Fun Friendly Edit Comp

Cheers John :+1:t2:

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Wow some awesome edits here guys! :heart_eyes:

@SirGunner, I thought you had to explain how you edited it from RAW? Some have done, but not all.

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I missed that bit… my bad.

  • Cropped (obviously).
  • Touch of green in the shadows, a (very) little orange in the midtones, slightly more red in the highlights.
  • Highlights at -100 and exposure about -5 or -10 (IIR).
  • Played with the clarity and noise until it was reasonable.
  • Then spent five minutes with the clone stamp getting rid of the contrail across the cloud (which was much more visible and quite distracting in the crop).

Also messed about with a gradient filter for a bit to see if I could boost the exposure in the foreground without blowing out the clouds… but gave up on that fairly quickly because I’m crap at it :wink:

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@JoeC A bit presumptuous of you :slight_smile:

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Well, that explains why I missed the bit about having to explain ourselves. I blame you, @eastsuffolkdrone. :smiley:

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Not sure I can do that. There’s at least 8 different graduated filters and brushes on mine. There isn’t a formula you can follow along sadly.

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I think the broad strokes would suffice… It’ll point folk in the right direction. @SirGunner ??

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Hey Simon as others have pointed out its the 'winner that describes how they did their edit although there’s nothing stopping you asking a particular competitor to go through their edit for you if they want to :+1:t2:

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Hey Lee as Ned has said I think a general description will do but if people want to go into exact detail they are more than welcome to :+1:t2:

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I agree Ned but if people want to go into greater detail they can :+1:t2: I know @OzoneVibe joked about a full YouTube tutorial video for each winner but thats probably a little overkill :rofl:

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@JoeC :astonished:

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Ok here is my filmic version. Using Resolve 17b6 Studio version

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Node pattern and break down of what was done.

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Nicely done Richard :+1:t2:

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Here’s how I did mine (I know I’m not the winner). If I’ve missed a trick in Snapseed please shout.

Screen Capture with voice over 05’42"

Ned

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vlUIuaqDyeFVBtFT7vfQe_8aQEzfyHY-/view?usp=drivesdk

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Nice walk through Ned :+1:t2:This is exactly the kind of thing people will find useful mate

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Long post alert

There’s no way I can do a walk through on mine as there’s 15 individual graduated filters, radial filters or brushes before we even get to point 4, HOWEVER this is my normal approach and methodology. On my screen it looks great because a) it’s my edit, so of course I love it :grin: but b) I’ve adjusted my screen to suit this kind of thing.

First asses the photo. What is the point of interest, which bit do you want people to look at (where should the eye be drawn) and which bit’s are not so important? For example with this image I felt the fog was the interesting bit, rather than the trees in the foreground. If you need to crop it, this is the time to do it. Simply cranking up the exposure and shadows would reveal everything, but if that’s not what you’re going for then take a more measured approach. Making the biggest change from RAW to jpg isn’t the name of the game for me. Remember your rule of thirds, or if you want to get particularly fancy pants use the golden ratio overlay. The road starts on the lower third with the horizon line on the upper third in this one. This is very much personal choice. It’s better to get this right on the drone for me. Consider adding a 3x3 grid to your phone/tablet/screen

Second Less is more. I always start with local adjustments (brushes, radial & graduated filters). Tempting as it may be, don’t touch the global ones yet; contrast, exposure, saturation etc. In fact, I don’t use these a great deal. In this pic, there’s a radial filter right across the middle that bumps the exposure a fraction.

Each of those grey dots is another radial filter

These dots are the graduated ones. I often use these to darken the bottom of the image as it adds depth: I tend to mentally split the image in to foreground, midground and background, adjusting each one until I’m content.

And finally the brushes, each dot represents a horizontal brush stroke:

Each of these is doing a different thing. It may be bumping the saturation in the sunset, adding some haze on the mist etc. Some are also targeted on at certain luminance levels (they only work on the brightest or darkest bits) so I can brush right over the clouds but only have the effect on the sun for example.

Third now we can use the global adjustments. Top to bottom in lightroom.

  • WB - left it as it looked ok

  • Highlights -100

  • Shadows +100
    This is essentially creating contrast. I wanted to get some of the texture from the trees

Calibration

  • Green saturation down a touch
    I find that DJI can often add a bit too much green in to the image for my taste. This is purely personal (isn’t it all)

Fourth This is the single most important bit. Walk away. Take some time away from your screen and then come back to it later, or even tomorrow. I guarantee you’ll feel you’ve over done it on reflection and will likely tone down some of your edits. Looking back today, I don’t like how dark I have made the top right.

This may look horrific, but with I can get this done in 5 or 10 minutes. It’s all about practice. These are the YouTube guys I have found most helpful with editing photos (there are others for video)

https://www.youtube.com/c/AnthonyMorgantiPhotographer

Anthony Morganti has a free Lightroom course on his channel - it’s a few years old now but it hasn’t changed that much.

So turn off “auto”, switch to RAW and good luck!

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Great guide with video links Lee :+1:t2: people will find this useful for sure

That is so true!

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