u/thephlog

Wanted to give this bird shot a much darker and colder look while recovering some of the darker details in the bird. I’m really happy with how this one turned out! As always that’s some super heavy editing so this certainly isn’t for everyone. Keep in mind my goal isn’t to keep the image “natural”

Everything was done in Lightroom and can bee seen in this start-to-finish editing video: https://youtu.be/9f-0lbbu9rI

1. Basic Adjustments

First, I denoised the image, applied heavy cropping (cant be seen here in the before version, but it was shot in 4:3 not 3:4) and removed the out of focus tree branch at the bottom.

Then, the exposure and the highlights were dropped to make the bright background darker. To recover details in the subject the shadows and blacks were raised. The white balance was slightly to warm, to fix that I dropped it a bit to make sure I have some nice blue tones in the background.

For a clean and sharp looking image, texture, clarity and dehaze was slightly increased.

2. Masking

Here is where the biggest transformation happens. First, I had to make the background darker and colder without affecting the subject. I used and objects mask in combination with a landscape mask to select bird + tree branches, then inverted this mask which results in the perfect background mask. Since there usually are fine white lines around more complex masks, I used the newly added edge and feather slider to clean that up.

Once the mask was set up, I brought down exposure and temperature to make it darker and colder. Then, I duplicated that mask (save some time not creating new masks) and slightly adjusted positioning / subtracting other masks and continued making the background darker by dropping the exposure / temperature. I made sure to not darkern the upper left corner since I also wanted to create a light effect coming in from this corner!

To improve the light effect I placed a radial gradient over the corner and subtracted the subject from it (I want the light to be BEHIND the bird), then simply raised the exposure, blakcs and whites to add light.

I also added some light on the upper part of the bird using a subject mask for the upper half of it by raising the exposure.

3. Colors

Finally, I pushed the blue saturation slightly to give the colors some pop

Witnessed a beautiful sunset at one of my favorite local spots. My goal was to make the whole shot a lot softer while still keeping some of the strong contrast in the foreground (not the middle part!) without any clipping in the highlights or shadows.

Everything was done in Lightroom and the whole process can be seen in the video here: https://youtu.be/Tagq_sSXuRs

1. Basic Adjustments

First, I cleaned up all the distraction using the remove tool. Then, I brought up the exposure to make sure I have details in the shadows. I also increased blacks and shadows to make sure there is no clipping. At that point the brighter parts were blown out. To fix that, I simply dropped the highlights.

The white balance of the original shot was way off. I brought down the temperature to get a nicer color balance with some blue tones in the darker parts of the sky. For the dreamy glow, I dropped the clarity and the dehaze slightly.

2. Masking

Using a color range mask I targeted the blues of the sky at the top and made them slightly darker and a bit more intense by bringing down the temperature slider. Since the foreground felt too bright, I used a linear gradient covering it and simply pulled down the exposure.

Then I used two radial gradients to bring in some light from the left side. Here, I added exposure and blacks while dropping the highlights to make sure not to lose details in the bright sky.

3. Color Grading

I wanted the image to be well saturated so in the color mixer I pushed  the saturation for the main colors of the image: orange yellow and blue. Then, I added a healthy amount of split toning to the highlights and shadows (warmer colors)

I came across this jetty with a small building at the end and waited for the lights to come on to get some cool blue hour shots from this spot. The clouds were super dramatic so I decided to also go for a long exposure. In this case I exposed for 2 minutes and ended up this this image!

It was shot on my Sony A7III at 16mm, F/8, ISO 200 and 120s exposure

Photoshops Camera Raw Editor has received a new glow slider in its newest update and I used it to give the raw file a much more dreamy look. I’m aware this might be way too much for a lot of people but I really love the results and had tons of fun with the new glow effect :D

You can see the whole editing process in the video here (with the raw files to test it) https://youtu.be/ly6pUpzXWYc

1. Basic Adjustments

First,  I merged an HDR out of 5 different exposures since I wanted to have nice details in the brightest and darkest parts of the image. After that, I brought up the exposure, shadows and blacks to make the base image brighter. To not blow out the sky I dropped the highlights a bit. For stronger colors vibrance was added.

Also, I added some texture to give details more sharpness. At the same time I brought down clarity and dehaze to give the image a dreamy look. Here is where I also added a global glow effect through the new glow slider. Its important to set the glow style to bloom for a softer effect.

2. Masking

Then, a radial gradient was added over the bright spot in the sky. Here, I brought up the blacks reduced the dehaze and added a little more glow to make the effect stronger in that spot.

