Some shots/edits I'd like opinions on (landscape)

These are re-edits for me, however I don't think I've ever shared the originals here - my original edits can be found on my zenfolio page (see sig.) if interested. I decided to revisit these because I am itching to do some serious hiking, so I was looking back at this trip. I looked at my original edits and felt that my editing "skills" have improved a bit since 2013 and I also felt that a number of them would benefit from B&W conversions.

These are from one of my favorite hikes (ever) - Enchantments, early October, 2013. I believe these were all taken with my 40D and 24-105.

B&W first:

1.

I like them all nice shots. The first one threw me off with the portrait orientation I think I would have liked to see #1 and #2 as a landscape.

1) meh. i would ditch the sky and go ahead a crop about the top of the tallest tree and try to recover some shadow detail.

2) pretty cool. is that a person standing at the bottom left? hard to make out but the footsteps indicate it might be. kinda too symmetrical.

3) lots of interest, still a little centered. if you had more mountain to the right and the trail was on the left it would lead the eye up and past where the hikers are and on up the mtn.

4) nice. the trees on the side of the hill seem to be leaning. they might actually be leaning but it makes me think it might not be straight. The sky seems a little flat, too much red.

5) same with the trees the ones on the left should lean similar to the ones on the right. might just be an optical illusion. snow in front seems a little blue and might need to be brighter. actually, the whole thing might need to be a bit brighter.

6) !

4 and 6 are the winners in this group.

Thanks you two, appreciate the critique!

1. I like the tent in small contrast to the large mountain, the crop is weird but I couldn't find one I liked better that gave me the same sense of the environment... if that makes sense. This shot is my least favorite of the bunch (I kind of agree with LHB - meh). Once I converted it to B&W it gave me new hope, but maybe I'm just trying to force myself to like it.

2. I'll mess with it some more, but I wonder about a square crop, eliminating some sky? In the color version it is more obvious, but that is a rock I think you are talking about.

3. This is the shot composition. I think I might have cropped just slightly on the bottom to remove some rocks or something.

4. Noticing slight red tint and leaning trees now too!!! haha, thanks. I'll see about correcting that tonight. If memory serves me correctly I think they were slightly leaning forward because of the steep slope they were on, but maybe not as much as depicted here. The slope below me in the shot is Aasgard Pass which is something like 2,000 ft. in about 3/4 of a mile.

5. Yeah, you're right, I can see now that a slight rotation CCW and some brightening or color balance on that snow is in order, thanks!

6. Caught the lake at just the right time, which I would have exposed the photo a little better but I was just thrilled the lake was so calm.

Excellent idea to revisit past images as PP skills grow.

1) the tent shows how massive the Mtn is, I would consider cropping till sky is removed, or clone the Mtn, as to fill in the sky. In myho the sky is not necessary as the tent is allowing the viewer to the massiveness of the Mtn

2) to harsh light, reshoot in better lighting, also with such shadows, I would bracket, crop to right side hits the Mtn, you will still have sky to show height.

3) same crop right side hits the Mtn, its not much

4) Nice light on Mtn

5) No issues, maybe better light at another time. Did you enable lens profile correction. Your trees are leaning. Additionally, other more advanced techniques may needed.

6) I would bracket for the shadows.

These images depict a wonderful story of a photographer who is adventurous, and enjoys being out in nature.. One may also be inclined to think they would like to be on the Mtn with the folks in image #3 Well done !!

Number six is absolutely amazing. Did you use any certain filters for it or is that just one shot?

Woohoo, more feedback!

Bianchi wrote in post #17462656
Excellent idea to revisit past images as PP skills grow.

1) the tent shows how massive the Mtn is, I would consider cropping till sky is removed, or clone the Mtn, as to fill in the sky. In myho the sky is not necessary as the tent is allowing the viewer to the massiveness of the Mtn

I like this idea and tried it out below, thanks!

That is kind of what I like about this image I think... (harsh light/shadows). I haven't had much practice with bracketing and blending yet... I'll have to add it to my long list of things to try out. I know it is probably a 'must learn' tool for someone who really enjoys landscape.

I did use the lens profile. I straightened a little (center trees) and tilted some, but the outside trees on both sides lean in.

