Beginner 2nd Attempt in the Lakes

WilkyTheMarra

WilkyTheMarra

Messages
23
Name
Dave
Edit My Images
Yes
After yesterday where I finally got some useable pics, I thought I'd venture out to a location I haven't been to since I was a kid. Buttermere.

I'm not 100% happy as they were quite underexposed other than the sky and the only filters I have is an adjustable ND and a 10 stop ND.

Maybe I should've took 2 images and blended them, but I'm still learning lightroom/photoshop and don't have the skills to do that yet!

Critique welcome as this shot looked amazing in person and I don't think these done it justice but thought I'd put them "out there" anyways!





Thanks for looking,

Dave.
 
I like both of them. Do you shoot raw or jpeg. If raw you can selectively adjust the exposure for the foreground. I'm not 100% sure how to do this in lightroom or photoshop as I use Capture one pro 8 for my editing.
 
Both but only ever use the raw. I used a gradient filter on the sky in Lightroom to darken the sky a bit.

The trees to the right were quite noisy as i recovered them.
 
Maybe up the exposure first to get it to somewhere where you want it for the foreground then use the gradient on the sky. I am by no means an expert, just trying to help and I could be totally on the wrong track. TP is the place to be, there are some very knowledgable people in here.
 
I really like no 1 as it doesn't have the larger area of over exposed sky like 2. But they are both fine shots in terms of composition etc, and the conditions looked great!
 
I new I should have went over there but I was busy I suppose.

Pity about the blown areas but I suugest you clone in some other parts of the sky. I prefer the first shot as it has blown areas.

Have you sharpened them?

 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone. I think I'm my worst critic. I knew the sky was an issue.

Yes I sharpened them, do you think I went too far? Was a perfect day in the morning then got out a bit misreble.
 
There's not much wrong with the first one. A bit of blown sky and a bit of halo on the mountains but both easily corrected.

For a beginner they're outstanding. I wouldn't beat yourself up over these.
 
Very nice, I prefer 1 due to the less blown sky. The full size version is as you say, noisy due to shadow recovery and there is a halo as well, but definitely a good try. I would be tempted to clone out the two branches at the top left of 1 however.
 
The main issue for me is noise in the shadows, which is not present in the highlights, which is a sure fire give away that the ground was quite under exposed (there's always a quality pay off for recovering incorrect exposure). They're over sharpened too, which has made the noise worse. Use 'masking' when sharpening in Lightroom as this reduces the sharpening to areas that don't benefit from it, such as the sky.

Such a high contrast scene could have really done with two exposures blended together though... or careful use of a ND grad.

Great shots, but technically your exposures have let you down. They look great at screen resolutions, but when you look at the high res versions that noise is quite distracting, particularly in the first one, which is a shame, as that's the stronger shot. I suspect the second shot was opened up a bit exposure-wise, hence less noise in shadows, but more burned out highlights. You've just exceeded the dynamic range of your camera. If you printed these that noise would be quite obvious at anything over A4 I would imagine.
 
:agree:

Dave's Spot on, and great advice! Have a poke around the tutorials on sharpening and masking those will help. For a beginner they are a great start! were all forever learning!
The great thing is, if you are local to that location armed with the above info you can revisit and take another pop! its not unusual to visit locations a number of times to get the shot you want, right light, conditions etc etc.
If your not that sure you can always shoot using your exposure bracketing....
Great composition, just need that finishing touch to the exposure.
Cheers

Steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top