Landscape photo editing in post-processing programs such as Lightroom, Photoshop, or Capture One is essential in creating an impactful final image in the digital age of photography. Just as film photographers must develop their negatives in a darkroom, these programs exist to assist us in bringing that flat raw file back to life.
It can also help photographers develop a signature look for their work, allowing them to stand out.
Landscape photography post-processing can be extremely detailed. Blending exposures, focus stacks, and other similar techniques are commonly used to aid in the creation of a final image. Please continue reading for some of our top editing tips to help you improve your landscape photography.
Table of Contents
1. Cropping
We should always strive to get our compositions right on camera as photographers. This means we’re increasing resolution while improving our eyes by not relying on flexibility to fix the shot later.
However, sometimes we are pressed for time or struggle to find something worth photographing, and it is only later that you realize a tighter frame is the best option. The cropping tool is your best friend in this scenario, thanks to the high resolution of modern digital cameras.
You can use the crop tool online to make drastic changes, such as finding a photo within a photo or tidying up the edges by cropping past distractions or unnecessary extra space. Even if you crop heavily, there’s usually plenty of resolution left over if you post to social media (which only displays a couple of megapixels).
If you want to bring some more pixels back to the new crop, there are good solutions for upscaling your image, such as Topaz GigaPixel or Photoshop’s built-in upscaler. A low-resolution image is preferable to no image at all. You can check Colorado landscape photography to see perfect shots for your references.
2. Enable Profile Corrections
First and foremost, navigate to the Lens Corrections panel. This is intended to correct common optical issues and is a good place to start when editing landscapes.
Every lens has distinct characteristics and flaws, such as vignetting and (barrel and pincushion) distortion. Fortunately, the software makes it extremely simple to correct; raw converters include a list of lens profiles. Simply checking the Enable Profile Corrections box causes the software to identify the lens you used when taking the photo using the embedded EXIF data and then apply adjustments to compensate for the lens’ characteristics. It is that easy.
The most noticeable corrections are usually found in ultra-wide-angle shots. These corrections, mostly mirrorless models, are ‘baked-in’ to some cameras and are applied automatically.
However, if you prefer, you can also manually apply lens corrections by switching from Profile to Manual.
3. Make the Colors Stand Out
You can use a few techniques to improve the colours in your landscape photography. To begin, navigate to the HSL tab in the Hue section during the raw conversion.
You can change the hues of the colours in your photo in this section. For example, you could shift green toward cyan to make it more emerald than yellow.
Alternatively, move the yellow slider to the left to make it more orange and distinct from the rest of the image.
We usually shift yellow to the left and sometimes orange to the left to bring out the reds in a sunrise or sunset.
It’s also safe to darker the blue and cyan in the luminance section to darken the sky and make the clouds pop. These actions have the same polarizing filter-like effect on the sky.
The crucial thing to remember here is that the saturation increases as you darken the colour. After darkening, go to the saturation tab and decrease the saturation for the same colours.
Another useful tip is to make use of the Targeting tool. Select it, click anywhere on the image and drag your mouse left or right. It will select the appropriate number of colours and adjust the sliders accordingly.
4. Get the Most from RAW Conversion
Whether photographing landscapes, portraits, or products, you should always shoot in RAW. A RAW file contains far more data than a JPEG. And they give you a lot more freedom and control over photo editing.
The other implication is that you should edit as much as possible in the RAW converter. Adobe Lightroom is the market leader. When editing during the conversion, the thousands of tones stored in a RAW file are retained for smooth tonal transitions.
5. Emphasise Light and Shadow
You’ve probably heard “dodging” and “burning” before. Dodging is selectively brightening areas of an image you want to emphasize more. This can emphasize highlights on surfaces and enhance the effect of direct or diffused light on a scene.
Burning, conversely, is the process of selectively darkening areas of an image. This can be as effective as dodging, emphasizing shadow and shape, creating custom vignettes, and reducing distracting bright areas.
Subtly combining these two techniques helps emphasize depth, shape, and light in your image. Just don’t make it too obvious, or the photo will look like a bad painting rather than a photograph.
Bottomline
Landscape photography editing is an essential component of modern digital photography. It gives the photographer more control. And photo editing allows them to be more creative in their artwork.
There is such a thing as overreacting. However, everyone has different ideas about how much is too much. The most important thing is that your landscape photos are well-edited.
We’ve provided some of the best tips for editing landscape photos. You can now replace skies and create HDR images that will wow anyone. Take your time learning the steps, and you’ll soon be a master of landscape photo editing.
