Landscape Photoraphy


costa777

Member
Jun 18, 2013
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Singapore
I'm a newbie in landscape photography. May I ask the following questions?

1) How to achieve the effect of black and white except yellow from the lighting as per photo in the link below? Is a specific filter to be used?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/driesel/5641421645/

2) How to achieve the effect of the sky in photos below? What filters and techniques to use?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/meleahrubino/19646440682/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cedm80be/8471569676/

Sorry if my questions sound naïve. Thank you in advance for answering.
 

Image 1 - Probably post processed in an image editing software by "editing" the other colours out except for the yellows.

Image 2 - A lot of beautiful landscape images are the result of waiting (possibly for hours on end) just for the right moment where the light is most beautiful, i.e. colour just right, level of the sun just right etc. You do not need special filters/techniques/cameras/lenses for this. Just a lot of patience, and good knowledge of lighting in an area.

Image 3 - High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging technique used to get this image.
 

Hi Costa

Sharing with you the little that I understand. Hope it is useful. Landscapes need to have an understanding of the area, a bit of exploration and google map. You seem to be more interested in a colourful sky. In this instance, you would need to find out the sunset or sunrise timing and hope for the best (weather plays a part).

1) Post processing can do this selective color. If you do PP, you can reduce the saturation and increase the color you are interested to pop up.

2) In PP, you can increase vibrancy/saturation and decrease highlights and increase shadow details. Some advice to stretch the black and white. But it depends on you how you want to present a particular shot. For OOC jpeg, use graduated ND filter (due to the buildings across the horizon) and maybe vibrant setting in your camera to help give you a better exposure and accented colors. There is a little sharping and noise reduction involved usually in my work flow.

3) There are a few methods of doing this. However, the fundamental idea is to extract as much details as possible from shadows and highlights using a HDR software. This uses a composition with several exposure, for instance +1.0ev, 0ev, -1.0ev. The exposure can be generated from 1 raw file but most take bracketing shots. I suggest trying with 1 raw shot and generating multiple exposures spanning the dynamic range you are interested in. And use these images to generate your HDR via the software. Some cameras do HDR straight as well. Note that this particular picture is probably done using a few shots and blended together (painting selected zones of different exposure into the main layer). The water seems to be a long exposure of probably 15s or more but the clouds does not look like long exposure shot. The buildings' "whiteness" is too even. I maybe wrong as I have never been to or researched about this place :)
 

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Hi Costa

Sharing with you the little that I understand. Hope it is useful. Landscapes need to have an understanding of the area, a bit of exploration and google map. You seem to be more interested in a colourful sky. In this instance, you would need to find out the sunset or sunrise timing and hope for the best (weather plays a part).

1) Post processing can do this selective color. If you do PP, you can reduce the saturation and increase the color you are interested to pop up.

2) In PP, you can increase vibrancy/saturation and decrease highlights and increase shadow details. Some advice to stretch the black and white. But it depends on you how you want to present a particular shot. For OOC jpeg, use graduated ND filter (due to the buildings across the horizon) and maybe vibrant setting in your camera to help give you a better exposure and accented colors. There is a little sharping and noise reduction involved usually in my work flow.

3) There are a few methods of doing this. However, the fundamental idea is to extract as much details as possible from shadows and highlights using a HDR software. This uses a composition with several exposure, for instance +1.0ev, 0ev, -1.0ev. The exposure can be generated from 1 raw file but most take bracketing shots. I suggest trying with 1 raw shot and generating multiple exposures spanning the dynamic range you are interested in. And use these images to generate your HDR via the software. Some cameras do HDR straight as well. Note that this particular picture is probably done using a few shots and blended together (painting selected zones of different exposure into the main layer). The water seems to be a long exposure of probably 15s or more but the clouds does not look like long exposure shot. The buildings' "whiteness" is too even. I maybe wrong as I have never been to or researched about this place :)

Thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge which is useful. I, in fact, prefer photo to be as original as possible without excessive post-processing work done to it. Otherwise, the landscape will look "fake" which I don't like. By the way, what is the best and cheap post-processing software you would recommend?





Image 1 - Probably post processed in an image editing software by "editing" the other colours out except for the yellows.

Image 2 - A lot of beautiful landscape images are the result of waiting (possibly for hours on end) just for the right moment where the light is most beautiful, i.e. colour just right, level of the sun just right etc. You do not need special filters/techniques/cameras/lenses for this. Just a lot of patience, and good knowledge of lighting in an area.

Image 3 - High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging technique used to get this image.

Thank you very much for the answers.
 

I'm a newbie in landscape photography. May I ask the following questions?

1) How to achieve the effect of black and white except yellow from the lighting as per photo in the link below? Is a specific filter to be used?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/driesel/5641421645/

2) How to achieve the effect of the sky in photos below? What filters and techniques to use?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/meleahrubino/19646440682/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cedm80be/8471569676/

Sorry if my questions sound naïve. Thank you in advance for answering.

As much as it would take skill to shoot, patience to wait for the right time of the day or month to capture... literally ALL THE LINKS PHOTOS are edited as a finish touch.

Edi to enhance colou, contrast, mood or take away colors are done with photo editing software like :Lightroom or Photoshop. That is something that is not about photography skill alone but about finishing touches that is just as important. In the old days we use enlargers to dodge and burn and colour processing.. in the modern times, this is replaces by photo editing tools.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9Kbz-P4YJXMjgRQonG3c5ExQNic85jEw Check this guy on YouTube and his channel he does a lot of stuff like that and teach you how to do it. You will notice he does a lot of what you like.
 

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I'm a newbie in landscape photography. May I ask the following questions?

