Improving your images during post-processing is an important final step in every photographer’s workflow. Some limit themselves to light edits of exposure and contrast, while others resort to significant corrections using exposure brushes and curves, selective saturation adjustments, and even Photoshop compositing. Whatever your preference, there are a few mistakes (or missteps) that I often notice when I look at the sims of many landscape photographers.
In this article, we’ll discuss common mistakes and how to fix them. I myself get caught from time to time and have repeatedly noticed the described errors in my work, sometimes even years after I’ve hung a printed photo on the wall. However, if I can help you catch all the errors while you’re still processing, you can avoid having them perpetuated on paper.
Noisy Skies.
This item tops the list of the most commonly overlooked mistakes. When you make corrections to the sky (often to do this, the glare slider is set to -100, followed by an exposure brush), it results in a reduction in pixel density. As a consequence, the sky and clouds become too sharp and noisy, even if you haven’t touched the sharpening slider. I think the reason few people notice this is that we rarely work with photos at 1:1 scale. Everything looks great when you look at the whole picture as it becomes more compact and visible errors are minimized.
I only noticed this problem myself when I zoomed in on the photo to remove the sensor spots. It then became clear that the same problem was present in almost every other photo. If you don’t pay attention, it can show up when printing and is especially noticeable in large format (12×18 and larger).
A noisy sky is easy to fix. Simply apply a mask to separate it, and then use sharpening (move the slider to the left) and/or noise reduction (slider to the right).
Spots and distractions
Sensor spots are another problem that is often overlooked. They appear due to dust or dirt on one of the lens elements or the sensor. No matter how clean my sensor seems, I still notice spots. They look like little rings with prominent exposure – either too light or too dark. Most often you’ll notice them in the sky, but they actually appear absolutely everywhere.
To get rid of the sensor spots, use the appropriate Lightroom tool (the circle with the arrow coming out of it) and check the Visualize Spots checkbox at the bottom left of the screen directly below the photo. This will turn on the high-contrast B&W mode, which will make imperfections more clearly visible. They will look like little crescents or rings. Choose the appropriate brush size and click on each spot. I usually set it to about 35% blur and set it to Heal instead of Clone. I think I get a better result that way.
You can often see other distracting elements in photos, including animals, people, trash, road signs, tools scattered near construction sites, light poles, telephone lines, and so on. Even if there is something unnecessary that is directly in the frame (such as phone lines), I don’t see the need to make it part of the shot. People like the immersive effect that is created when contemplating landscape shots, and man-made things get in the way. For very simple objects, you can use the Spot Removal tool, but in other cases, you’ll have to load the photo into Photoshop and carefully remove each distracting element with a stamp.
Lit highlights and shadows
Sometimes we get too carried away and cross the line. Lit highlights and shadows are a very common and subtle mistake encountered during post-processing.
Simply pressing the J key in Lightroom will activate the White/Black clipping mask. This will show highlighted highlights (in red) and shadows (in blue). You can selectively correct them with the exposure brush or make global corrections with the sliders. Personally, I like it when there are highlights and shadows in a photo, so I often make do with local corrections. Plus, depending on the effect you want, a small highlighted piece may be desirable. Don’t think the photo is ruined just because the clipping mask shows red and blue areas.
Uneven horizon
Another popular mistake is a tilted horizon. It occurs most often when shooting with a wide-angle lens. Because of distortion, some objects appear to be perfectly straight, while the horizon slopes to the left or right. Sometimes it’s hard to see it at all, either because there is no clear distinction, or because there are too many other more prominent guide lines in the frame.
A skewed horizon is usually easy to correct by rotating the image slightly. If your lens has significant distortion, you can import the image into Photoshop and use the Warp Transform tool to locally correct some areas, for example, by elevating just the right side. This is helpful when the rotation has a negative effect on the overall perception of the frame.
Saturation
Being a problem mostly for beginners, the issue of saturation is more of a personal preference. Often you can see that the photos that amateur photographers post online have over-saturated colors or too much clarity. I believe the reason for this is our modern world, in which if you want to get 10 seconds of fame on 500px or Instagram, you have to be visually striking. Over-saturated photos are more likely to get the attention of people who only spend a few seconds on each post in their feed – just enough time to like it. Amateur photographers often resort to this technique in the hope of compensating for their lack of skills in other areas (such as composition, color theory or conveying emotion).
However, over-saturated photographs are like too sweet a cake. The first few slices you really like. But very soon that taste becomes sugary. The same applies to photographs. When you first see a picture like this, it seems great: “Wow, just look at this picture!” But you will very quickly notice how unnatural it looks and never want to hang it on your wall. If you look at the work of experienced landscape photographers, it becomes obvious that the colors are not as sugary. Compared to most 500px photos, you might even call them faded. But these are the pictures from people with decades of experience that people buy and hang in their living room. They are a pleasure to look at even after many years.
To conclude.
Improving your photo editing skills is a journey full of discovery. You learn more about what you’re doing, what mistakes you make, and find ways to correct them and avoid them in the future. I always keep in my head a list of items I pay attention to when processing. It includes checking for sensor blemishes, reviewing the exposure brush in mask mode, eliminating distracting elements I didn’t notice when I shot, and clearing the sky of noise. I hope these tips help you get better results when processing your photos. Tell us, are there any other mistakes you notice in your own and others’ photos?