10MPlayer Loc: California

You need shadows. Try shooting just after sunup or an hour before sundown. Your image is way out of focus too. You would get more depth with more detail.

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

If you want depth to be apparent in a photo, keep the foreground in focus and let the background become a bit less sharp focus. That is the way our eyes see things. That effect does not have to be particularly noticeable to create the feeling of depth, but your sample photo pretty noticeably does just the opposite.

Pinenutz 1

Thank you for the suggestion!
I appreciate it!

jar Loc: North New Jersey

Could be diffraction caused by the f22. Try F11 next time.

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

There are a lot of techniques to get depth in flat photos. Try dodge and burning. The photo is exposed brightly across the whole image which makes it flat. Also you can try targeted HSL adjustments to bring down luminosity.

I downloaded to take a closer look and it seems to me to be very soft with a lot of noise. That may just be the way it uploaded but seems almost out of focus.

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

I also took this into post and came up with a very similar result so no point in posting it. The only thing that I would say, and it may have already been mentioned, are you shooting JPEG or RAW? I would hope that you are shooting in RAW. As a landscape photographer it's a must or post will be difficult at best. The image as presented is out of focus, noisy, and blown out.

coj Loc: NJ, USA

M 2 cents worth - a wise pixel peeper once told me that a landscape need three things to give it a 3-D effect.
1) a foreground 2) a middle ground 3) A background. That will give it a three dimensional look. What you have is a nice snapshot. I think if you set up in front of the cabin, made that the subject and the rest of the scenery will pop. If you want the entire thing to be in focus drop the f/stop on the camera to f/13 or so. Good luck!!!

Hip Coyote

Here are my thoughts. My thoughts are free and worth everything you are paying for them!

I downloaded the file and see that it was shot at f22...That tight of an aperture can cause some distortion (I forget what they call the very small f stop distortion...but it does exist.) I suggest you find the sweet spot of that lens and shoot at that...even if you have to use a ND filter. I defer to others on this site if your lens is capable of sharp images...I simply do not know about that lens. Glass makes a huge difference IMO. I guarantee you that lens is not as sharp at f 22 as it is opened up a bit.

Shutter speed is at 1/10 of a second. That is waaaay too slow if you are hand holding this shot. Couple that with the very small aperture and you have a recipe for problems. That should have been shot at something like f8- 13 ish and a ss of 1/300 or so. The slow ss allows too much impact of camera movement and of any wind movement / effect on the trees. You could have the camera anchored to a rock and if the trees move slightly, it blurs the image.

Capture time was mid afternoon, if the meta data are right. That is a difficult time to get the image quality I like if the sun is up and no clouds...understanding that we are often tourists, hikers and just trying to take shots as we see them. I, for one, would not sit there until the golden hour to shoot this lovely scene...I would just take the shot and move on.

The shot is over saturated in an effort to get more out of it than what is there. It seems that the lack of sharpness in the photo is what is preventing you from getting the so called 3D effect. When I blow the scene up to a higher magnification, the trees are a fuzzy...and Topaz Sharpen could not rescue the shot.

Id get out my mind the notion of 3D. I would focus on having very very sharp photos. Most anything can be done with sharp, in focus, properly exposed photos. There is also long discussion on this forum of shooting raw...it opens some possibilities for unscrewing a mess with exposure..so i recommend it. Bottom line, go back to the exposure triangle and evaluate this shot. I think you will find some errors.

Thank you for sharing this with us. Best wishes for happy shooting and happy holidays.

Alby144 Loc: Northern Nevada

I have seen this photo on the Nevada Landscape Photographers group...I really wanted to see it from more of a distance; it appears to be a crop, yes? If that is the case, it maybe one of the reasons why nothing is sharp. The same photo, zoomed back or taken a bit further away might be dynamite! Also, for me a tripod is a must for nice sharp, clear photos, especially as I grow older and don't seem to be able to hold steady! Keep at it!

There are some fine photographers in the Nevada Landscape Photographers group, that is for certain.

10MPlayer Loc: California

Try shooting one hour after sunup or one hour before sunset. The golden hour is when the light has a pleasing yellow or orange cast and the shadows enhance the depth.