5 Post Processing tips for Better Landscape Photography
The power of landscapes is something magical that captures, that attract, that relaxes us. Being transported by the images of natural landscapes is something that fascinates, that allows us to imagine and transport
As a landscape photographer in shooting natural sceneries I always try to guide the viewer’s eye in the frame and post production helps to amplify this aspect towards our imagination and nature
In this article, we will see 5 Post Processing tips for Better Landscape Photography, thanks to which with some we could restore the original beauty of the scene you see or enhance that scene further and push it more toward’s imagination
1) Correct Color Cast
Color Cast can happen in several photos situations, it constitutes a somewhat unavoidable element of photography in many situations, for the white balance not always perfectly set or using an ND filter that leaves us a cast in the photo
On how to remove the color cast from a photo I published a specific article some time ago called 4 Methods to Correct Color Cast in Photoshop, the video below will show you how I removed the cast from the shot with 4 easy ways
2) Light Bleeding
This technique is very useful for enhancing the sunset colors with excellent results, through light bleeding we will literally go to painting directly within our image with the color we want to enhance
Let’s see how to do it:
Create new layer: To create a new layer, go to the button left of the trash can in the layers panel and click on it;
Select Color Picker tool: and find the color you want to enhance, when the color picker tool window will open, move the cursor to the color tonality you want to enhance;
Paint across the frame: into the new layer created on all areas you need to affect of the paint;
Change the blending mode to soft light: decrease the opacity to softener the effect;
Mask out the ares you don’t want to affect: in case you acidentally wrong with brush, just create a layer mask and paint with black the unwanted paints
3) Add Orton Effect
I like very much the magical feel created by orton effect, it’s a great way to add glow and give more impact to your image. Many times the dreamy feel of orton effect fits very good to landscape photography, increasing the dark mood and glow
I created a guide to create different types of Orton Effect, you cand find them in the dedicated article 3 different ways to Create Beautiful Orton Effect.
Below the main steps to create Orton Effect
Duplicate Background Layer: Right-click on it and choose duplicate layer or press Ctrl+J (Mac Cmd+J);
Apply Image: Navigate to Image>Apply Image. On the dialog box make sure to change the layer to background, channel RGB and select multiply;
Apply Gaussian Blur: Now on the same layer apply gaussian blur, I usually set radius between 22 and 45 it depends on the image;
Change The Blend Mode: Now change the blending mode to screen and reduce the opacity as your taste
4) Use Detail Enhancer
A very effective method to give greater impact to your photos is to add details and create beautiful textures that complete or guide the viewer’s attention through the scenery
When you apply the details enhancer remember that is a enhance that performs better when used through a selective application, for that I recommend you to read my article on this thread how to increase details selectively which you can find the related video below:
Pro Tip
A further step to the selective details enhancements is to add them through the use of the luminosity masks and apply the selection, to better understand it I created a course dedicated course to the use of the luminosity masks including the selective application of the details called Mastering Luminosity Masks
5) Dodge and Burn
Another powerful editing tool that I often use in my workflow is dodge and burn. It is a tool that allows us to emphatize some elements of the photo in a very specific way
Through the use of dodge and burn it is possible to darken or lighten some areas and following the direction of the light, thanks to this it is possible to create situations of great scenic impact. But how to create a dodge and burn filter?
Below the necessary steps:
1. Create a new layer;
2. In the new Layer dialog box select overlay and Fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray);
3. Select the dodge tool or white brush and paint all the areas that need to be lightened;
4. Select the burn tool or black brush with the same opacity and paint all the areas that need to be darkened;
If you get a look at the grey thumbnail for the “dodge and burn” layer in the Layers palette, you can see all the areas painted with black or white like the image below;
Here a before after image with dodge and burn filter applied, you can see some areas are lightened or darkened simply using paintbrush
Pro Tip
The next step to dodge and burn is to apply it to luminosity masks and avoid every change to wrong the paint over the picture, there is a specific tutorial I created about this you can find in my dedicated article How to Dodge and Burn using Luminosity Masks, below the related video:
Conclusions:
These were 5 Post Processing tips for better Landscape Photography for feel free to write me to let me know the ones you use. As always if you have any question write feel free to contact me, I am always happy to answer you!
