The Grand View
Antelope Island, Utah, 2013
When standing on top of the mountain, looking at the grand view and being impressed by the magnificence and the grandeur of the land, how do you translate that into a photograph? In this post I am going to talk about my challenges with this scene at the Antelope Island and how I came up with the end result.
Photographing Grand Views
Armed with my brand new Canon Rebel T3i, I climbed to the end of one of the trails on Antelope Island. When I got there, the view was amazing. I could see for miles and miles in almost all directions, and I wanted to capture that feeling in my camera. I started shooting in all directions, excited to be able to capture it all. When I got home and looked at the photos, I was pretty disappointed because the photos did not communicate that original impression of the scene. This one of the first times I realized that there is more to making great photos than just having a nice camera and taking a bunch of shots.
The Original Photo
The Original Straight out of Camera
The photo above is the original, straight out of camera shot. I don’t think it does justice to the actual place, but it is the best photo I got that day, so to make the best of it, I did a little bit of post processing in Lightroom.
The Final Version
The Final Version
With a little Lightroom magic, I was able to make the best of a mediocre photo.
Here is what I did:
1. adjust the contrast a bit
2. boosted clarity and vibrance
3. added a few local adjustments with the brush
4. added a Graduated Filter to darken the sky
5. Sharpen to bring out the crispness in the rocks in the foreground
That was it, that simple. I feel that these minor adjustments make a huge difference and communicate the grandeur of the scene a lot better than the original photo.
I believe that anyone can make the most awesome photos they can imagine! All they have to do is learn a few easy basics. I hope to inspire you to also pick up a camera and develop your own photographic vision.
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