Using a linear gradient I brought up the contrast in the foreground making it look a bit clearer. I also targeted the water itself using a landscape mask and adde clarity and texture to it.

3. Color grading

In the color mixer I slightly brought down the yellow hue since I prefer the warmer orange tones. I also raised the blue saturation slightly. Using some split toning I added a very saturated warm tone to the highligthts and a colder color to the mid tones.

I hiked this super cool ridge in the Austrian alps and waited for golden hour for the light. With a bit of Lightroom I gave it some more intense, dreamy and warm light.

As usual the whole process can be seen in the video here alogn with the raw photo to give it a try yourself: https://youtu.be/ATI6TkPWb7Q

1. Basic Adjustments

For the profile I used adobe Ladnscape for more base saturation. The exposure was brought down slightly, as well as the highlights, while the whites and the blacks were increased. To emphasize the warmer tones, the white balance temperature was raised slightly. Plus I also increased saturation and vibrance. Finally, I added texture for a sharper look as well as some clarity.

2. Masking

First, I used a landscape mask to select the mountains in the background. Here I added a little more contrast. Then, I used another landscape mask for the mountains in the back once more (but only targeting the bottom, basically the valley behind the foreground) and made it a lot darker by dropping the exposure.

Using two different object masks, I targeted the bright and dark sides of the hill in the foreground and made them a little brighter / darker to emphasize contrast.

3. Color Grading

With the color mixer I dropped the orange and yellow hue to shift the colors slightly. I also boosted the saturation of the orange and green tones. Finally, I added a bit of warmth to the highlights through split toning.

This tiny sunflower field was right in front of my yard so of course I had to take a photo. If you’re wondering why the original raw image is so dark: I initially planned to merge an HDR photo from multiple exposures, but since it was windy and I was relatively close to the sunflowers every bit of movement makes the exposure blending process almost impossible. So I took on of the darker frames and recovered it in Lightroom.

The whole process in video format along with the raw photo to try it yourself can be found here: https://youtu.be/HAYs3bjDZMM

1. Basic Adjustments

The first step was to heavily raise the exposure until I had some visible details in the shadows. I also raised the blacks, the shadows and the whites to make the image even brighter. To not blow out the sky, the highlights were dropped.

For a warmer look, I adjusted the white balance bringing up the temperature. Also vibrance and saturation was increased for stronger colors. For more sharpness, I added texture while I dropped clarity and dehaze for a glowing, soft look.

All these basic adjustment result in heavy noise (since I recovered a lot of details from the underexposed shadows). To fix that AI denoise was applied.

2. Masking

Using a color range mask the top part of the sky was made darker without affecting the clouds. This way I can add some nice contrast. Then, I used a radial gradient covering the horizon level of the image. Here, I wanted to add extra glow, so I increased the blacks and dropped the dehaze some more. Also, added some temperature to make the glow warmer.

With another color range masks I targeted the two sunflowers in the foreground and made them slightly brighter by bringing up exposure and the whites.

3. Color Grading

Since I’m not a big fan of those regular yellow tones I brought down the yellow hue as well as the orange hue. Plus, the blue hue was also slightly reduced for slightly stronger cyan tones in the sky. I wanted the image to become more colorful, so the saturation of orange yellow and blue was increased as well.

Through the luminance panel I made the sunflowers a bit brighter by raising the yellow and green slider.

Finally, with a bit of split toning the highlights were made MUCH warmer while I added a subtle blue tone to the shadows.

Found this really cool looking tree and added a dreamy, soft effect through Photoshops Camera Raw Editor. In case you’re wondering why the original raw file is so dark: I first wanted to go for exposure bracketing creating an HDR file, but it was SUPER windy and the moving tree branches wouldn’t line up for the exposure blending parts. Instead I exposed for the highlights (ETTR) since we can easily recover shadows in post. So the underexposed raw file is indeed intended.

All of the raw adjustments were done in the camera raw editor (since it currently has a few features lightroom doesn’t have yet) and the whole process can be watched here: https://youtu.be/2r13jZ8jEGM

1. Basic Adjustments

First, I denoised the image to prevent any noise from showing up when recovering the shadows. To bring up the base saturation, I used the Adobe Landscape profile. To fix the brightness, the exposure was raised A LOT. At the same time the highlights were brought down to prevent blown out sky. For further details in the darker parts, I raised the blacks and the shadows.

To emphasize golden hour, I brought up the white balance temperature and adjusted the tint. Then, added vibrance and saturation. For extra glow the dehaze was reduced gently.

