opinions on this photo?

[knuckles]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask or not but I'm trying to improve my photos so they aren't as dull. I often fly in the desert and most pictures come out semi colorless looking washed out and the sun can make it worse.

This was my first ever attempt at editing a very dull uninteresting pic in lightroom. This was with protune off from my gopro 3+. In the original the sky was a bit washed out by the sun. To the left corner the sun was shining.

I tried to bring out the blue in the sky and make it more colorful from the bland looking desert.

Did I over do it with the color or does it still look like a real photo? Comments are appreciated.

This was the original photo btw

 

[terrylowe]

Yes....the sky looks a little over-saturated to me.

 

[Monte55]

After picture much better. I would like to see a little more detail in rock area.

 

[Monte55]

I like the sky. Normal skies are pretty boring. That why so many use a polarizer filter to darken the sky against clouds providing your scene is at the max angle to the sun for best effect.

 

[knuckles]

I'm very new with light room. The sky could have been bumped down on saturation a bit and I think some of the rock areas got too dark. I used to throw away a lot of my pictures because the colors looked too dull. It will be an ongoing learning process. At least I feel like I have found a good tool and starting process to use. I have a light room book to use that I haven't read yet. I just followed a tutorial to do my first edit with this last night.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[muzza22au]

To help you can get a circular polarising filter which will give your colours a bit of a bump up

 

[knuckles]

I almost always fly with my polar pro CP on unless it's bright mid day then I may swap it for the ND. Possibly the original photo from last year was before I had the CP. I just tried to pick a fairly dull photo to practice editing.

 

[Joeg1937]

Not bad, but I think that the HDR in Photoshop would have done a better job, thanks.

 

[PTCX]

I think you've done well with such a dull shot to start with,maybe just slightly over saturated.

 

[Meta4]

I think polarising filters are fine on the ground but are not going to be much use in the air because they have to be oriented with respect the the angle of the sun to be effective. To properly use one, you'd have to set the filter alignment an the ground and then hold your Phantom only on that same angle for photography. Once you change anything, the filter isn't doing what you want it to.
Try playing around with one on an SLR to see how this works.

The most important factors in Phantom photography are:
1. Have a solid subject for your picture rather than just a distant blah kind of photo.
2. Find a shooting angle that shows off your subject best
3. Think about the angle of the sun and shoot with the sun behind the Phantom rather than shooting into the sun.

 

[knuckles]

I think polarising filters are fine on the ground but are not going to be much use in the air because they have to be oriented with respect the the angle of the sun to be effective. To properly use one, you'd have to set the filter alignment an the ground and then hold your Phantom only on that same angle for photography. Once you change anything, the filter isn't doing what you want it to.
Try playing around with one on an SLR to see how this works.

The most important factors in Phantom photography are:
1. Have a solid subject for your picture rather than just a distant blah kind of photo.
2. Find a shooting angle that shows off your subject best
3. Think about the angle of the sun and shoot with the sun behind the Phantom rather than shooting into the sun.

Meta4 - I looked at your pictures as I have before. I notice a lot of clarity in your water photos so you can see the rocks through the water. Were you not using a CP for those photos? Just curious.

This picture was just a random one as I was flying taking video with a pic every 5 seconds.

Thanks for everyone's comments

 

[fastsmiles]

Very nice, a little over saturated on the sky.
nice sky:ground composition and I like the rocks, they really pop out.

 

[Meta4]

Meta4 - I looked at your pictures as I have before. I notice a lot of clarity in your water photos so you can see the rocks through the water. Were you not using a CP for those photos? Just curious.

Pics like this?

No .. I've never put any kind of filter on the Phantom.
Because I shoot multi-image panoramas with the camera turning across the sky, a polarising filter wouldn't work for me.
I'd have to realign the filter for each shot. The pic above is a 3 image panorama and I've shot up to 27 for some of my big ones.
I just try to shoot with the sun rather than against it so that I'm not shooting into glare.

 

[knuckles]

Meta4 - I looked at your pictures as I have before. I notice a lot of clarity in your water photos so you can see the rocks through the water. Were you not using a CP for those photos? Just curious.

Pics like this?

No .. I've never put any kind of filter on the Phantom.
Because I shoot multi-image panoramas with the camera turning across the sky, a polarising filter wouldn't work for me.
I'd have to realign the filter for each shot. The pic above is a 3 image panorama and I've shot up to 27 for some of my big ones.
I just try to shoot with the sun rather than against it so that I'm not shooting into glare.

Yes, that's interesting. Just wondering. You have some great pictures and locations to fly.

 

[mendezl]

sky / sun on top left looks a little funny

I like how HDR looks on pictures.
check out http://www.stuckincustoms.com/ Trey Ratchliff is my favorit HDR photographer, he has good tutorials

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/dji-phantom-review/ he also loves the phantom

If you like how it looks... then that is what counts.

 

[knuckles]

sky / sun on top left looks a little funny

I like how HDR looks on pictures.
check out http://www.stuckincustoms.com/ Trey Ratchliff is my favorit HDR photographer, he has good tutorials

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/dji-phantom-review/ he also loves the phantom

If you like how it looks... then that is what counts.

I did try again for about 20 minutes or so last night and wasn't able to fix the left corner much. This was the most washed out part due to the sun. Thanks for the link I've seen his Bora Bora phantom pictures before. I'll look into the HDR method when I have time.

 

[SanCap]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask or not but I'm trying to improve my photos so they aren't as dull. I often fly in the desert and most pictures come out semi colorless looking washed out and the sun can make it worse.

This was my first ever attempt at editing a very dull uninteresting pic in lightroom. This was with protune off from my gopro 3+. In the original the sky was a bit washed out by the sun. To the left corner the sun was shining.

I tried to bring out the blue in the sky and make it more colorful from the bland looking desert.

Did I over do it with the color or does it still look like a real photo? Comments are appreciated.

This was the original photo btw

The top left bright sky is what ruined it for me and as someone else said a little more rock detail would be nice. I am an amateur but played with it in photoshop a bit. Here is my version.

 

[Skydronik]

I do like it

 

[knuckles]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask or not but I'm trying to improve my photos so they aren't as dull. I often fly in the desert and most pictures come out semi colorless looking washed out and the sun can make it worse.

This was my first ever attempt at editing a very dull uninteresting pic in lightroom. This was with protune off from my gopro 3+. In the original the sky was a bit washed out by the sun. To the left corner the sun was shining.

I tried to bring out the blue in the sky and make it more colorful from the bland looking desert.

Did I over do it with the color or does it still look like a real photo? Comments are appreciated.

This was the original photo btw

The top left bright sky is what ruined it for me and as someone else said a little more rock detail would be nice. I am an amateur but played with it in photoshop a bit. Here is my version.

Thanks for sharing that. Do you mind me asking what some of your workflow steps were in PS? I'd like to learn enough to repeat similar steps to not spend a ton of time in my post.

 

[dtitus6297]

I think you did a real stand up job on that photo. The original is great, but the fixed up one is really good. It does look like it has been photo shopped but it is a great pic anyway...props