Landscape Post Processing Techniques

[Sabaki]

Hi everyone

I've come to the realization that my landscape post processing is too basic and lacking of the punch I want.

I latched onto HDR a few years back and it's more or less my default technique, yet I'm enjoying the tones others get with blending and so on

Can anybody advise if I should continue with HDR or if I should drop it in favour of blending? Further, are there any YouTube tutorials you would recommend?

Thanks in advance

 

[Sashi]

May I see a picture?

 

[Hillsilly]

While prefacing this by saying that photography is an artform with no rules and no "right" way of doing things, when it comes to landscapes, I think the better photos are those that come close to replicating the scene before you - ie, the mood, lighting, colour, tone, saturation, contrast etc.

HDR might be one way of doing this. But more commonly, I find my using tonal contrast / tone mapping, which a lot of people confuse with HDR. I also like having shadows in my photos, which adds more contrast and realism - something you might be lacking if you are too heavy handed with HDR.

 

[Deleted member 378664]

Hello Sabaki,

search for Raya Pro and/or luminosity masks. You can do astonishing things with these techniques without use of dedicated HDR SW.

regards
Frank

 

[jd7]

Hi Sabaki

I found these websites (both are run by the same guy) a good place to start learning about blending

http://www.shutterevolve.com/

http://www.throughstrangelenses.com/

You might find them worth a look.

 

[Sashi]

Hi Sabaki,

It's a little difficult to point you towards a direction without knowing how comfortable you are with photoshop/lightroom. I would say this:
If you are just starting out with photoshop, I personally had great results with the nik effex tools, particularly, color efex, and the pro contrast, detail enhancer and skylight filter.

Beyond that, nothing beats editing your tones with color balance and selective color tools in PS and blending the results back onto your image.

Personally, while I did play around with luminosity blending, I did feel it was playing with it for the sake of playing and I had much better results with the LR sliders. The main thing is to use this amazing dynamic range we have now(little rant about canon lagging, though I shoot canon.)

Raw

Processed


While there are composited elements, there is no HDR nor luminosity masks and everything was captured in one exposure.

As for the color blending, it's amazing what you can do just with selective color and color balance in photoshop, though you can use the individual hue color sliders too, but watch out for noise.

Raw


Processed


If the finish of these images appeal to you, there is no magic button. Essentially the method consists of blending back parts of the image after playing with the colors using the sliders in LS and PS; nothing more complicated than that.

 

[Sabaki]

Guys! A massive apology to everyone. I didn't get any hits on this post for a few days and gave up checking, assuming it died a quiet death.

Thank you one and all for the links and advise, I will take a closer look once I get home and then I can experiment.

Sashi, I will post a few axamples of my HDR work a bit later. Please do crit it as fiercely as possible as I need to go next level.

Once again my apologies and thanks to all

 

[Sabaki]

Scorched Earth

 

[Sabaki]

Wall Beneath

 

[Sabaki]

These are all HDR and I would love criticism and opinions as to whether other techniques would yield better results

Thanks all

 

[Sashi]

Please do crit it as fiercely as possible as I need to go next level.

A little difficult to do that, I love what you've done!

Maybe try downloading the nik efex bundle from google which is free and have a play there if you're not happy with the 'pop'

 

[Sabaki]

Please do crit it as fiercely as possible as I need to go next level.

A little difficult to do that, I love what you've done!

Maybe try downloading the nik efex bundle from google which is free and have a play there if you're not happy with the 'pop'

Thanks Sashi, you're too kind!

If I may, do you find any of the usual HDR 'blemishes' or would you consider my images acceptable?

 

[Sashi]

Honestly to me it's fine, I cant see any ghosting going wrong and the tone mapping hasn't been over the top giving a cartoonish appearance(this is obviously my personal preference)
The only thing that occurs to me is that you probably didnt need to use hdr. I have gotten away with underexposing by 3 stops to keep the sun correctly exposed and then pushed the shadows in post. I know conventions says noise, etc... but really it is amazing what you can actually do with modern sensors and I attached the image with the sun through the trees to show that. It was shot with a 5dsr.
I'm not sure if you work in PS after LR, but if you do, push the shadows before going into photoshop from a raw as the tif will not carry the same dynamic range.
If you can have a play with the nik efex, pro contrast(might be dynamic contrast), detail enhance(a touch) and the skylight filter on your beach shot.