2. Masking

I started with a sky mask and made the edges softer through the feather slider (new in Photoshop, not yet in Lightroom) This makes it so the mask spills over into the foreground. Then, I brought up the blacks and dropped the dehaze. This adds a super cool glow effect coming from the sky.

Using and objects mask I selected the tree itself and added a bit of clarity to give the tree more contrast. I also used a color range mask targeting the blues of the sky and made them slightly darker.

3. Color grading

The hue of the yellows and blues were dropped, shifting more into a orange / teal color range. I also brought up the yellow and blue saturation. For further contrast, the luminance of orange and yellow were increased and the blues were dropped.

Finally, I used split toning to add a warm color to the highlights and brought down the blue primary hue to further shift the colors.

Wanted to create a more dreamy, glowing version of this strawbale long exposure and I’m really happy with the results here! The shadows are indeed very bright, but I prefer it over deeper shadows. It helps a lot in achieving the soft, glowing effect.

Everything was done in Lightroom and the whole process can be followed in thid video (together with the raw photo if you want to try it yourself!) https://youtu.be/q_i_Dulu8nY

1. Basic Adjustments

For this shot I used Adobes Adaptive profile (AI Profile) which already balances the highlights and shadows quite nicely. Then, the exposure was slightly dropped to make the base image darker while I raised the shadows and blacks for a bit less contrast. For the warmer look the temperature was raised. Also vibrance and saturation was increased for stronger colors.

I added texture for sharpness and dropped clarity and dehaze for a subtle glow effect (kind of further reducing contrast).

2, Masking

First, I targeted the field in the foreground (without the bales and the shadows of these bales) then intersected it with a radial gradient. By increasing the exposure I made the area brighter and gave the whole field a pretty natural looking light effect and increasing contrast between field and bales this way.

Using a color range mask I made the bleus of the sky a little darker, adding further contrast between sky and clouds. Then, I used a sky mask and subtracted a linear gradient leaving only the bottom of the sky selected which I made brighter. This helps separating the strawbales from the background.

3. Color Grading

I carefully increased the orange hue to give the foreground more natural yellow tones. I also brought up the orange luminance to make the field a little brighter. Then, the blue luminance was dopped adding more contrast to the sky.

Finally, I used split toning to add warmth to the highlights

Found a cool spot for another minimalistic long exposure. Again, I heavily played around with the colors since I love the warmer tones for images like that. Its not about keeping the photos “natural or realistic” I just had fun editing it and I’m really happy with the final version.

Everything was done in Lightroom, you can see the whole process from start to finish in this video (along with the raw photo to try it yourself) here: https://youtu.be/OLot_CwlGHQ

1. Basic Adjustments

To start, the profile was changed to adobe landscape to bring up the saturation. Then, I heavily brought up the exposure making the shot brighter. At the same time I reduced the highlights to not blow out any of the bright parts I the sky. I also raised the shadows and the blacks to create a softer look. To make the base image warmer, the white balance temperature was increased. Also, the vibrance and saturation was brought up a bit.

Finally, I added a bit of texture for extra sharpness, then dropped the clarity and dehaze to add a bit of subtle glow.

2. Masking

The water surface wasn’t looking that good to me. So I used a linear gradient to target the bottom left side and further brought down the exposure making it darker. Then, with a landscape mask the whole water surface was targeted, and the texture heavily increased to give the water some “grainier look”

I also added a linear gradient covering the top left corner of the sky. Again, I dropped the exposure to make it a bit darker.

For the center I used a couple of differently sized radial gradients and brought up exposure, blacks and temperature while dropping the dehaze slightly. This makes these areas brighter, but also adds a warm glow effect on top.

3. Color Grading

In the color mixer the yellow hue was dopped to turn all yellow tones a little more orange. I also slightly dropped the blue hue for a stronger cyan color in the sky.

Using split toning a strong warm orange tone was added to the highlights, mid-tones and the global color wheel. While I added a cold blue tone to the shadows. Also, in the split toning panel I brought down the luminance of the shadows and mid tones while increasing the highlight luminance adding a nice contrast to the image.

My weather app predicted nice cloud coverage for this spot so I wanted to shoot the sunset with a nice vibrant sky above this little chapel yesterday evening. Unfortunately, there were no clouds. To not head home without any images I still captured a few shots. I’ve been playing around with this image in particular for the past few hours not knowing what to do with it (since I was hoping for different light and conditions). Finally, I decided to go for a “Wes Anderson Look” with super soft contrast, a bit of glow and pastel colors.

1. Basic Adjustments

First off, I wanted to reduce contrast. For that I brought up the exposure A LOT making everything brighter. To prevent clipping in the sky I dropped the highlights and whites pretty much all the way and I also raised shadows and blacks heavily to further reduce contrast. This helps a lot achieving a much softer looking image.

