colored photos with such a toolset).
Best of lucks.

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by winterminute

I haven't tried a polarized, but I just bought an adapter for my P&S which allows me to use standard filters and (not suprising, my wife has a good polarizer). Would it help to use a UV filter and a polarizer?

Just noticed this. If you meant using both at the same time, no. It is not a good idea to stack filters because it gives more of a chance for funny things to happen, like light reflecting and refracting between the filters and leaving bizarre bits of light on your pictures. So, it's best not to use multiple filters if you can avoid it.