1) How to achieve the effect of black and white except yellow from the lighting as per photo in the link below? Is a specific filter to be used?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/driesel/5641421645/

2) How to achieve the effect of the sky in photos below? What filters and techniques to use?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/meleahrubino/19646440682/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cedm80be/8471569676/

Sorry if my questions sound naïve. Thank you in advance for answering.

Thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge which is useful. I, in fact, prefer photo to be as original as possible without excessive post-processing work done to it. Otherwise, the landscape will look "fake" which I don't like. By the way, what is the best and cheap post-processing software you would recommend?







Thank you very much for the answers.

the answers are in the keyword tags if you've not notice about it.

I guess you pick these three photos is because it pops, isn't it?

nowadays there is no landscape photos as original as possible, people will find it too bland, nobody will want to look at them at all.


lightroom is all you need, it is very cheap if you know what it is full potential and learn to utilize it.

check out the youtube channel of Serge Ramelli
 

the answers are in the keyword tags if you've not notice about it. I guess you pick these three photos is because it pops, isn't it? nowadays there is no landscape photos as original as possible, people will find it too bland, nobody will want to look at them at all. lightroom is all you need, it is very cheap if you know what it is full potential and learn to utilize it. check out the youtube channel of Serge Ramelli

For Adobe Lightroom the way to purchase it is via the monthly subscription method right? I checked they do not sell the software for now.
 

For Adobe Lightroom the way to purchase it is via the monthly subscription method right? I checked they do not sell the software for now.



photoshop and lightroom bundle subscription is only S$13.00 per month.


do you think buying the software is cheaper? maybe, unless you don't intent to buy new camera for next 5 years, so don't need to upgrade your software at all.
 

Hi all, thanks for the great advice and info.

One more question. Is the yellowish / greenish street lighting in the photo below also a result of post processing?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hak87/13562292715/in/album-72157627452853154/

Nice one, you found a shot from a fellow clubsnapper :)

The street lighting should be in the colour you see it, though the saturation is probably tweaked
 

photoshop and lightroom bundle subscription is only S$13.00 per month. do you think buying the software is cheaper? maybe, unless you don't intent to buy new camera for next 5 years, so don't need to upgrade your software at all.

That was my primary research done from buying the software as compare to paying a monthly subscription. Thanks
 

For Adobe Lightroom the way to purchase it is via the monthly subscription method right? I checked they do not sell the software for now.

I use to buy the two products but now I pay that monthly fee and can forget about upgrading and getting the latest version each time a new version and the patches arrive. It is a small price to pay to forever having the latest versions.

That said, if you think you just want the basic editing possibility found already in the present version and you don't think you need anything more then go buy the standalone single version model. You can do with just Lightroom for more of the editing but if you want a bit more control and possibly to manipulate the photo, add text, superimposing other images and do cut out..etc. Then Photoshop is what you need to have or look for a cheap alternative that is out there.

All this depend on how creative you want to get, how much you want to learn and how far you want to take that skill with post photography production.
 

Those are due to color temperate of the street light. Some are using tungsten and some might be LED or Florescent.. Some time you would like to correct them but in some cases like this one, it actually enhance or make the photo more interesting when left the way it is..

I love the shot... hope to go Paris again and get a shot like that. The last two times I was up there it was already late night. This evening shot is really nice.
 

Hi Sammy, this is possibly a composite of 2 shots. I think Hak Liang stayed for sometime in order to have some color in the sky and for the street lights switched on. All the best for your next trip there.
 

That was my primary research done from buying the software as compare to paying a monthly subscription. Thanks

Actually, it's still possible to buy the desktop Lightroom standalone version. They just made it harder to find it.

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

Scroll all the way to the bottom and look on the right. The text with "For desktop only. Mobile capabilities not included." Do read the differences before you decide which to buy.
 

Hi Sammy, this is possibly a composite of 2 shots. I think Hak Liang stayed for sometime in order to have some color in the sky and for the street lights switched on. All the best for your next trip there.


this is how it done nowadays, it is very common that photographers stay for an hours plus to capture shots in different timing and exposures, photos we see now are mostly composite.

HDR is so yesterday.
 

This is the photo I attempted to take last year but the lighting effect is different. I was at Montparnasse tower from 5:00pm to 9:00pm, trying to capture the sunset and night views. Any reason why I can't get those colours of street lighting (other than poor sharpness of my photo)?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/travel-2007/13997873567/in/album-72157644657531142/


This is the street lighting in Paris.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/travel-2007/14181187271/in/album-72157644657531142/
 

Hi Sammy, this is possibly a composite of 2 shots. I think Hak Liang stayed for sometime in order to have some color in the sky and for the street lights switched on. All the best for your next trip there.


Thanks.. Yes I am aware of that the sky thing which could be a composite of two or he caught it in one shot in RAW and he manipulate it. Also depending on the year he was there, evening light can varied or start longer for later depending on the season. I was talking about the color temperature of the lights that was caught. I did not managed to shoot in the day and evening as I was there working so only later in the night after my work with my boss that I could go out to shoot at specific areas.

Talking about RAW, that is why I like to shoot in that mode when shots matters to me or are in places I don't often visit. They have more wider data for me to work and cook in Lightroom to bring out more latitude of tones, exposures..etc.

I don't use HDR but I love capturing dark blue skies in evening shots then a totally dark night with city lights if I have a choice. I think a lot of people over 'cook' their HDR but there are others I see who do it just right without over doing the colors, contrast..etc and ends up with a really good looking HDR shot. It is the same with those who just started to play with lightroom or Photoshop and they over edit to get as much detail out of the whites or darks and ends up with something that looks weird with artifacts..etc... but over time learn to how back on certain tweaking..etc and start to do the tweaking just right. So at the end of the day, it is all about how willing you are to learn and to consider post edit as part and parcel of a good photo.
 

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