The base raw image was way to cold, to fix this, the temperature was raised. I also brought up the vibrance to make the colors a bit more intense.

Finally, the texture was increased for sharpness, while clarity and dehaze were dropped to add a soft glow on top.

2. Masking.

I only needed a bunch of linear gradients to balance the blues of the sky. The left side was a bit too dark so I made it brighter and also made the blues a little less saturated. The right side was too bright so I made it slightly darker.

Also, I added a radial gradient creating a bit of glow coming in from the right side by increasing the blacks and dropping the dehaze.

3. Color Grading

For the “Wes Anderson Look” I brought down the blue hue first to introduce more cyan to the sky. Besides that, the yellow and green hue were also dropped. Then, I decided to drop the saturation of yellow, green and blue.

Using some split toning  I warm color was added to the highlights and mid tones of the image. And finally, I dropped the blue primary hue and raised its saturation in the calibration panel (and of course removed my hand in Photoshop :D )

I came along this very cool spot with this tree standing in the water. As you can see comparing the before and after shot there was quite a bit of editing involved, removing things in the foreground and create a sort, warm look. Before people begin posting about keeping photos “nAtUrAl”, I enjoy heavily editing MY images. If that not something you like that’s fine, too. Just accept not everyone has the same goals with their photos.

Everything here was done in Lightroom and the whole process was recorded in a video here (you can also download the original raw file here to try it yourself) https://youtu.be/pE02CKxjiZ8

1. Basic Adjustments

First, I cropped the image (not visible here in the before shot) and cleaned up the foreground using Lightrooms remove tool. Then, I changed the used profile to Adobe Standard for a less contrasty base image. For the airy, warm look the shot needed to be brighter. The exposure, the whites, the blacks and shadows were raised for that purpose. Then, I slightly dropped the highlights in order to stop the brightest parts from blowing out.

For more intense color the vibrance and saturation was pushed a bit. Then, I brought up texture for sharpness and dropped clarity and dehaze slightly to add a glowing look on top.

2. Masking

On the foreground I added a linear gradient adding more clarity and texture to make give the rocks below the water surface more punch. I also dropped the temperature to make it slightly colder and dropped the saturation a bit.

Using a color range mask in combination with a linear gradient I made the top right corner a bit brighter and adjusted the colors through the temperature slider to reduce the effect of the polarizing filter I used.

Using another linear gradient this time on the top left side, the sky there was made slightly darker to balance both sides.

3. Color Grading

In the Tone curves red channel the highlights were shifted further towards the reds and in the blue channel the highlights were slightly dropped to the yellows, resulting in a warmer look overall.

With the color mixer, I slightly shifted the yellow colors into the orange color range and brought down the purple and blue hue to give the sky stronger cyan tones. Then, I pushed the yellow saturation.

Finally, for some split toning the highlights received a warmer color, as well as mid tones and the global color wheel.

I recently learned there is a popular spot to watch fireflies nearby. Never have I seen them in person, so of course I had to check that out. As the sun set more and more fireflies started the glow in the dark like tiny LED Lights.

I started photographing the scene at F/1.8, ISO 200 and and exposure time of 8 seconds and kept the camera going for a while. Once back home as I checked the images, I saw I got a relatively clean shot of this random couple standing there in the middle of the trail which I think makes this scene a lot cooler!

Had this bird shot on my hard drive since winter. Since its currently brutally hot here in Germany, I decided to cool myself down with a cold bird edit :D As always keeping it “natural” is not my goal when editing images. I love to play around with extremer adjustments so obviously this wont be something for everyone!

Everything was done in Lightroom, you can watch the whole process and download the raw file to try it yourself here: https://youtu.be/NXfrpjDfzDA

1. Basic Adjustments

I changed the profile to Adobe Landscape for more base saturation. Then, I brought up the exposure, shadows and blacks to make the image brighter and reduce overall contrast. This results in a softer looking photo. I also brought down the highlights so the background of the base image isn’t pure white.

To make the colors pop I added a bit of vibrance. Finally. I added texture and clarity for more sharpness and mid-tones contrast while also dropping the dehaze gently introducing some glow to the shot.

2. Masking

Using masks I transformed the image a bit more heavily. I wanted to make the background darker and colder, so the warmer subjects stands out more through color contrast.

I used a couple of linear gradients coming in from each side (except the top right corner where the light coming down) and always subtracted the subject with the help of an objects mask, then brough down the exposure and dropped the temperature to make it colder and darker.

