Why Do MY Landscapes Look 'Flat'?

InaGlo

InaGlo

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Glo
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Following on from yesterdays thread about posting more pics, here is one I took yesterday afternoon in North Wales.
Taken with Canon 5D & 50mm 1.4 lens.
The reason I dont post many pics isnt because Im shy of critique, far from it - its just all my pics seem to look so 'flat', as does this one here.
I dont have filters so I painted the sky with a low opacity brush with blue taken from a pic where the sky was a better hue. I tried upping the saturation but of course the green was hideous. I did burn some small areas of the scene in the distance as it looked hazy & I thought it may add a bit more depth but it doesnt seem to, finally I sharpened.
Id like to know what I could have done if anything, to improve the picture either in camera or in processing, composition... anything really.
Ooh & dont bother being gentle, landscapes arent 'my thing' so you can be as critical as you like ;)
Picture-26637--web.jpg
 
This is something I'll be interested in too.

So is the picture above after you have tweaked it? If so it is probably best to post the original so the wizards can start from scratch.

You could even go to www.yousendit.com and upload the RAW and put the link here for download ;)
 
DOnt know what to do to make it look better but I do notice that you have 2 specs of dust on your sensor just above the horizon line rightof centre and just left of centre.
 
Inaglo can you resize that to 800 pixels longest side please. :)

I think you're being a bit hard on yourself, that's not bad at all. It does seem very soft and is crying out for some sharpening which will lift it a lot. Looking at the shadows I'd guess it was taken mid afternoon teatime ish? It could be worse ...the worst time is noon when the sun is overhead and the light is really flat with no shadows being cast.

The best landscapes tend to be taken very early morning and later in the evening when the light is altogether a different quality with long shadows being cast to give modelling to your scene, which is why lazy photographers like me don't get to do many landscapes. ;)

It would be handy to have some exposure info for this shot, but one of the best things you can do for landscapes is use a tripod.
 
3.jpg



Cedrics right ya know, best time for shooting landscapes is early morning, late evening. The light generally has a better colour, there is more interest in the sky. During the day with bright direct sunlight there are too many harsh-edged shadows and the colour of the light is far too blue and cold (may sound a bit paradoxical that one)

I've had a bit of a fiddle with it, as seen above, to try to put a bit of contrast back into the scene and boost the colours a touch....

1) Created a new layer, then de-saturated and inverted it, overlayed at 100% opacity then blurred with gaussian blur at about 150px, flattened image.

2) added two adjustment layers, curves and selective colour. Put in a shallow s shaped curve to deepen darker tones further and boost the highlights a touch. Used selective colour to boost the greens and blues a smidge and try to knock some of the cyan UV haze out.

3)flattened image, sharpened at 20,30,0

4) duplicated layer again, high pass filter @1.5px, overlay and flatten

5) re-sized and framed.

Hope you like it!
 
Your right Robert, silly me... here's the original & will go check You sendit ...


Copy-of-Picture-26637-websi.jpg



Sorry CT, will do ... 'I have 800 on the longest side' etched into my brain, obviously my brain wasnt working, lol!

I dont have a tripod yet, Its on my ever-growing wishlist though.
Your right about the time, I was going to stay longer & try for some sunsets but I was still wearing those 3" mules, tut! Walking through nettles & sheep doings with your bare feet on display is kinda silly, just ask Matty, he'd know all about it ;)
 
:LOL: Forget the glamour - dump the heels, get some sensible shoes (sorry) old jeans, and just generally engage scruff mode so you can kneel down, lie down, climb onto fences, or do whatever you have to do to look for the angle for your shot. One of the commonest mistakes is to take all your shots standing up. Just getting low with this shot might have given you enough foreground interest to put the shot in another league. :)
 
Gandhi said:
3.jpg



Cedrics right ya know, best time for shooting landscapes is early morning, late evening. The light generally has a better colour, there is more interest in the sky. During the day with bright direct sunlight there are too many harsh-edged shadows and the colour of the light is far too blue and cold (may sound a bit paradoxical that one)

I've had a bit of a fiddle with it, as seen above, to try to put a bit of contrast back into the scene and boost the colours a touch....

