Editing landscapes

Learning goal

While editing a landscape frame only in certain areas, in the sky, on a slope or on a water surface, you will be able to choose yourself where the result falls between realism and drama. You will use as a criterion that local editing doesn't contradict the direction of the real light in the scene, and that it keeps the bright and dark areas in their natural order. You will put the notes from the day of the shoot and a quick frame on the phone in place of the memory that gets lost while editing. You will know that taking the sky from another frame is not editing but compositing, and tell the viewer so. You will notice that the warmth and saturation adjustments you apply to the landscape also spread to the skin of the person in the frame, and keep them out of these adjustments. With the track's project, you will build a five-frame selection of a place, from planning to editing.

The question

Your friend is editing the frames of the four seasons. They darken the winter frame's sky, boost the autumn's yellow, brighten the shaded slope a little. Each step looks better on the screen than the one before. In the end they step back from the screen and look: the frame is striking, but it no longer looks like what they saw at that rock. The sky darker than the ground, the slope in shadow as bright as the one in sun, their neighbor's face orange. Where should they have stopped? Between realism and drama, where does one stop?

Context

In the editing section you used masks that limit an edit to an area, the gradient mask that fades softly along a line, and the range mask that selects an area by color or brightness (Lesson 21.3). In the overdoing lesson you met the eye getting used to each step while editing and taking excess as normal, and catching this drift with a before-and-after comparison (Lesson 7.5). While working on compositing, too, you saw that an image combining parts of more than one photo must be clearly told to the viewer (Lesson 21.11).

Landscape is one of the genres where these tools are used and debated most. Some photographers choose to show the scene as they saw it, others as they felt it; both are legitimate preferences. This lesson doesn't tell you where to stop; it gives you three criteria and a limit of honesty so that you choose knowingly where you stop.

Simple explanation

Where was the light coming from?

Light logic is a local edit staying consistent with the direction and quality of the real light in the scene. If the sun strikes from the left, brightening the left slope of a hill strengthens the light and looks natural; brightening the right slope in shadow as much as the one in sun, on the other hand, erases the direction the light comes from and makes the frame look artificial. With a luminosity selection, opening slightly the places that already get light and darkening slightly those left in shadow increases depth by following the scene's own light.

This criterion doesn't forbid a dramatic edit. Making a field where a beam of light falls brighter than its surroundings strengthens the scene's story, as long as the light really is there. The problem is putting light where no light fell, or lighting a surface from two directions. The eye is very good at reading the logic of light and notices that something is wrong, even if it can't say why. A thin, bright line appearing at the mask's edge along the mountains' ridge is also a common trace that breaks light logic; softening the mask's edge removes it.

What was the order of brightnesses?

Tonal order is the way the brightnesses of different areas in a scene are ranked relative to each other in nature. In daytime a clear sky is often brighter than the ground; snow is brighter than rock, the slope in sun than the one in shadow, distant ridges lighter than close ones. Editing can narrow or widen these differences, but when it reverses the order, for example when it makes the sky darker than the ground or opens the shaded slope as much as the sunlit one, the frame turns into a place that isn't real.

When choosing filters, too, leaving the sky a little brighter than the ground had looked natural to many eyes; this is one way of keeping tonal order. Leaving distant ridges light also keeps the tonal layers that carry depth. As long as the order is kept, increasing contrast, darkening the clouds or enriching the colors can make the frame more dramatic without breaking its believability. The same order exists in colors. At sunset, surfaces the sun reaches are warm, while shadows stay cool with the light coming from the sky; painting the shadows orange too confuses the light's source. Giving warmth and saturation only to the areas the sun really touches keeps the coolness of the shadows and gives the frame both color and depth.

How do you remember what you saw?

A field reference is the notes and reference frames kept on the day of the shoot to remember, while editing, the real colors and light of the moment of shooting. Editing is often done days later, and by then the eye has got used to the screen. Shooting a quick frame with the phone in the field and noting the color of the sky and the slope in a few words gives you a measure you can turn back to while editing.

Replacing the sky with the sky of another frame is no longer editing, but an image that combines two photos, and it is told to the viewer. If there is a person in the frame, the orange and yellow saturation raised to enrich autumn leaves, or the white balance that warms the sunset, also spreads to the skin. Light skin shifts to orange, dark skin to a reddish or oversaturated brown. Keeping the person out of these adjustments with a mask and comparing their skin with the field reference frame shows them in their own color.

