First Landscapes - Yosemite

I'm trying to improve my landscape photography and took these this weekend. I'm not entirely happy with these, but I'm unable to identify what is lacking. Would appreciate any critique/comments.

All are very nice but the light is lacking any real Drama.

Shooting at sunrise or sunset would help IMO.

The lighting is lacking some punch, but I feel the shots are also lacking a dominant feature in the scenes. For example in shot 1you should have used something in the immediate foreground to help add a sense of space and attention rather than them seeming to get in the way.

You could make these have some punch with some tweaks in photoshop and some dodging and burning. However, my biggest suggestion would be on composition...

All of them are very nice...I like the first image very much...#2 shows shows the scale of the mountains...
very well done...but I do agree with the lightning part from the comments above..

thanks for sharing

Avi

Great series.

Thanks for the comments.

Lighting is always a challenge for me when it comes to landscapes because I am typically unable to shoot at sunrise/sunset. I'll keep trying though.

I'll also try to work on adding a foreground object that is interesting (that's a tough one for me as well)

Moose...these aren't bad shots, but each one seems to lack a little bit in one area.

Nearly every shot needs a forground, mid ground and background to draw the eye through the picture. Your main point of focus can be at any of these points. Photo number three is a good example of this, you have the lake/river and reflection as your foreground, the trees as your middle ground and the mountain/clouds as your background, but the main point of focus is the mountains as thats where your eye is naturally led via the other elements. Unfortunatly I think the forground is underexposed so you loose any of the detail in the trees.

Photo number one in my eyes is still a little under exposed, but has good detail in the rocks. You've tried to include a forground element, but its cut of and leaves you a bit lost as to whats happening. I think in this case it might have been better to not include it and just have the lake/river as the forground element.

Photo number two again in my eyes is a little under exposed, but has some wonderful detail in the rock faces!

As for shooting at sunset/sunrise they are the best times to shoot, but I think with the content you have before you in the mountains and all the different weather conditions you can come across there anytime is a good time to shoot!

Hope this helps.

Simon

Moose408 wrote in post #8782030
Thanks for the comments.

Lighting is always a challenge for me when it comes to landscapes because I am typically unable to shoot at sunrise/sunset. I'll keep trying though.

I'll also try to work on adding a foreground object that is interesting (that's a tough one for me as well)

I think once you are able to you will notice a nice difference in overall pop. Colors become magical.

I like these alot but, I do agree it lacks some punch. The 2nd one could def. be reedited for some kick imho.

Great shots I really like the view at Hetchy Hetchy.

#2 Has perfect composition...I bumped everything on #2... What do you guys think? I wish I had the RAW

Before

I'm leaving for yosemite tomorrow afternoon. do you have any tips?

msclman99 wrote in post #8787555
I'm leaving for yosemite tomorrow afternoon. do you have any tips?

Anytime you can get (hike) above the treeline of the valley floor it really opens up some great views...

I like these, the only one I think is weak in composition is the second one. Some PP will definitely help with the "Pop". 82NoMe's edit helps with giving the photo depth and pop!

82NoMe wrote in post #8787565
Anytime you can get (hike) above the treeline of the valley floor it really opens up some great views...

I don't mean to jack this thread but what did you do in photoshop to that photo? and what would you do with a RAW file? I'm just begining to learn pp so I'm looking for tips on that too! Thanks!

msclman99 wrote in post #8788263
I don't mean to jack this thread but what did you do in photoshop to that photo? and what would you do with a RAW file? I'm just begining to learn pp so I'm looking for tips on that too! Thanks!

First I copied the original photo and changed EV (exposure value) to -2 and +2 then blended them together with the original. Then I bumped the contrast and color saturation. I then sharpened and posted. If I had the original RAW file I would have had a lot more information and it would have responded better to the EV adjustments than the one I downloaded from this page. I did this with LightRoom2