1) Created a new layer, then de-saturated and inverted it, overlayed at 100% opacity then blurred with gaussian blur at about 150px, flattened image.

2) added two adjustment layers, curves and selective colour. Put in a shallow s shaped curve to deepen darker tones further and boost the highlights a touch. Used selective colour to boost the greens and blues a smidge and try to knock some of the cyan UV haze out.

3)flattened image, sharpened at 20,30,0

4) duplicated layer again, high pass filter @1.5px, overlay and flatten

5) re-sized and framed.

Hope you like it!
Click to expand...
WOW!
Thanks for taking the time to 'fiddle' Gandhi... tis much appreciated, as is your explanation of how you did it.
Thats exactly the richness I was trying to get. Ill have a look at some of my other captures & try giving them the same treatment and see if I can get the similar sort of results.
Thanks again!(y)

Double Agent, hadnt noticed the sensor dust.... oooh no:bang:
Didnt want to have to go down the road of sensor-cleaning just yet, Im only just learning how to press the button for heaven sake!;)
 
He! he! youre right CT.... Im going to get some 'flatties' and go back again and see if I can better it.
I do get down & dirty though & have clambered many a gate in my heels ... though its damned uncomfortable & I must look pretty silly doing it, lol!
There was foreground interest initially... couple of sheep but they rudely turned their backs & refused to oblige, so I cut the ignorant buggers off! :LOL:
 
The reason this one looks so flat, is simple. You've taken the shot looking directly across a valley.

The part where the ground is rising away from you occupies more than two thirds of the image and that makes it look 'flat'. Also, the line of trees nearest the camera on the downslope - you can't tell how big they are because its virtually impossible to determine how far away from they camera they are.

Don't know if you're using zoom or not, but I'd try to avoid that (excessively, at least) on landscape shots. Not that you should ever use zoom just to save yourself a walk anyway, but it can tend to 'flatten' everything.
 
Good job there by gandhi. :) Here's another take on it using a fudged HDR technique... creating three TIFFS from your jpeg. You probably don't have the software for this anyway, but it does show the detail which can be extracted from an image. The sky has gone a bit weird which wouldn't have happened if the HDR had been done from RAW to TIFF in the first place.

Inaglo_001.jpg




Don't get disheartened... Rome In A Day and all that. You have a great camera in the 5D, and my Wish List is still quite depressing - just keep taking pics, the penny will drop.
 
InaGlo said:
Double Agent, hadnt noticed the sensor dust.... oooh no:bang:
Didnt want to have to go down the road of sensor-cleaning just yet, Im only just learning how to press the button for heaven sake!;)
Click to expand...

Check the lens itself first, could be a dried raindrop or something - it's best to check the obvious first before poking around the camera's internals
 
It's a nice view and possibly just something in the foreground, boulder, tree even a pwetty flower would have helped, along with as already suggested getting lower.
I had a quick play (hope you don't mind) and also used photomatix....but just one file and tone mapping. Then in cs2, curves shadow/highlight, levels and contrast with a little blur.

picture26637webacopy4tq.jpg


Just keep shooting and eventually it'll all come together.
 
I hope this doesn't come across sounding harsh or negative (you all know I'm friendly really :LOL: ) but the main reason that your shot is not as good as you'd like it to be is that it doesn't really work.

I think that while landscape looks like it should be a fairly easy branch of photography to get to grips with, it's actually one of the hardest and most frustrating. A good landscape shot needs great light and it's just not there in that photo.

Don't be at all disheartend though, if you talk to any of the folks here that have posted shots you've liked, I'll wager that for every one that looks good they have a hundred that just didn't work out. I certainly know that there is probably a landfill site somewhere brimmed full of stuff that I thought was going to look great but left me feeling flatter than the light I tried to shoot it in.

