m43rebel

I happen to see a video by Tim Shields who is a successful landscape photographer. He proposed that landscapes should tell a story with some elements of drama to be more interesting to the viewer. He uses Lightroom to create interest in previously uninteresting views.
There are many software options to accomplish this transformation. I happened to experiment with Luminar Neo to see what was possible. Previously, I tended toward a more realistic approach with some minor tweaking. But with the following before and after photos, I took Tim's advice and tried to bring a dramatic storyline into play.
The first is a picture of a high meadow above the Provo River in Utah, not far from my home. The initial shot lacks focus and is dull. So I changed it from a noon scene to a near sunset to the left, with storm clouds of a pending storm.
The second is a photo of Maple Mountain across Utah Lake. The original is pleasant enough, and is accurate as to what the eye saw at the time. But I chose to have the sun setting lower to the right with the hint of the pending end of the storm.
You be the judge of which photos are more pleasing to the eye and evoke an emotional response.

I welcome your experience and insights.

By the way, both photos were taken with an Olympus E-M10.1 with a Panasonic 12-32mm zoom.

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niteman3d Loc: South Central Pennsylvania, USA

Nice work!

Vector

❤

13 Loc: I am only responsible to what I say..not what

Nice!! I like the last one the best.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Very nice!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

The second photo sets a mood-story of isolation ... even the thistles guard against intrusion. Cropping and straightening did wonders to transform the first photo. Rule: "Crop to the story" ... "That which does not add detracts from the message." Would right and lower 2/3 make the Photo 2 message stronger?

In my opinion, photos 3&4 are just photos and no focus of message.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

We are all different and obviously we all have different tastes. I like the first image although I admit it needs an improvement. I think that if I would have been standing there I would have back-up just a bit to include the entire foreground plant and this is only a thought since I was not there to figure out my best visual design. I put the image through Topaz Adjust and made some adjustments including a slight warmth.

The cropping of the second image is more appealing to my eyes but since you requested our "experience and insights" I put the first image through Topaz Adjust and made some adjustments including a slight warmth to it. With the second one I also used Topaz and cropped to to my taste.
These are different views, they could or could not like others but they prove what the creativity or artistry of each of us do when editing images.

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magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

I like what you’ve done, it definitely adds something. I have done similar things when rescuing a scene, and also like to add a figure occasionally to give some scale and additional interest. It might be worth posting this in ‘The Exploration of Digital Artistry’ section, where you’ll find a friendly group that gets up to this sort of thing.

Triplets Loc: Reading, MA

Very nice. Can you send a link where Tim discusses the steps taken to achieve these results?

Dennis

bbrowner Loc: Chapel Hill, NC

Two very nice images. Unfortunately you fell into the (easily fixable) trap of not leveling your shots. If not in camera, then in post-editing.

Probably, by bringing this to your attention... you'll probably always check. A good learning experience.

Everything else about the shots... I like.

m43rebel

https://www.photographyacademy.com/our_free_content/take-the-free-webclass/

Above is a link to his free introductory video. It is essentially an ad for the Academy training he offers, but the concepts he discusses are valuable in their own right.

m43rebel

Thanks for all your input. I appreciate the comments.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

I often do that sort of reprocessing. Sometimes it works; sometimes not. I like yours.

filmstage28 Loc: CA

I like this shot, very nice, yet to me something is missing, not sure what it is, after a long view, maybe it's the cabin
leaning to one side, is that how the cabin is originally? As I said nice shot I still can not figure what is missing for me to make this a great shot.

tcthome Loc: NJ