Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC Landscape Tutorial – Norris Geyser Basin

Welcome and thanks for checking out my latest tutorial! I haven’t put one together since using Apple’s now discontinued Aperture program, so obviously I’ve since switched to Adobe Lightroom.

These are arranged in writing format as opposed to video, so you can see the images at a larger size, and not need to pause the video to study the adjustments. You’ll be able to see the progress through the editing steps, and easily refer to previous adjustments for a before and after.

This image was taken on a winter trip to Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park in January 2016.

I used a Canon 6D with a Canon 17-40 ƒ/4L lens. This is a RAW image file, so minor adjustments do not affect the quality.

Settings: ISO 100 – ƒ/10 – 1/200s – 17mm

The first image is the untouched RAW file. Looking at the histogram, you can see the highlights in the sky are not clipping, and the blacks in the lower areas are not either. The full dynamic range is there to work with. I typically shoot with auto white balance, and it does a pretty good job. Most adjustments to white balance are done for a visual impact.

Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 11.35.37 AM

I use the white balance selector tool to pick a neutral area of gray to set the white balance. When photographing thermal features, I often choose a gray area somewhere in the steam. Doing that here gives me a slightly warmer image, which helps bring out the oranges in the water. You can also pick a point anywhere throughout the clouds. Picking a point in the darker areas of the clouds will make the image dramatically warmer, while picking a point closer to the brightest areas can give a more natural result.

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Because the sky has a much brighter range of tones than the foreground, I use a graduated filter to adjust only this area first. I set the line just touching the tops of the trees, and angle it to almost match the tree line. I only use a short gradation, instead of expanding it to fade from top to bottom. I lower the exposure a half stop, as a physical graduated neutral density filter might do. I increase the contrast slightly, then lower highlights so they aren’t clipping. I add just a touch of clarity to give the clouds a bit more definition.

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Next, I add another graduated filter, this time covering the bottom half of the image. I align it below the trees, covering everything below where the snow starts. I increase whites and highlights to brighten the snow, and lower blacks so all tonal ranges are represented. I slightly clip the blacks (lower left) so I know I’ve got a true black point.

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Using the brush tool and the shadows preset, I increase the shadows in the trees. I find this is a great slider to use to brighten up dark areas of trees.

Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 11.41.22 AMI‘ve already balanced out the contrast of the image areas using the two graduated filters, but I add just a little bit more global contrast to the overall image with a tone curve. I only go +10 with lights and -10 with darks, making the middle tones pop just a little more, without clipping anything on either end.

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This image already has a natural orange/red color, where the heat of the thermal features melts the snow and allows colorful bacteria to grow.  I increase the saturation of red, orange, and yellow slightly to bring this out more. I also added +5 to the luminance of these same colors in the same adjust box.

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Sharpening can be done before you export the image depending on where it’s going. I add just a little more to the amount and detail. I adjust masking so there’s not as much sharpening going on in the solid areas of snow. If there was noise here, that mask would reduce the noise in the large solid colored areas that don’t need sharpening.

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The lens correction tool corrects the vignetting and distortion caused by the lens. Upright adjustment should fix the leveling of the image. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.

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The camera calibration tool helps match the image you see on your computer screen to the image profile you set on your camera. Lens correction and camera calibration are set to automatically apply when I import images.

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Now that I’ve made other adjustments, I went back and checked the graduated filter in the sky again. I angled it a little more to not affect the steam cloud on the left, and lowered the exposure and blacks again to darken the clouds.
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I use a brush with the dodge (lighten) preset to brighten up the steam cloud on the left, reversing the darkening from the graduated filter in this area. Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 11.49.27 AM

Finally, I make another adjustment to the white balance, getting a slightly warmer settings. Just a little bit of warm color now shows up where the sun hits the clouds, but the darkest areas remain a natural blue/gray.