The keys to getting hold of it are tons and tons of practise (as with all things) and reading some of the more insprirational books that can help guide you along the right path. For me the best book ever written on the subject is Charlie Waites "The Making of Landscape Photographs". It's cover to cover jaw dropping images and it manages to teach and inspire without the need for any techno waffle.
 
Thanx guys to all of you for all taking the time to play with my image. (y)
Id have honestly been quite chuffed if I could have produced any one of those post-processing.
I do understand what Dazzajl is saying about landscapes now, I guess I just didnt expect to have to work so hard when mother nature had laid it all on a plate before me.
Ill look out for the book, Im in a book club so might find it in there. Landscapes will never be 'my thing' but I still want to be able to have some shots I can feel proud of, from my travels & when Im out & about etc.
So Im sure I'll be posting a lot more 'flat' images, dodgy horizons, lack of point of interest, etc. ...before I manage to nail it!
 
I've just ordered the book so hoping for a good read with some landscape improvements:)
 
I struggle with landscapes, so i might order a copy myself.

Where abouts was the image taken out of interest?

Is your lens fitted with a Uv filter at all?
they can help to reduce the haze a little.

I know you have it on your wish list already but a tripod must be your next buy, then you'll be able to eliminate the evil shake too.

It's a nice image all the same, I think i'd have gone down the hill a little and tried to get the background framed against the valley.
 
Gandhi said:
1) Created a new layer, then de-saturated and inverted it, overlayed at 100% opacity then blurred with gaussian blur at about 150px, flattened image.
Click to expand...

Hi

Trying to follow along at home but can't work this bit out - de-saturated and invert it.

Does that mean add a hue / Saturation Layer and take the saturation down to 0 so that it goes black and white, then click on Layer - Change Layer Content and invert? I just get a very strange moon scape at this? what am I doing wrong (Its been a hard day :D )

Thanks Allan

OK I got it - the secret is the Overlay bit :) - think I need some sleep
 
Had a bit of a mad frenzy adjusting this , not sure if it works or not but at least its stopped me from bothering the wife ;)

landscape.jpg
 
D.F ... I took the pic on 'Horse Shoe Pass' Llangollen.
Ive just ordered the above book from Amazon, so looking forward to getting my mitts on that tomorrow.
I dont have any filters as yet, all I have so far is the body & a 50mm 1.4 lens.
My £200 Canon cashback arrived with this morning's post, so that will go nicely toward some equipment. Of course now the dilema starts what do I want/need most ... a macro, tripod, or wide angle :thinking:

Thanks MrGrubby for your take on the pic too, and Sean, thanks for the link. It is book-marked for me to check out later!
 
Well this is the simplest one....I just adjusted the levels and that is all.
You can see what a difference it has made.
Obviously a tad of sharpening would help too....but levels (or curves) will surprise you with the difference it can make.

Landscapetest.jpg
 
I just stick to photographing squaddies - loads easier...


Take only Jewellery, leave all your rubbish, kill everything that moves...
 
had a quick scan through and i don't think anyone has mentioned it but you are using a 50mm prime lens? landscapes are better at wider angles like
< 18mm, 50mm isn't really a lens for landscapes, or so im led to believe,
 
Langdale said:
had a quick scan through and i don't think anyone has mentioned it but you are using a 50mm prime lens? landscapes are better at wider angles like
< 18mm, 50mm isn't really a lens for landscapes, or so im led to believe,
Click to expand...
Yeah youre right, Im just playing really, not tried landscapes before so not ready to rush out & buy a wide angle yet.
Shhh! I think the guys are kind of humouring my efforts with me playing with what I have! ;)
 
InaGlo said:
Shhh! I think the guys are kind of humouring my efforts with me playing with what I have! ;)
Click to expand...

I could read that quite out of context if i tried a little less :LOL:
 
good advice on how to do landscapes. I tried the above on a couple of mine and greatly improved them :)
 
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