I also used an objects mask to target the subject itself and give it a little more texture and saturation. I also brought the temperature up slightly to give the bird warmer colors.

3. Color Grading

The yellow hue was brought down gently, introducing more orange tones. I also dropped the green hue all the way to eliminate the greens in the image ( I just don’t like them here). Also, the blue hue was dropped to introduce a stronger cyan look in the background.

To balance the colors, saturation of yellow and orange was reduced and blue was increased.

 

Every now and then I love to work with super over-the-top-colors like I did for this long exposure shot. I wanted to create intense orange tones while slighty shifting the blues into the cyan color range and overall add a dreamy look on the scene. Keep in mind: For me I don’t want or need to keep the image “natural” or how it was on location. I enjoy edits with more intense colors.

Everything was done in Lightroom, if you’re interested in seeing the whole workflow I have a video on it with raw file to follow along here: https://youtu.be/O4aLhnEXQNc

1. Basic Adjustments

After cropping the image and cleaning up sensor spots, vignetting and other distracting objects (not visible here in the before image) I changed the profile to Adobe Landscape for more base saturation.

The raw file was a bit too dark, so I brought up the exposure and I also raised the blacks to lower the overall contrast which helps for a dreamy, soft look. At that point the brighter areas were too bright, to fix that I brought down the highlights.

The white balance temperature was raised to make the image feel warmer. I also raised the tint since there was a slight green color cast because of the ND-Filter I used. I also brought up the vibrance and saturation to give the image way stronger colors.

Finally, I added texture for a sharper look, at the same time I brought down clarity and dehaze to add a subtle glow effect.

2. Masking

Using a linear gradient I made the top right and bottom right side of the image slightly darker by dropping the exposure. This helps to make the subject stand out a little more. I also made the blue parts of the sky darker using a color range mask and further dropping the exposure.

For morel ight and glow coming in from the left I used different radial gradients adding a bit of blacks and reducing the dehaze for glow. I also added some more temperature and saturation to make the colors stronger in the brighter area.

3. Color Grading

In the HSL panel the yellow hue was brought down slightly shifting all yellow toens of the image more into the orange color range. I also brought down the blue hue a bit for stronger cyan tones. In the saturation panel I brought up yellow and orange while dropping the greens to make the water look “cleaner”.

With a bit of split toning I added even more warmth to the highlights and the global color wheel while keeping a bit of color contrast by adding a cold color to the mid tones of the image.

Letztes Wochenende habe ich hier den "perfekten" Spot gefunden um den Sonnenuntergang zu fotografieren. Nachdem ich ein paar Schritte gelaufen bin, konnte ich die Sonne schön mittig zwischen den beiden Bäume platzieren. Die Schatten der Bäume sind die perfekten Leading Lines!

Um den Sonnenstern-Effekt zu erzeugen habe ich das Foto bei 16mm Brennweite mit Blende F/16 fotografiert (weiter offen und die "strahlen" verschwinden)

Since its spring time again there are tons of rapeseed fields here in southern Germany. I love photographing them because of their bright yellow color. This works especially well in combination with darker skies. So for this long exposure, I wanted to create a dark, grim edit.

1. Basic Adjustments

If you’re wondering why the base image is so bright, that’s because I set up the exposure as high as possible to keep details in the shadows without blowing out highlights (ETTR). This helps immensely when applying heavier edits like in this case. I started by dropping the exposure to make everything darker. I also dropped the highlights to recover more details in the sky. Then, I slightly brought up the shadows and the blacks.

I gently pushed the vibrance, but the color where already quite good imo. I also added texture for sharpness while dropping clarity and dehaze for a subtle glow effect.

2. Masking

Once the base was set up I transformed the image with masking. The goal was to make the top part of the sky much darker and introduce a much grimmer look this way. I started with a simple sky mask and added a bit of clarity and contrast while also slightly dropping the white balance temperature for a colder look. Then I used a bunch of differently sized linear gradients at the top and brought down the exposure to make the top darker.

I also added some light to the bottom of the sky on the left side for more dynamic. Then, I used a combination of linear gradients to add a bit of light and shadow to the rapeseed field itself.

Yes, after the masking adjustments, there is a bit of a halo around the trees. I could have gone a bit more gentle on the darkening of the sky to prevent that or try to fix that in Photoshop, but to me its not that big of an issue for online purposes. Might fix that if I ever print it.

3. Color grading

As I said I already was quite happy with the colors. The only thing I changed was in the color mixer where I brought up the luminance of the yellow and green tones to add some morelight to the foreground. I also dropped the blue luminance for a deeper sky.