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If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

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Basics of Exposing with a Grad ND Filter

In simple terms, a neutral density (ND) filter cuts down on the light hitting your sensor. A full ND reduces exposure over the entire frame while a graduated (grad) ND reduces exposure over some of the scene. This post will go over how to set your exposure when using a grad ND filter.

If you haven’t already, check out the first post on Using Graduated ND Filters.

Exposure reduction of graduated ND4 square filter

In this soft-step grad ND, the transition between light and dark is spread out over a large area. There are also hard stop filters that have a quick transition from dark to light. Soft steps work well when there are things covering the horizon such as trees or mountains. A hard stop filter works when there is a clear horizon, like over the open ocean.

Choosing between an ND2, ND4, and ND8 filter depends on the dynamic range of the scene. In a cloudy scene where the sky isn’t much brighter than the foreground, you may only need a 1 stop reduction from an ND2 filter. On a bright, sunny day where the sky is much brighter than the foreground, you will need an ND8 to bring out details in the foreground shadows.

Of course this is just a quick, casual way of picking the right filter strength. If you’re more technical, you can meter in both the sky and the foreground and determine the number of stops between the two. Using center-weighted average metering mode works better than evaluative mode to accomplish this.

ND Filters

One of the newest additions to my ever-growing bag of gear is a set of Neutral Density (ND) filters. The graduated (grad) ND filters are used to darken bright areas of the scene, evening out the exposure. Full ND filters allow you to darken the entire frame to get a longer exposure when there is bright light.

Goja complete neutral density ND filter set with with ND2, ND4, ND8 grad and full square filters

The sensors in today’s digital cameras (and film as well) have a dynamic range that is nowhere near what we see with the human eye. This image shows the difference between a scene with and without the grad ND. The filter used is an ND8, or three stops of exposure reduction. The ND4 and ND2 can reduce the exposure by 2 and 1 stop, respectively.

Landscape scene with and without a graduated neutral density filter.

Notice how the lower parts of the image has a similar exposure, while the scene gradually darkens towards the top where it’s covered by the ND filter. This scene doesn’t show the true power of the filter because it was already evenly lit. The best use is when the sky is bright, but you still want detail in a dark foreground.

This image darkens the background and allows for a bright, flowery foreground. Without the filter to darken the sky, there would be almost no detail in the clouds and even the mountains would be much brighter. The placement of the filter here actually lowered the exposure slightly all the way down the to near the flowers.

Landscape photograph using graduated ND filter

The full ND can be used under bright light when you want a multi-second exposure, but can’t stop down the aperture or lower the ISO. The ND2, ND4, and ND8 darken the entire exposure by 1,2, and 3 stops, respectively. Below is an example of using the filter during bright, sunny conditions.

photograph of blurred water using full ND square filter

Here is an affiliate link to the filters I purchased. Goja Complete ND Filter Set on Amazon.

While they aren’t of the highest quality, they are still good for learning. In the future I plan to purchase a set of Singh-Ray filters.

Check out how to expose using your grad ND filter.

The Elements of Art – Shape

Shape

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The fourth element of art is shape. Shape is a two dimensional area formed by the other elements of art.

The photo below is an excellent example of the element of line creating circle shapes. Notice how the way the shapes are arranged across the image helps to lead the eye far back into space.

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The Elements of Art – Line

Click here to pre-order an Elements of Art in Photography physical book! (Discount for bulk orders)

The next element of art that can be used to improve your photography is line. Line is created by shapes, edges of shapes, differences in tone, or anything that makes your eye follow a path.

Line is VERY important to getting your viewer to look at your images the way YOU want them to. Lines naturally lead viewer’s eyes around. There are actual lines such as a rail, a road, or a tree. Implied lines are things like edges of a building, the line of a model’s body, or elements that are in a line but not really connected.

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The Elements of Art in Photography

Tone

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In fine art of any media, there are seven basic elements of art. There are also the principles of design, but I will get to that in another post. I learned the elements of art while studying fine arts at Young Harris College. While we only applied these to other mediums such as painting, charcoal, and pencil drawing, they are just as applicable to photography!

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