Landscape photography - how do you post process?

homerun_homer

I'm having a bit of trouble working my way through a load of photos I took while travelling through Croatia. I can take a nice landscape shot now and then but it's not exactly what I have the eye for.

I'm using Lightroom to tinker with the photos but I'm a little rubbish at knowing how best to transform a photo from plain to making it pop in the right places. When playing with the colour I'm afraid I'm making the colours pop too much. I want to make far away mountains more noticeable and less faded. Simple things.

So my question to you all is how do you post process your landscapes and city shots from your travels?

Freddie59

homerun_homer wrote: »

I'm having a bit of trouble working my way through a load of photos I took while travelling through Croatia. I can take a nice landscape shot now and then but it's not exactly what I have the eye for.

I'm using Lightroom to tinker with the photos but I'm a little rubbish at knowing how best to transform a photo from plain to making it pop in the right places. When playing with the colour I'm afraid I'm making the colours pop too much. I want to make far away mountains more noticeable and less faded. Simple things.

So my question to you all is how do you post process your landscapes and city shots from your travels?

In the main I just

1. Adjust the levels (if required)

2. Increase the saturation (if required).

3. Increase the sharpness slightly (along with any cropping required).

I also shoot in M mode only.

They are some nice shots you took in Croatia. I don't know if others will agree, but, at first glance, it looks like you have issues with sharpness. Are you using an IS lens?

homerun_homer

I'd agree on the sharpness detail. I just brought the standard kit lens away with me. I have IS lenses but this wasn't one.

How do you light meter when shooting landscapes yourself? I usually always shoot manual but for of those I didn't. I was away with someone who I didn't want to bog down, wasting time trying to fiddle with manual settings and exposures every time i decided to take a photo.

Hugh_C

homerun_homer wrote: »

IHow do you light meter when shooting landscapes

Shoot in RAW and use the sunny 16 rule if you're in M. In other words, if it's sunny, use f/16 and 1/200 if In iso 200, 1/100 if in iso 100 etc etc. Otherwise, guess a bit, raw will handle it.

jpb1974

I've heard it said that "Your tripod is your sharpest lens". OK, a bit corny but realistically you should be using a tripod when shooting landscape photograph. Therefore you don't need IS and even if your lens does have it; it should really be switched off.

Smaller apertures ensure greater depth of field. Something like F16 will help to ensure that distant mountains appear in greater detail in your photos.

Graduated ND filters are very useful to have in your camera bag for balancing out exposure between bright sky and darker land/mountain etc.

I always shoot RAW. The main Lightroom adjustments I would be making would be as follows (Google for more detail - these are fairly basic descriptions):

White Balance - Adjust the White Balance assigned to your photo and correct colour casts

Exposure Slider - Exposure adjustment/correction

Recovery Slider - Pulls back blown highlights

Fill Light - Reveals more detail in shadow areas

Clarity/Vibrance/Saturation - Gives your photos a little pop in terms of colour.

Black Slider - Adjusting blacks can sometimes give your photo a little extra kick

Contrast - Adjusting contract can often give your photo a little extra kick and can boost colour

The main thing is that you go very, very easy on the sliders. Ideally all you want to do is make minor adjustments and small refinements.

Just google or checkout YouTube for a hands-on demo of the main Lightroom sliders. It's very useful to be able to understand them irrespective of the type of photography your are pursueing.

jpb1974

Some of the basic sliders are explained here -

http://www.photocitizen.com/lessons-tutorials/adobe-lightroom-3-first-steps-develop-module-basic-panel-2/

Promac

The only adjustment I generally go for is more contrast and clarity with the odd bit of vibrance adjustment if needed (don't use saturation, it's too blunt).

A nice little tool is the Graduated Filter tool - just press M on the keyboard, draw a line from the top of your image to the horizon and muck around with the sliders. It's exactly the same as using a graduated filter during shooting but you get to control exactly how much filter you get (which you would have done in the darkroom by dodging/burning so don't get any digi-guilt because of it!)

Sharpening in Lightroom is pretty good but you'll need a guide to explain how to use it properly - this one's pretty good: http://mansurovs.com/how-to-properly-sharpen-images-in-lightroom

Some really good articles on there for other aspects of lightroom.

magicbastarder

the one 'mistake' i see most commonly with landscapes is where there's not a wide enough gradient set when selecting a sky or the ground; so you get haloing; it's very common, unfortunately, and it's quite noticeable.