Outdoor, wildlife, want to tweak it.

Hi guys

We are brand new to the 70D We are coming from iphones and P&S.

The following was taken yesterday, SOOC. I have LR5 and I am looking for suggestions on what adjustments to make to this pic to improve it. Right off, I feel it is overexposed. Needs to be made darker, and possibly a bit of sharpening. But please suggest away and I will go and try it.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …101292417@N03/9​719249554/

PP is VERY subjective. Some will like B&W, some like color... PP it the way you feel it would enhance the image and what looks good to your eye.

I'm not on my calibrated monitor but to me right now the images dones't appear over exposed. Ok yes, the sky is blown out, and the rock formation in the background is overexposed BUT you have to consider what's in your scene. You've got 2 different exposure here. If you expose for the foreground that's shady, the backgroudn in direct sun will be overexposed. If you expose for the background in the sun, then the shaded aread will be underexposed.

I think you need to focus more on content/context of the photo. What do you want to show? What part of the scene is important and start there? As is right now you've got some cool rock formations and some goats. The way you've composed it the goat in the center of the frame draws the eye's attention but it doens't appear to be in focus. When you hunt around you see the other goat laying down in the bottom right corner that's in a lot sharper focus...so aks yourself, "Where am I supposed to look?" Once you've answered that question then you can maybe crop the image to reframe (would be your only choice now) or better yet move your feet and reframe before shooting.

Not to be harsh, but trying to be constructive: you're trying to save a lousy shot (IMO). Okay, you got two Rams in one frame, good for you. You were sort of in the right place, at sort of the right time, but here's where you settle in on your butt and wait for them to move into the sun (you hope). Maybe sneak in for a close up of the guy on the right. If that doesn't work, then come back another day.

They are in the shade, but background is so-so. Oh well, try again.

We all get lots of these shots, live and learn.

Edit: for example, I finally saw a male Wood Duck in a local pond. Beautiful plumage, BUT he was hiding under some branches in the shade. Yeah, I got a photo of him, which I'm happy to have gotten, but honestly it's a lousy shot of a Wood Duck. Better luck to me next time!

[QUOTE=Biffbradford;16​285424]Not to be harsh, but trying to be constructive: you're trying to save a lousy shot (IMO). Okay, you got two Rams in one frame, good for you. You were sort of in the right place, at sort of the right time, but here's where you settle in on your butt and wait for them to move into the sun (you hope). Maybe sneak in for a close up of the guy on the right. If that doesn't work, then come back another day.

Pretty much agree with this statement, the photo can be tweaked like bringing up the shadows and drop the highlight slider and use the brush tool to dodge the sky, or possibly crop in on the lower laying down ram to name a couple. This photo does not look overexposed to me though but you need to darken the sky. I would also crop in closer and try to get rid of some of the dead space on the left, this will also help eliminate some of the blown out sky on the left side of the photo.

for landscape shots use tripod and bracket the shot .in this way you will have one shot where highlights
are not blown and at least one shot with good details of foreground . In photoshop you can use masking
to get highlights of one shot and shadows of the other shot. this is simple , easy way . even if you do not
know much about post processing at least you will have more flexibility when processing the shots.
post processing skills keeps on improving so even if you are not able to process the shot as good as it should be,
after a year or two you will definitely be able to do so. bracketing the shot is very common practice ,many pro do it.
why not take advantage of this very simple method when it is always available to every one.

I'd crank down the highlights, bump the shadows, add some clarity and vibrance, maybe crop to taste...
other option with the sky is to replace with a nice blue cloudy one, that takes some trickery

Shoot when the light is better (sunrise or sunset). Nice first try anyway, definitely worth returning to that place. Also, animals in the shadows and surroundings in the sun usually doesn't work out well.

^^^ agreed. You've definitely found a hot spot. Hopefully you can return often.

Thanks guys

The PS tips are appreciated.

The tips on reframing and retaking the shot, well, not terribly helpful. Obviously we can all stalk and wait for better shots, but I am just looking for suggestions on how to tweak it post-shot. Trying to learn photo processing.

Thanks for all the ideas. I am on my way to play with it now.

Michael

Dynalmadman wrote in post #16292612
Thanks guys

The PS tips are appreciated.

The tips on reframing and retaking the shot, well, not terribly helpful. Obviously we can all stalk and wait for better shots, but I am just looking for suggestions on how to tweak it post-shot. Trying to learn photo processing.

Thanks for all the ideas. I am on my way to play with it now.

Michael

In this case, it isn't just tweaking, it's trying to save shot with sub-optimal lighting conditions. Something that's not that easy (I'd even dare to say that fixing bad light is neigh impossible). I understand that you want to learn something about editing, but the easiest way to get results is to tweak what you're doing before you press the shutter button, not after.
If it's not too far away, do yourself a favor and return there this weekend, preferably at sunrise or sunset.

I generally agree with the consensus of opinion - not a great shot, not great light.

But it is what it is. I took a shot at trying to improve your shot. Cropped to put the left ram top left and the other bottom right. I also pushed the clarity way up. Here's a portion of what I came up with:

An alternative might be to crop the top off down to the tree & the left side off over to the top ram.

Gave it a quick try myself

If your focus is on the rams, then I agree that a crop would help if you can't reshoot. You might try to replace the sky to help add a little different color too. Of course, the rams blend into their environment just as nature intended.

Here's a quick edit I did where I added sky from an image I took at Joshua Tree, boosted contrast and cropped.

My take is that you have 2 separate images here.