How to edit your Landscape Images without overdoing it
Photo editing is such a big part of modern digital photography, and it’s probably the best way to set yourself apart from other photographers. Although there shouldn't be a competition between us creatives, it’s still nice to hear when someone recognizes your shots out of the thousands of others.
Many questions I get from my students are about how to make sure that you do not overprocess your images, and that’s an excellent one.
It’s also a tough topic to be honest because everyone’s taste is different, and every single person has another opinion about when a photo is overprocessed and when it’s not.
Perhaps you’re a big fan of super crazy skies with bold colors and lots of contrast, which is totally fine, but someone else might think that it looks unnatural and overdone.
I’m sure you understand what I’m trying to explain here. There is no written manual about how to edit your shots without overprocessing them, but there are some signs that can occur which tell you that you might have overdone it a bit.
I’m now going to show you some simple methods on how you can make sure that your shots are not over-processed for your own taste, and maybe for some other people’s as well.
Watch out for any kind of halos
Let’s start with a simple but also important sign to pay attention to. Halos/fringing can happen on any contrasty edge in your image when applying too much micro-contrast or sharpening effects to it. It’s a big warning which tells you that you might have overdone it a bit.
100% zoom, noise in the dark tones is often a sign for overdone editing as well
Mostly we’re talking about “white fringing,” which happens many times when you’re downsizing/sharpening your photo for the web.
It can also occur when you apply too much clarity in Adobe Camera RAW/Lightroom as it enhances micro-contrast globally.
There is a slight dark halo around the church tower because of too much Orton effect
There is also another kind, which is called “dark fringing,” and it can happen when you use too much of the Orton effect to blur your images, so they get this dreamy look.
When blurring the pixels, the contrasty transitions are softened, and so the dark pixels are getting mixed with the brighter ones.
So to overcome those kinds of errors in your pictures, you must work locally as much as possible, which means not to apply every single adjustment to the entire image. For instance, a local clarity adjustment can easily be made by using the radial filter - check out my article about how to use it properly.
The Orton effect should only be applied to the highlights, not to the shadows of your file, which will avoid this dark fringing effect.
You can use luminosity masks to use it the most precise way possible.
Check the blue color tones
This might sound a bit unusual, but the blue color tones are also a perfect indicator to check if your image is over-processed or not. Blue is a solid color, and it gets oversaturated super fast.
An excellent way to overcome this issue is to watch the blue color channel of your histogram.
It indicates if the blue tones are clipping or not. Often a slight boost in contrast and saturation is enough to overcook them. I’m sure you guys have already seen many night images which were too blue and so they looked unnatural (I’m guilty of it also).
It happens so fast, and that’s the reason why I mentioned it here in my article.
One of my first night images I ever took
Blue tones can quickly turn to purple as well. If you apply too much magenta to your blue hour shot, it can happen that you will end up with a purple color cast that can look over-processed as well.
So be careful with the color blue and rather reduce the saturation than increasing it.
Check out my “how to work with color” post if you want to find out more about the best techniques in Adobe Photoshop.
Always be aware of your histogram
Another good way to make sure that your shots aren’t over-processed is to continually check the histogram inside Adobe Camera/Lightroom or Photoshop.
It perfectly represents the tonal values of your image.
The left part of the histogram includes all of the dark tones, and the right part does the same with the highlights. The middle is obviously for the mid-tones.
Photoshop warns you about the peaking in the highlights
When you experience any kind of peaking either on the left/middle or right side, it tells you that you might have overdone it a bit. Of course, this doesn’t have to be the case all the time.
Sometimes you might want to achieve a creative look (I’m looking at you Instagrammers) and white out the sky, so it looks fancy. Maybe you want to create a high contrast black and white image with super dark shadows, then it can also be fine to ignore the warnings in the histogram, but most of the time, it’s a perfect indicator. Especially for colorful images!
First, overdo it and then dial it back
This method helped me a lot in the past to make sure that I don’t overdo things inside Lightroom/Photoshop.
Simply make an adjustment to an image that is way too much - I’m talking about cranking up the saturation by 50% more than you would have liked.
Do the same to almost every single slider/layer and take a look at the result in front of you.
It helps a lot to step back from your computer to reset your eyes.
Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and come back when it’s finished. You will quickly realize how crazy that image looks, and it will be easier to dial the adjustments back, so they look much better and more natural.
It’s so simple but powerful, and the next two techniques are also related to it.
Always check the before and after
I’m personally a huge fan of checking the before and after of my images on a regular basis in my editing workflow. It helps me to avoid overdoing certain adjustments like color and local contrast.
In Lightroom/Camera RAW, you can use the button at the bottom (take a look at the screenshot) to see the before and after.
In Photoshop, it’s also easy to do as you just need to press the “ALT” key (Option on Mac) and click on the eyeball of the very first layer, which is usually your background layer.
Photoshop will now jump back to your starting point without any adjustments. You can redo it by simply “alt clicking” on the eyeball again.
It’s so important not to touch the background layer with any adjustment at all; otherwise, this method won’t work!
Usually, your RAW file or the tiff out of Camera RAW is quite flat, so you will be shocked about how different your editing result looks compared to the background layer.
This little “shock” helps me a lot to indicate if I have overdone it a bit or not. Stepping back from the computer for some minutes helps a ton here as well.
Group your adjustments in Photoshop
The last method I want to talk about here is also one of my favorites to overcome any crazy editing results. I have to stress that it’s super important to have a non-destructive workflow to make this technique work.
If you apply any warping or stamping in the middle of your workflow (do it at the beginning!), this will mess up your image quickly.
Make sure to check out my Photoshop tutorials to learn more about that!
When you group all of the adjustments which you made in Photoshop, it’s so easy to work with the overall opacity of them. That’s what I do on all of my own images after I finished processing them!
I personally prefer to dial it back by around 15% to make sure that I didn’t go crazy with my editing. That’s always personal taste, of course, and it can vary from day to day, but that’s the good thing about a non-destructive workflow. You can easily change things later on if you feel like doing it or when your taste changes!
Step away from your computer
Alright, guys, I’m done now with my most effective ways about how I make sure not to overprocess my images. Last but not least, I want to mention again how important it is to take a break from processing!
Your eyes get used to the image on your screen super quickly, and you won’t be able to recognize if you’ve overdone it or not.
Simply step back from your computer for a couple of minutes and take a break! It will help you so much to reset your eyes and get a better feel for your editing results!
So what are your favorite methods to make sure that you’re not overprocessing your images? Feel free to let me know down in the comments!
If you have any questions, I’m always there to help guys!
Cheers,
Daniel Gastager