Behind the raw | Access Denied
In the journey of landscape photography, every image captured tells a story of its own. From the serene tranquillity of a mountain lake at dawn to the fiery hues of a sunset over rolling hills, each scene holds its unique charm waiting to be unveiled through the lens.
In this blog post, I want to delve into the behind-the-scenes of editing images from my recent landscape photography shoot. Join me as we explore the workflow of my editing process, my reflections on each image, and the lessons we can extract together.
This week’s Image: Access Denied
Now there’s an interesting story behind the images from this week’s instalment, to read the full insights, check out my Blog on the shoot. For now, I am going to talk you through my thoughts, edit and workflow for the image I selected and I hope you gain some insights to help your own editing workflow/skills.
To begin with, I chose an image that has the key components for this shoot, which are, a dramatic sky, powerful crashing waves, flowing water, detailed cliffs and rocks plus the added bonus of dark green algae on the ground below me. The settings for this shot were 1-second exposure at f8 and Iso 100 to begin with I made sure that my image was straight, I always try to get it right in the field however there can be slight movements when each wave arrives so it’s best to add this to your own workflow as a first step. Next is to allow Lightroom to make what it thinks is the right edit, I generally never keep these details but instead use them to give me an idea of the potential edit ahead. His scene was dark and moody, so I would be concentrating on keeping the drama in the edit, so I looked at the shadows to try and bring them up slightly, I wanted to keep as much darkness as possible and not lose that mood in the dirt. Next was whites, to ensure that I could keep them as bright as possible while not losing any of the texture. The blacks here are key as over-brightening them will negate the dark effect so a slight adjustment was needed here. Now I made all of these adjustments not considering the sky as I would tackle that separately, so for now I concentrated on the scene in front of me.
The play of light as it bounced off the rocks was fantastic and the overall feeling of the image was starting to come together. Next, it was the turn of the water, so I took a radial filter and placed this on the water, I then added some texture to this to bring out the subtle details contained in the moving water before then moving to my dehire tool. Now if you’ve seen previous episodes of this series you will know that I have my dehire trick to help identify any dust/water spots in the image and when I apply this 100% other reveals them all. However this file revealed even more than I was expecting, you see it’s one thing to avoid crashing waves, its another to avoid mist as it is blown ashore from each crashing wave, so for this image, there would be a lot of work to be done to remove them.
After all were removed then It was time to now tackle the sky, which was exposed right however because of the adjustments I had made to the main body of the image I would need to tame it back. I used a liner gradient here, making sure to hold down the shift key to keep it straight and adjusted the exposure values to bring it back, I then had an area in the middle of the sky to address, it was slightly bright so I once again chose a radial filter and give it a touch of - exp to bring it all in line.
Finally, it was now time to make this image jump and to do this I used the vibrance slider, to bring out the natural colours that were in the scene, this step is what really brings the image together.
As with all images my final cleanup is to see if there is any noise to move and using the AI tools in Lightroom I am able to see if any needs to be adjusted.
Overall I was happy with this shot, it really conveyed the power and drama of the shoot and I hope you enjoyed my thoughts behind it.
Key Takeaway: Use light and shadow to add drama to your image and once you have the shot exposed right in the field then you can make subtle adjustments to enhance this. Eating the image first before working on the sky can be advantageous however you must ensure you have the sky exposed right in the first place. Finally, watch for water splashes, or on this occasion mist.
Final Thoughts
Editing landscape photography is both an art and a science, requiring a delicate balance of technical skill and creative intuition. Through each image, we embark on a journey of discovery, uncovering the hidden depths of nature's beauty and the endless possibilities that lie within the art of post-processing.
As you embark on your editing process, remember to approach each image with an open mind and a willingness to experiment. Embrace the imperfections, celebrate the details, and above all, allow your passion for photography to guide you on your quest for visual storytelling mastery. Take a break and come back to an image after you think it is done, as more often than not you will see it in a different light as such.
Join me in this instalment of our editing journey, where we'll explore the magic of landscape photography with a view of creativity and inspiration. This episode is now live on my YouTube Channel where you can see my approach for this image.