Air 2 Ariel shot of sunset in Gurnee Illinois

[rickfmdj]

This is my first attempt of getting off auto setting and using Pro adjusting shutter speed and e t c, working in post-production at least trying

 

[Skybuyer]

I know this is the "showcase" forum, so forgive me if I over-reach. Since you said that you "tried" to do some work in post, it suggests that you might want a bit of help with it. Did you shoot in raw or jpg? Did you bracket exposures? What program did you use to enhance/process the image? There is a lot more information in that image than you're showing. It's a nice shot. Just needs more detail in the shadow areas. Again forgive me, but I took a stab at enhancing the image a bit to show you how nice the shot really is.

 

[rickfmdj]

Thanks for showing me what you can do. I shot in JPEG and RAW. I used a Mac Book Pro with the program Fotor. The free version actually gives you a lots of options in color grading it's just experience on handling the image and time and experience. So until I can afford Lightroom this will do that will compare your image and see if I could match it somehow. Thanks for your critique.

 

[Skybuyer]

Thanks for showing me what you can do. I shot in JPEG and RAW. I used a Mac Book Pro with the program Fotor. The free version actually gives you a lots of options in color grading it's just experience on handling the image and time and experience. So until I can afford Lightroom this will do that will compare your image and see if I could match it somehow. Thanks for your critique.

FYI there are a number of programs out there besides Lightroom that most of the same things, at a reasonable cost, that don't pick your pocket every month- forever. One to consider is On1 Raw. I think, before discounts or sales, On 1 Photo RAW. You can buy it for $99. They have a 30 day trial and a $8/mo subscription option (I hate those). It's got some cool features like AI correction. On 1 Photo Raw 2021

And while Lightroom and its competitors do a lot of things, nothing beats a full image editor. I'm kind of stuck with Photoshop (I almost never use Lightroom) but there are cheap alternatives for those not wanting their pockets picked every month for a program they may or may not use regularly. I found this one that looks interesting: Affinity Photo Editor

Just for giggles, I opened an old version of On1, put your image in and hit the "AI" button. I did nothing else. It can still be tweaked in the program but the AI often provides a good starting point (I did the image in the earlier reply solely in Photoshop). Here is the result of On1 Photo RAW 2020 with AI:

 

[GFields]

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

 

[Frustrated]

I did not know there was anything to look at in Illinois. Here in Wis LOL