Missing the Shot
Have you ever gone to take photos, got to the nice location, at the perfect time, perfect light, but missed the shot? That is what happened to me with this photo.
One day we decided to go camping out in the Uinta Mountains in Utah, where we have never been. It was two-three hours away, so we packed and left with about 4 to 5 hours before sunset. The drive there was very scenic and enjoyable. When we got there, it was about 2 hours before sunset, but we still had to find a camping stop, set up the tent and everything else.
Bad Planning
By the time we had everything set up the sun was already close to the horizon. There was no time to explore the area and find a nice composition; the light show in the sky was already starting. The light was awesome, but I did not have a plan, did not know what to do other than scramble to grab my camera and start shooting in all directions.
Here are the snapshots I got:
Bad Composition
Out of all these photos the one that I like the most is the top right one with the sun rays coming out of the clouds. This could have been a beautiful photo if I was prepared and had a better composition, but unfortunately this is the best shot I walked away with.
As you can see in the above version, the sky is amazing. The light, the color, the clouds, everything is working perfectly together, but the foreground is worse than mediocre—there is a random piece of branch in the top right corner, the silhouetted pine tree is almost in the middle of the frame and is obstructing the main attraction, and the whole back ground is almost black.
The improved version
The only thing I can do here is try to take a bad photo and make it better in Adobe Lightroom.
Crop
As I have done previously, the first thing I did to improve the photo is by cropping it better. I got rid of the distracting piece of branch in the top right, which slightly shifted the tree out of the center and closer to the “rule of thirds”, and got rid of the junk in the bottom of the frame.
Basic Adjustments
After cropping, I dragged the shadows slider to the right to add light back to the foreground, and few other tweaks you can see in the snapshot below:
Finally, I brought the photo into Photoshop to get rid of the sensor dust. Here is the before-and-after:
Before / After
Final thoughts
There is a lot more to making awesome photos than having nice gear and snapping away. Proper planning and preparation, to include scouting time, are some of the essentials to successful landscape photography. The mistake I made on this trip back in 2013 were repeated over and over in the last three years, but I am slowly learning and I am getting better at planning and giving myself plenty of time for scouting and setting up.
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.
If you love my content, subscribe to my Newsletter and follow me on