Visual evidence

Your friend starts the edit over. First they look at the January frame on the phone and its note: the sky light gray-blue, the snow white, the pines dark. They darken the sky but leave it still about a stop lighter than the ground. The snow stays brighter than the rock; the tonal order is in place.

In the autumn frame the sun was striking from the left. They open the yellow beeches on the left slope a little with a luminosity selection, and don't touch the right slope in shadow. They erase the thin bright line appearing along the mountains' ridge by softening the mask's edge.

When they boosted the yellow, their old neighbor's face had turned orange too; yet in the field frame his dark skin was a warm brown. They take him out of the adjustments with an automatic mask and compare his face with the field frame; his skin is in its own brown. The frame is still dramatic, but it looks like the place they saw at that rock. The next morning they open the four frames again; after a night's break, they pull back the autumn frame's yellow a little more.

Common mistakes

Summary

In editing landscapes, the place between realism and drama is a preference; but the local edit staying consistent with the direction of the scene's real light, the brightness order of the areas being kept, and the edit being compared with the notes and reference frames kept on the day of the shoot keep the frame believable. Another frame's sky is a composite and is told; the person in the frame is kept out of the color adjustments applied to the landscape and their skin is left in its tone from the field.

Mini assignment

A project closes the track: you will build a five-frame landscape selection of a place, from planning to editing.

1. Choose a place, plan its light and weather in advance, and on different days shoot frames with a foreground, sharp, with a filter or a long exposure when needed, picked out up close; at every shoot take a reference frame with the phone and a short note.
2. Choose five frames and edit each one locally, keeping light logic and tonal order; compare each one with the field reference.
3. Sequence the selection and state it if you made a composite; if a person appears in the selection, check that their skin wasn't affected by the landscape adjustments.

Check yourself

• In every frame, does the light come from its real direction in the scene?
• Are the sky, snow, shadow and distant ridges in their natural order?
• Do the edited frames look like the place you took notes on, or did you knowingly move away from it?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. If the sun strikes from the left, which edit breaks light logic?

• A) Opening the left slope a little
• B) Brightening the right slope in shadow as much as the one in sun
• C) Darkening the clouds a little
• D) Cropping the frame slightly

2. Which one reverses tonal order?

• A) Making the sky darker than the ground
• B) Giving the clouds texture
• C) Increasing contrast a little
• D) Leaving distant ridges light

3. Why is a field reference useful in editing?

• A) Because it makes the file smaller
• B) Because it makes masks by itself
• C) Because it reminds you of the colors and light of the moment of shooting in place of the eye that has got used to the screen
• D) Because it fixes the white balance

4. How does orange saturation raised for autumn leaves affect the person in the frame?

• A) It doesn't affect them at all
• B) It sharpens the face
• C) It pulls the skin to gray
• D) It can shift the skin to orange or an oversaturated brown

Answers

1. B — Opening the shadow as much as the sun erases the direction the light comes from and makes the frame look artificial.
2. A — In daytime a clear sky is often brighter than the ground; when this order reverses, the frame becomes unreal.
3. C — Editing days later, the eye has got used to the screen; field notes and the reference frame give a real measure.
4. D — If color adjustments aren't masked, they spread to the skin along with the landscape and shift it.

Summary card

• Where you stop is a preference; know why you stop there.
• Strengthen light only where it comes from.
• Sky, snow, shadow, distant ridges: keep the brightness order.
• Take a reference frame and a note in the field; turn back and look while editing.
• Another sky is a composite, say so; keep the person out of the color adjustments.

Bridge to the next lesson

The landscape track ends here: from depth to planning, from foreground to sharpness, from filters to water, from bad weather to telephoto landscape, from the seasons to editing. A few days after showing their selection at the club, your friend goes back to the lakeshore. A heron stands among the reeds; they approach step by step to shoot it up close, the bird takes off and a nest appears among the reeds. Is the animal's peace more important than the photo? The next lesson opens the Nature, Wildlife and Birds track and takes up how close to approach an animal, and why baiting and moving in on a nest should be left alone.