Photography Tutorial · 2018-11-09
Overcast Days Can Be Edited Like This! Photo-Editing Mini-Contest, Episode 5 Review
Thomas Chu Photo
A tutorial every week, making photography no longer hard to learn
There is no standard answer in photography post-processing. From the same original, different things photographers want to express and present, and different personal preferences, all make the results vastly different.
Seeing diverse post-processing approaches and forms of presentation, and learning from one another, is Thomas's original intention in holding the photo-editing mini-contest.
Let's review the original from the 5th contest: a seascape landscape from an overcast, rainy day in Iceland, shot with a Nikon D90.
The original download address can be found in the article "Photo-Editing Mini-Contest, Episode 5 - An Overcast-Rainy-Day Seascape in Iceland, Want to Take Up the Challenge?" (《修图小赛第5期 - 冰岛阴雨天海景，你要来挑战一下吗？》).
This contest received a rich variety of submissions, and everyone edited in their own way. The results only reflect Thomas's personal preferences.
Thomas's Selection Award No.1
Editor: 没有忧伤的眼泪
Review:
This photo is handled very comfortably. Unlike most of the later works, the colors in this photo actually have quite high saturation - for example, the green on the island in the middle and the orange rock areas have saturation above 75%.
But the photo doesn't look overly garish overall, or out of keeping with the overcast-rainy atmosphere, because of the author's sensible arrangement of the areas of different colors.
The areas occupying most of the photo - that is, the sky and the sea - have very low saturation, with the sky almost a dark gray. The yellow-green vegetation around the edges has moderate saturation and darker luminance.
Only the green vegetation and orange rocks in the center of the frame have high saturation and luminance.
Therefore, the dominant tone of the whole photo is low saturation, with the high-saturation parts serving only as accents, so it still looks very natural. And with this high-low arrangement, the high-saturation parts appear even more vivid and prominent.
As I also mentioned in the book "The Fundamentals of Landscape Photography Post-Processing" (《风光摄影后期基础》), saturation is relative. While considering the combination of the three attributes of color - hue, saturation, and luminance - we shouldn't forget that area and relative position also have an important influence on the expression of color.
Thomas's Selection Award No.2
Editor: 城事动物园的小熊
Review:
Among the many dark-toned versions, this is one I personally like, with the feeling of dark clouds pressing down on the city almost leaping out of the frame.
The tonality of this photo is outstanding; if you convert it to black and white, it's still excellent. The luminance of the whole photo mainly falls into 4 blocks:
The black rocks in the foreground are the darkest block, followed by the dark-gray sky and water surface, then the mid-luminance vegetation, and finally the high-luminance waves and clouds.
The author unified the luminance within each block very well, so the photo doesn't look messy, while the luminance differences between blocks are clear, giving the photo distinct layering.
Finally, the author uses a very pale cyan as the dominant color with light green as an accent, matching the colors harmoniously as well.
Thomas's Selection Award No.3
Editor: 因为不想上班而改名字
Review:
The overall contrast of this photo is lower than the previous two, and it's handled more softly and gracefully.
The author's color combination is also very sensible, using mid-to-low saturation and mid-to-low luminance cyan as the dominant tone. The matching green is well differentiated internally through different luminance and saturation, full of detail. The orange rocks serve as an excellent accent.
For this photo, the author appropriately cropped the right side, making the composition more balanced.
Through these 3 photos, we can see that there is no standard answer in photography post-processing - even several versions can be quite good. What matters is the skilled application of visual language.
Selection Award prize: signed copy of "The Fundamentals of Landscape Photography Post-Processing" (《风光摄影后期基础》)
Other excellent works
Some other excellent works; of course, only 1-2 representative works are chosen for each style, and many brilliant works cannot all be shown.
Past episodes:
"So Many Effects from the Same Image? The Winning Works of the First Photo-Editing Mini-Contest Are Out!"
"Can You Imagine Editing It Like This? Thomas's Photo-Editing Mini-Contest, Episode 2 Exhibition"
"How to Control Color Combinations in Photos - Photo-Editing Mini-Contest, Episode 3 Review"
"Post-Processing Should Go from the Whole to the Parts, with Selection and Omission - Photo-Editing Mini-Contest, Episode 4 Review"