This is the original shot that is basically unedited. I adjusted the exposure and that is about it.
This is one of my first attempts at editing in RAW. What I wanted to do was make the trees a more dramatic, but not eerie, backdrop. I think I have made the whole shot too foreboding. Your opinion and advice is most welcome.
To get a HDR type of effect. In Lightroom
- Drop the highlights all the way to the left.
- Open the Shadows all the way to the right.
- Balance the White & Blacks in the opposite direction, until it gets the look that you want.
For me, I think the focus should be on the canoes in the water, so I would add a radial filter over the boats, and increase the exposure slightly.
Then add a Vignette, again to highlight the boats and water.
As well as the points that @deborah63 has raised you could try the Graduated Filter tool on the trees - you can then adjust the exposure,clarity, contrast, sharpness, shadows etc of just the area "highlighted" by the graduated filter
This is great - and I guess I am like a lot of people in I am doing the faffer method as well.
Thank you @deborah63@graemestevens for the technical advice. Lesson #1 - get LR rather than just PSE 14. Should add it to my toolbox! @annied@gigiflower@grammyn@jack4john
Thank you all for making me realize that I am not alone in my learning track - and that 'faffing' is all part and parcel of growing as a photographer.
I feel so much better now, LOL!
@farmreporter I am a great fan of pfaffing about - definitely the best way to learn the unexpected! Stick with learning RAW editing - the best part is being able to revisit the original untouched version of this & all your future RAW files whenever you want.I am now going back a few years of holiday snaps & finding some great gems of shots - the same shots I had been disappointed with when took them, but only because I had just started RAW editing.
here is a quick reedit & some of the settings I used - but as Graeme mentioned, the graduated filter is great for use where you want to limit edit to just the tree areas.
@farmreporter thanks for raising this wendy - and to others for their helpful responses! i have also decided i must investigate getting lightroom too - hitherto i've just had ps elements 13
@annied@grammyn I have completely forgotten how I did something so many times that I have now decided that each edit is 'intentionally' going to be 'unique' !! 😋 @farmreporter I like Julieanne Kost's teaching style for LR - see http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html. ( and look at the older ones to for getting started) Try to focus on learning just one new part of LR at a time otherwise it is easy to get over whelmed.
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- Drop the highlights all the way to the left.
- Open the Shadows all the way to the right.
- Balance the White & Blacks in the opposite direction, until it gets the look that you want.
For me, I think the focus should be on the canoes in the water, so I would add a radial filter over the boats, and increase the exposure slightly.
Then add a Vignette, again to highlight the boats and water.
Thank you @deborah63 @graemestevens for the technical advice. Lesson #1 - get LR rather than just PSE 14. Should add it to my toolbox!
@annied @gigiflower @grammyn @jack4john
Thank you all for making me realize that I am not alone in my learning track - and that 'faffing' is all part and parcel of growing as a photographer.
I feel so much better now, LOL!
here is a quick reedit & some of the settings I used - but as Graeme mentioned, the graduated filter is great for use where you want to limit edit to just the tree areas.
@farmreporter I like Julieanne Kost's teaching style for LR - see http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html. ( and look at the older ones to for getting started) Try to focus on learning just one new part of LR at a time otherwise it is easy to get over whelmed.