You got it, haha! I'm glad you mentioned wanting to be with the folks in #3... what they were doing was supposed to be in our plans as well, but almost all the snow seen here fell the week before our trip, and because this area is so popular it is very limited for camping, we were doing this in a single day (14 miles, 12 hours, 6,500 ft. elevation gain). The snow slowed us down quite a bit and we didn't get to go up any of the peaks. I was very jealous of this group who was camping and getting to go up to higher ground!

EchoShotz wrote in post #17462675
Number six is absolutely amazing. Did you use any certain filters for it or is that just one shot?

Thanks Echo - This is one shot, no filters. Honestly, two years ago, I didn't even know things like ND and CP filters existed.

So here are a few quick edits and two additional shots:

7. Mountain, no sky:

Made some edits based on some of your guys' suggestions - I'm curious to know if any of them are improved???

Thanks!

7 and 8. notice in 8 how not having the top of the mtn in the shot kinda encourages the mind to think about what's up there? are they near the top? or are they just in the col? i like that feeling, and i think you can get it with 7 by chopping off the top of the tallest tree. having the tip right at the edge of the frame is bothersome. can't tell if you worked on shadow detail, doesn't really look like it.

9 i like it. did you mask the blue off the mtn? it kind of looks blueish at the top.

10. this one's tough. better color for sure. have you played with Ps free transform? You can do a kind of keystone correction that might help with the perspective distortion you get from aiming your camera upwards.

11. the color in the sky does a great job of breaking this pic up a ibit. The blue sky brings the rule of thirds to the image. still kinda meh.

12. not really doing anything for me.

here's a curve edit on the tree/tent shot before on the right, after on the left. notice on the right top corner i pushed the blacks darker, the histogram show there are no real blacks, i pushed them a little beyond clipping and then brought in a lot more contrast by taking the curve line more vertical on that end. I chose to keep mid tone contrast the same (45 degree line) and decrease contrast (flatter line) it once down at the highlights.

dang. just noticed i took the screen shot while on the background layer and it didn't show the histogram. second pic is the same curve with the histogram from the original file. Notice where i set the black point in relation to the end of the histogram.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17467492
7 and 8. notice in 8 how not having the top of the mtn in the shot kinda encourages the mind to think about what's up there? are they near the top? or are they just in the col? i like that feeling, and i think you can get it with 7 by chopping off the top of the tallest tree. having the tip right at the edge of the frame is bothersome. can't tell if you worked on shadow detail, doesn't really look like it.

9 i like it. did you mask the blue off the mtn? it kind of looks blueish at the top.

10. this one's tough. better color for sure. have you played with Ps free transform? You can do a kind of keystone correction that might help with the perspective distortion you get from aiming your camera upwards.

11. the color in the sky does a great job of breaking this pic up a ibit. The blue sky brings the rule of thirds to the image. still kinda meh.

12. not really doing anything for me.

Thanks LHB!

I get what you're saying about 7 & 8 and will look at the tree some more in 7. I did not mess with the shadow detail on that shot - thanks for the screen-shots below showing what I could do.

I did mask the blue off the mountain, or tried to. Maybe I missed some. I was a little in a rush. I'll have to check the file again and see exactly what I did. It might just be my monitor (not calibrated), I didn't immediately catch the blue in the foreground snow on #10 either.

I'll look at the free transform in PS. I believe I tried a keystone type correction in Lightroom by using the manual controls, but it seemed it needed too much or wasn't going to work like I imagined. Thanks for suggesting the free transform.

select all > command t (transform) > command (allows pulling just one corner) + shift (constrains movement to 90°) drag the corner out

command on a mac alt (?) on pc.

might not be the look you're going for, but there it is.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17467819
select all > command t (transform) > command (allows pulling just one corner) + shift (constrains movement to 90°) drag the corner out

command on a mac alt (?) on pc.

might not be the look you're going for, but there it is.

Wow, how did I miss this yesterday! That looks great. I'm going to have to try that tonight if I get some time!

Thanks again, you've been awesome help!

Ok... sheesh, did a couple more edits. I think I am happy with these now. Thanks again LHB for your suggestions and showing me how to accomplish the lens correction!