Landscape Help

Hey everyone,

I primarily shoot wildlife but would love to venture more into landscape. My main problem with this picture is a re-occuring theme with my landscape work: boring. Sure, it's pretty - but how many images like this have we all seen? How do I make a pretty scene image stand out from the rest?

Any input on how I could have made this a better image?

Thanks for any ideas:

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The scene you posted is tough (for me at least) to jazz up. Including something in the foreground will help create depth whereas this one is flat because everything in the scene is the same distance away. Had the sun already dipped below the clouds when you arrived at the location? If not, you could have included it or when it was going behind the clouds it may have created sun rays across the image.

I am not sure how to improve this shot tanner but if you want interesting landscapes you have to have something in them. The above is just masses of dark colours..very meh.
Living where you do has infinite possibilities .....my advice - shoot during the day and tone down that logo on posts.

go find some water? the lone tree?

Its not necessarily boring...you've got several nice layers of pastel colors to play off with the composition. It could use some punching up with contrast and some sharpening, and maybe a slight exposure boost. Unfortunately, I think in this case it has too much foreground...overpower​s the composition and makes the rest of the image seem rather small...IMO, the main subject should have been the layers of distant hills and the sky...all that foreground diminishes the more important aspects of the image, which are the various shades of blue, purple, and orange. If the foreground was interesting, the use of a gradient filter, or blending of multiple exposures, could have helped to balance out the exposure and pull out more of the foreground. A longer focal length could have helped to "isolate" the distant hills by pulling them in, while minimizing or eliminating the amount of black foreground.

When shooting an image, try exposing to the right...this will maximize the amount of data that your sensor will capture, allowing you to avoid blown highlights and blocked shadows. The more data you capture, the more effective processing you can do. If there's no data to manipulate, you're stuck...you can't make something out of nothing. As far as processing goes, the first thing you should do is set the black and white points (white first, followed by black). From there, its just a matter of doing what you see fit. OTOH, an image that's been properly composed and exposed should require very little in the way of processing...some basic sharpening, maybe a little tweak here or there, but in general there shouldn't be much of a need for any heavy-duty processing. Don't fall into the trap of shooting with the aim of "fixing" in Photoshop. With too much processing, its easy to turn a good image into a POS, but no amount of processing will turn a POS into a good image.

Hi Tanner.
I thought the scene rather nice. To me this shot is just (mainly) underexposed, possibly because the sky predominated the metering, but I thought it too was a tad underexposed.. And that means that the tones and levels are not quite right. In CS2 Photoshop here's what I did, approximately, but it's only on an already processed 8-bit file...
1. Increase exposure +1 and gamma to about 0.8
2. Increase Shadow detail just slightly.
3. Increase saturation all channels about +5
(Also I removed the border to fit it back better.)
Am.

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^^ Just my opinion, but that doesn't sit right with me at all

tanner07 wrote in post #12385713
How do I make a pretty scene image stand out from the rest?

When i see those amazing landscape photos out there what i notice that sets them apart is the time that went into making the photo. Sure, there are those "right place at the right time with the right equipment" shots, but the truly gorgeous, award winning scenes i see are ones where time and planning is put into them. For this photo specifically, i'd just do a little research on the area; look up sunrise/set times and check em out. Note cloud coverage for the days, use appropriate filters to enhance the photo.

I personally enjoy your shot but just wish there was more color/saturation to the sky. Perhaps a little earlier/later into the sunset/rise would have worked better? Editing wise i would tone down the Blue hues and boost up the saturation or just focus on boosting the saturation of the red/yellow/orange's

JayZ235 wrote in post #12396333
^^ Just my opinion, but that doesn't sit right with me at all

The OP now has both our opinions. But mine was not up for critique.
Am.

I think this photo shows promise. Just a novice here but I have learned quite a bit from this forum. I have the same problem you do, with just not getting those fantastic shots at Sunset. I took over 100 photos tonight and none of them really stand out. As others have told me "Keep Shooting"

ameerat42 wrote in post #12400372
The OP now has both our opinions. But mine was not up for critique.
Am.

I don't think he was critiquing your opinion, just lending his own. Something that I appreciate as the OP looking for input on a photo of mine. Thanks to everybody who lent their helping hands.

ameerat42 wrote in post #12400372
The OP now has both our opinions. But mine was not up for critique.
Am.

tanner07 wrote in post #12411856
I don't think he was critiquing your opinion, just lending his own. Something that I appreciate as the OP looking for input on a photo of mine. Thanks to everybody who lent their helping hands.

Exactly Any photo submitted into this forum is open for opinion or it wouldn't be put up! Nothing wrong with expressing my distaste for a pixelated/lost detail PP edit