For now let show you some basic steps in post processing your photos to make them appear more "life-like" without appearing too edited. My program of choice is Adobe Light-room it is my digital darkroom. I will show you how I edited this image below to give more "Pop"
Below is a Lightroom comparison of the original image (left) and the final image.
The original image has some even lighting, but there are numerous things that I dislike about it
Dark and gloomy
Dull color
washed out sky
Not enough detail in the water
Too many shadows
The first thing that I'm going to do to the image is adjust the exposure so its a lot more natural looking. I took this image a little more under-exposed in order to capture more detail (especially in the sky). I often adjust the exposure on my images first because its also a camera function, and more light allows me to correct other aspects of the image more accurately. Have you ever cleaned your room without light? much more easier to detail when you can see what you have to work with. I adjust the exposure to +40, which is a little higher than usual, but this is a dark image.
Increasing the exposure isn't a dramatic difference; however, it makes the image easier for me to work with.
The next image has some alterations that you really enhance this photo. I increased the clarity of the photo. Increasing the clarity increases the contrast in the mid-tones of your photo; which gives more detail and attention to "gray" areas of your photograph. In this case, the reflections in the water, and the texture of the structures increased by increasing the clarity. Clarity (like many other tools in light-room/Photoshop) is a tool that you need to practice and experiment with to really get a grasp as to how it can affect your images
I also increased the contrast of the image so it doesn't appear so washed and pale. Contrast creates a greater level of separation between the whites and blacks of your photograph; in the end result it often makes your photos more dynamic.
The vibrancy and saturation was slightly increased to make the colors pop. You don't want to overdue the color saturation in your images; too much color often gives off an unrealistic look ( if your aim is to make natural looking photos). Vibrancy is a safety net for color enhancement because it intelligently only increases to color intensity of the more muted colors, instead of the whole image.
The ending result is finally coming together. There are just a few more adjustments I would like to make. The photo still looks a little too dark in the portions of the image that contains shadows. It may sound a little unique, but shadows arnt always completely blacked out; actually, I find most of the time shadows contain a lot of detail. To bring out more detail in the shadows, I'm going to significantly increase the "shadow" slider. This feature re-lights the darker portions of the image to allow more detail visibility.
You can see most of the difference in the bottom of the image by the wooden post and the leaves on the tree. The affect is almost like creating a HDR ( high dynamic range) photograph but just slightly less extreme.
The last touch I will do focuses on the sky. To selectively edit the sky I will use the paint tool. The red on the image indicates the part I focused on.
I increased the clarity to bring out more of the clouds in the sky. To create an image that fit the one I saw with the naked eye, I also increased the temperature to make the sky warmer. Lastly, the saturation was boosted to give the sky more blue; giving you the final image.
Our photographs will sometimes need some adjustments to achieve the results we want. Whether the adjustments are made before taking the photograph, or in post production. To best achieve these results you have to know how to use the tools ( camera, accessories, software) and their limitations. Please keep reading and I promise to keep you updated!
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