Photoshop or Lightroom advice please (Page 2): Try using a GND filter on the lens when you shoot the pic.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Try using a GND filter on the lens when you shoot the pic.

bleirer

If you move over to Photoshop there are even more choices and better selection tools. For any adjustment layer you can click the mask and use a black brush to paint the areas you don't want affected or use selection tools prior to. The warming filter is a good one, warm the sky up a touch. The other one is saturation layer, you can click in the sky and make only that color more saturated or adjust hue and lightness, then mask away the effect from the foreground if needed. You can apply and tool limited to the selected area only.

Markag

bleirer wrote:

If you move over to Photoshop there are even more ... (show quote)

Thanks. I'll try this to adjust those background hills. I've never used adjustment layers.

bleirer

Markag wrote:

Thanks. I'll try this to adjust those background hills. I've never used adjustment layers.

There are about a dozen good ones, super easy to use. Just remember they apply to the whole picture unless you mask away the part you don't want affected. Masking can be as simple as choosing the brush tool with the color set to black and painting the unwanted area. If you make a mistake switch to white and paint the good area. If you are comfortable with selection tools, select and mask makes detailed selection better, but there is a learning curve there.

Markag

bleirer wrote:

There are about a dozen good ones, super easy to use. Just remember they apply to the whole picture unless you mask away the part you don't want affected. Masking can be as simple as choosing the brush tool with the color set to black and painting the unwanted area. If you make a mistake switch to white and paint the good area. If you are comfortable with selection tools, select and mask makes detailed selection better, but there is a learning curve there.

Thanks. Very much.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Markag wrote:

This photo out my back deck isn't horrible but like so many I take out back the top 3rd or always the far-most range of hills is dull, lifeless, blue or just gray.
The best way to add texture or contrast to this portion of the photo?
Thanks in advance.

Just some other food for thought. I took your photo ("Before"), brought it into Luminar 4, and with ONE slider (i.e. AI Enhance) produced the "After" photo. Took me ALL of about 5 seconds.

In the "Before" image, your eyes wander all over the image, whereas (at least to me) in the "After" image your eyes get drawn into the foreground and then into the mid ground, making the background less noticeable. Of course you can dehaze the background and make it less blue, etc.

Just wanted to illustrate the power of AI, which is becoming a huge time saver for PP.

(Download)

bleirer

Fredrick wrote:

Just some other food for thought. I took your pho... (show quote)

Each person has their own aesthetic, and I know you only posted it as a sample, but my reaction is that it is a little 'overcooked' in that parts are oversaturated and too contrasty. AI is cool though in general.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

bleirer wrote:

Each person has their own aesthetic, and I know you only posted it as a sample, but my reaction is that it is a little 'overcooked' in that parts are oversaturated and too contrasty. AI is cool though in general.

True, it is a little "overcooked," which is the way I like it. The slider was at 81%. Very easy to slide it to wherever you want, though.

MW

I have had the same issue and used the dehaze slider quite a bit. But you have be carful not to over do
it. I have gone back to look at dehazed photos from a few month back and now I think they look like s**t because I over did the dehaze. Alternative solutions include:
crop out the horizon (does the composition really need a horizon? Without the horizon how does it change the feeling of the image etc);
emphasize the haze by brushing in a bit more of softness in the midground (tricky and must be subtle but when it works emphasizes depth and distance);
try using a longer focal length and make the soft blue horizon the main subject which takes up the upper 2/3 of the photo near structures remain sharp but and give scale to the hills/mountains.

What I’m trying to say is that there is is no correct solution. Try other approaches to the same subject matter.

Markag

MW wrote:

I have had the same issue and used the dehaze slid... (show quote)

Great info. Thanks

Hamltnblue Loc: Springfield PA

Another technique that I've been using lately is single picture HDR.
Some software will do it with one button click.
If yours don't, re-sample your pic at +2 and -2 ev, then run the 3 photo's as an HDR.
The pic will almost jump off of the page.

Markag

Hamltnblue wrote:

Another technique that I've been using lately is single picture HDR.
Some software will do it with one button click.
If yours don't, re-sample your pic at +2 and -2 ev, then run the 3 photo's as an HDR.
The pic will almost jump off of the page.

More info please?

RGG

Try that shot with a circular polorizer filter. Take 4-5 shots with the polorizer rotated to different positions. One of the shots is almost certain to give you a better starting point in Lightroom.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I've found more and more recently that I throw up in my mouth when viewing over-cooked images ...

Markag

CHG_CANON wrote:

I've found more and more recently that I throw up in my mouth when viewing over-cooked images ...

I like photography. Producing photos not so much.