Some advice/ tips please

johndow

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This is a typical landscape picture which i took while on holidays in Sri Lanka. I know the composition etc is poor, but i would appreciate some guidance on post processing in general using this as an example.

100_01501.jpg


The photo seems lifeless, and there is quite a bit of haze in the distance which has led to poor clarity. I know about adjusting levels, curves, brightness etc but there is so much, i don't know what to do first, how much to alter, and worst of all, i usually don't know where to stop.

I would like someone to give me a step by step guide to improving landscapes like this one on photoshop.

Thanks

JD
 
I don't think post processing is going to help this one I'm afraid. You could boost the saturation a bit but that will only make the greens greener. Assuming there was some blue in the sky, try using a polarising filter. Also try metering from the sky so that it doesn't come out white.
 
Seeing though I just came back from Sri Lanka (and a tour of Kandy) I'll try to help out)

It's a difficult photo to improve as the lighting is quite flat and it isn't very sharp. But this is what I've tried:

Up the contrast (+12)
Ran UnSharp Mask on 124% Amount, 1.0 Radius, 3 threshold level
Ran Image --> Adjustments, set it to the finest level, and made it one shade yellower and one shade redder

I don't think it's managed to do much I'm afraid. Any other ideas?

Results:
198750245_252dd2f9b6_o.jpg
 
stevegreen said:
What apeture was this shot taken at?
It was f2.8. The photo has been cropped, as there was quite a lot of greenery in front of it.

Salubrious, the day we went to Kandy it rained (terential) all day apart from about 30mins when we were eating (photo taken from restaurant). We also got drenched at the temple of the tooth.

Most of my photos from that trip are crap because of the weather. I am not bothered about keeping the picture, but i just want to use it as an example to see what could be done to improve it. Especially the distant detail which is obscured by haze.

Perhaps i could isolate the area that's hazy, and try to reduce the noise, or the colour which is most prevelant in causing the haze?? therefore bringing out more detail.

JD
 
johndow said:
It was f2.8. The photo has been cropped, as there was quite a lot of greenery in front of it.

f/2.8 is not a particularly good aperture to use for a landscape type shot, especially when you have the green leaves in the front of the frame. It looks to me as if the camera focussed on the plants which is why they are sharper than the remainder of the image.

Try a higher f-stop when taking scenery shots and you should find that the images will look better with more in focus :)
 
This photo was taken at an altitude of approx 500m. Would a UV filter have helped reduce the haze at this height??

I only ask because i have bought one since this trip.

JD
 
Bit of a higher order reconstruction to lose some of the artifacts allowing a little more contrast

attachment.php
 
I guess we were lucky when we were in Sri Lanka (June 12th-20th) as it didn't rain once except when there was downpour on the way to the airport for our flight out!
 
johndow said:
This photo was taken at an altitude of approx 500m. Would a UV filter have helped reduce the haze at this height??

I only ask because i have bought one since this trip.

JD

Not really as you need to be at a higher height to get the full benefit - worthwhile having one though just to protect your lens. The polariser will make more of a difference although they do cost more (don't forget if you do buy one you will need a circular one)

The wide aperture you use will also make it easier to burn out your highlights. Stop down to f/22 first and then try different combinations. With digital you have that wonderful ability to discard rubbish shots quickly and easy before getting them printed. Some landscape photographers prefer the narrowest aperture, others go a little wider at f/15. Do a google search for hyperfocal distance/hyperfocal focus for some more help in getting as much of your picture as sharp as possible.
 
Try this

make a duplicate layer of the original background, de saturate to B&W.

Invert so you have a negative of the original, then using blending modes and adjusting the opacity blend the 2 together.

When happy flatten layers and adjust the levels / curves again

Helps in high contrast situations where bright sun has created deep shadows

Won't help your photo though as the sky is over exposed on the original but as ny only real PS technique thought I wuld share:devil:
 
Duffers0 said:
Try this

make a duplicate layer of the original background, de saturate to B&W.

Invert so you have a negative of the original, then using blending modes and adjusting the opacity blend the 2 together.

When happy flatten layers and adjust the levels / curves again

Helps in high contrast situations where bright sun has created deep shadows

Won't help your photo though as the sky is over exposed on the original but as ny only real PS technique thought I wuld share:devil:

That's actually an add process through a luma key, you are lifting the blacks and leaving the brighter portions of the image alone. I'd say you'd be better of leaving the deapest shadows alone and try to pull the rest of the image up higher to give it some contrast and then pull the sky detail down.

A resize to a higher resolution followed by a little blur followed by a max back to the original rescale followed by a down scale to the original reslution will lose some of the aliasing and compression artifacts.

Which is what I've done.
 
Mr. D - What do you mean by a max back?
 
a max process takes two or more images and combines the maximum pixel values from each ie if you had one image of a white square on black and maxed it with another image you would have a big white square on the image. Doing a blur on an image and then maxing it back with the original tends to get rid of dark noise type artifacts but will leave the brighter areas of the image unsoftened by the blur.

Now guess what a min process does.
 
That's very interesting, and how do you do a max and a min process automatically, is it by selecting different options from the layer opacity/blending drop down? (Darken and lighten?)
 
salubrious_k said:
That's very interesting, and how do you do a max and a min process automatically, is it by selecting different options from the layer opacity/blending drop down? (Darken and lighten?)


I'm not a photoshop jockey but the one sitting behind me says a max and a min are indeed lighten and darken. Photoshop uses its own terms instead of sticking with common image manipulation parlance:rolleyes:
 
Thanks. I'll remember this tip. Not sure if I have any suitable photos to try it on at the moment, but I'll be sure to sometime soon.
 

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