I almost feel embarrassed posting this here as it is such an iconic area, but it was really a delight to visit and see this area in person. I actually chose the area by looking at how light was going to fall across the region and I liked what it did to these mountains, only to arrive and realize it was a place I had seen photographed many times. I tried to get away from the standard view and find a different perspective, but this image is still similar to others you have seen. I did capture a number of more creative images, but this is the one that I’m struggling to process and so am posting here.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
My main struggle is in processing this image. I want it to feel as real as possible, not overly saturated and unnaturally dramatic, yet not flat either. The light was beginning to warm up, there was some haze in the valley and the sky was still pretty blue, but I can’t seem to balance them properly. What would you do to improve the processing on this image? I feel stuck.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I’m open to any and all feedback you might have that could make this better.
Any pertinent technical details:
I shot three exposures and combined them using Lightroom’s “Photo Merge”. The rest of the processing was also done in LR. Most of what I did was working on color balance, brightness and contrast.
I am not familiar with this location (so not iconic to me) but it looks kind of Shangri La-ish in the best of ways. The greens look really rich, but look realistic. I might clone the building along the bottom edge, but really minor stuff. Looks real good to me.
Been here before ; but did not drive high enough on a road to get this overview where you can see both churches in the valley. So iconic location but I don’t think a common vantage point, don’t think most that have not been there would even notice the famous little church in the back.
The mountain range sure looks impressive from this spot.
(I recall when I was there the first church in your frame had a couple of huge Speck (Bacon) Fest banners in front making any images nearly impossible).
You have some many shades of green and some nice soft light entering the scene. I think it looks great and just needs some dodging and burning to direct the eye I feel and give the light in the photo overall a more defined direction. Some of the brightness of the middle left area for example draws my eye but is not really where I want to be looking. I think that whole left side could use some darkening. Think you are going to have to carefully monitor the saturation of those greens as you dodge/burn though.
Personal taste type thing but sky is a little cyan for me ; would try de-saturating the blues as well as lowering their luminance in LR or do something similar using the Selective Color tool in PS. That is minor and a to taste type edit though.
Iconic area, but this feels different to me and I really like it! Those peaks are great. While I am certainly down on chasing icons, going to an awesome area and finding your own images is super fun and creatively challenging, which is what it is all about in my mind and seems to be exactly what you did. I wouldn’t be embarrassed to post this at all!
I do think it is pretty busy and I would personally do a lot of clean up. If you are open going vertical I feel like that already helps a ton with that. It also gets rid of all that space on the right that I don’t really think is adding much to the shot. It also makes the subject stand out a lot more.
This is just a super quick LR mobile edit. I love warm so that may be to much for you, but I do think you can take it further then you have and still have a natural look. Some quick dodging and burning on this as well. Still needs more cleaning up I think.
Dan’s vertical looks pretty darn good to me. Note the added space below the church at the bottom.
One thing I noticed in the original post was the different sunlight intensity in the hill vs the distant mountains. To me this difference looks unnatural. Dan has corrected this difference in the rework. As far as I can tell.
No need to be embarassed Erik, this is one of the most stunning locations in Europe for good reason. I’m not on a calibrated monitor at the moment but some of the highlights feel a bit hot. Some of the shadow on the right hand side of the mountains and under the trees feels blocked up. Fine work overall.
This revision looks great. I thought I let you know my eye is drawn to the night saturated trees in the bottom right. All good of that’s what you’re highlighting. I’d experiment with burning that area slightly so that peaks are dominant in terms of brightness and contrast.
The revisions are a nice improvement to a great image. Love the greens. My son lived in northern Italy for a few years and we took a couple of trips out to see them. Amazing area.
Icons for a reason, icons for a reason… This is a beautiful and grand landscape image.
From what you’ve presented, any and all comments/suggestions, IMHO, are tweaks and certainly not corrections to any flaw in your processing. And as we all experience, we work on an image so long we start to lose sight of small changes and it’s easy for us to jump in a make suggestions. And there have been some very good suggestions so far.
That’s me too and my typical struggle when processing. I want the image to pop (as appropriate) and yet still be believable. Sometimes that’s a fine line.
With that, I’ll add a few suggestions. To me, the shadow areas of the granite range seem a little blue to me. I’d warm it up a bit if it were mine. Also very minor, but you could desaturate the dark green in the LRC. Not a biggie at all, but I think more saturated than the open fields. Also, you could desaturate the reds of the trees at the bottom. Again, these are small, nitpicky points. Open up the mountainside on the right a smidge.
Seriously though, this is quite beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Ron, that’s all really helpful! I appreciate you taking the time to really evaluate the image and help me see what I’m missing. I’m going to go right in and try out your suggestions to see if those are the niggling things that are bothering me that I can’t put my finger on. Much appreciated!!
Both reworks are really good Erik. I think I preferred the first rework as it seems to have more punch. Although the difference is so small it’s hard to tell.
I think a nice improvement Erik ; I also prefer the first rework I think (subtle changes but not sure I like the 2nd as much) ; If primarily using LR I might apply a little negative dehire to wash out the shadows in the back a little ; area surrounding the St. Johann church. Other ways to also do that in PS that may be a little more refined but with the most recent update of LR the negative dehaze slider is much improved.
You could probably get away with accenting the light hitting those mountain peaks a little more too.
Love the scene overall, so lush, just enough contrast in light to make it be captivating, plus a beautiful landscape and some nice clouds which in this area would usually mean some of the peaks may be obscured but you all of them and their jagged points.
This is a beautiful and grand landscape image.