How Do I Edit Like This Epic Photo?

[PS01]

Hi, can anyone teach me how to edit drone photo like this, please?

 

[zocalo]

Might be a subtly done HDR shot, but basically most of the control of shadows and light in shots can be done by careful manipulation of the shadow, highlight, and curves controls across the whole image, then localised adjustments to tease out additional detail. Having good exposure in the first place is also a huge help; in this case I suspect the original image was much darker in the shadows and these have been brightened by quite a bit compared to give the image above.

Plenty of guides on YouTube that'll work through examples visually which is a far easier way to understand how it works and to achieve the results that you want.

 

[Aikidoamigo]

Not sure why folks over edit a photo

I can understand a slight mod for exposure maybe but more than that IMO makes the photo a fake and as good as it may look it’s not good photography just good computer work.

Only my 2c of course ?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Hey, I like the photo like it is
What don’t you like about it ?
Or is it just to make it as best possible for you or others as to what they see ?

 

[zocalo]

Hey, I like the photo like it is
What don’t you like about it ?
Or is it just to make it as best possible for you or others as to what they see ?

FWIW, I think it's a very well edited photo too, although it's definitely a YMMV thing.

In my view, this isn't an example of documentary photography where the aim is often to be as close to life as possible; it's an attempt to create a piece of art, and as such it's entirely up to the artist how to achieve the result they want. I mostly tend to eschew over-processed/manipulated images too (and generally aim for a natural look for my own images), but I'm absolutely going to try and extract as much detail in the shadows and highlights as I feel I need for that specific image. That said, it does depend a lot on the image subject as well; in-your-face HDR processing can work incredibly well on highly detailed industrial interiors, for instance.

There's nothing new in this all either - it's been around since the introduction of glass plate negatives when photographers learned to manipulate an image's curves while developing their negatives, and then selectively dodged and burned parts of an image to bring out the detail. One of them even invented an entire formalised system for doing this kind of thing and wrote a set of books about it as well, come to that...

 

[Dale D]

an anyone teach me how to edit drone photo like this, please


















I took you image, which is very low resolution, and brought it into Photoshop 2020 and Adobe Camera Raw. I opened the shadows, cut down on the highlights and whites, used a gradient filter from above down to darken the sky and increase the contrast of the clouds, increased the structure (contrast) overall. I tried to bring out the sun-rays too. The before and after are show below. Comments always welcomed. Hundreds of ways to fix this depending on your taste.

Dale
Miami
?

 

[dkuhne]

To edit pictures to that level, you'll require bespoke software. Generally speaking, most use Adobe Lightroom, which costs around 10 pounds a month.

Theres a million youtube tutorials, on drone landscape photography. Here's a good one, that shows and end to end process:

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

And of course the first step is to do as the pilot for this photo did, choose the right timing "Golden Hour", location, height, angle, etc, to get this great shot. Without that step, he would not have had this photo to do minor or major corrections for a great photo or a piece of art as one suggested. FWIW, I like it,

 

[Cymruflyer]

First you need the right subject matter, the right lighting and the right composition and then the correct exposure and after you have all that you can worry about editing that final image. You can only make crap shiny in Photoshop, but it will always be crap. So worry about getting a great image first and practice all that before you worry about editing it.

Remember that crap will always be crap, it can just be made shiny in Photoshop, but very good can be turned into great with well performed editing.

 

[hiflyer201]

With a drone you have the unlimited ability to get a perspective never before possible. With digital photography you have the ability to quickly change any shot into something that is ...shall we say unworldly. I would say..Just learn about lighting and exposure and wait until you get something you like.
You can't put that low scud hanging in the tree's with the remaining evening light shining off the tops by using tricks in the darkroom..it just happens.