Utah, South Jordan Sunrise- Criticism/help needed

[bwheelz05]

Hello from Utah! (temporarily)

Using Photo Shop elements 15. Caught the sunrise here in South Jordan, Utah. Granted though I AM NEW (new new new new) to photo editing (in general even)

I have added before (DNG) and after of what I have so far. I purposely lowered the exposure on the mavic so that I could correct it in post.

No filter used (could be problem) yet as I get ust to editing. I had large haze in the mountains that I corrected with the 'haze correct' feature in PS. I was seeing some pixels at 100% so I tried softening a bit. (Is 100% the TRUE viewing percent) It looks 'decent' to me below 100% but I am finding the clarity (definition) in the grasses, especially the lower right, above my truck. Cant seem to get real definition back into those shrubs/grasses. I figure I might not be able to being the distance.

Any ways- So constructive criticism would be helpful. Again, learning here.

Much appreciated!

 

[bwheelz05]

Another one...

 

[Mauimax3]

Another one...

wow..having zero experiance editing anything... I think that first shot is awesome.

 

[The Camera Guy]

I like the first shot, and I like the third shot.

In the case of 1,2 & 4, the truck is a distraction.

I think you've done a good job editing. When you shoot into the sun, you can count on the Histogram showing 100 in many cases. If you brought it down by adjusting highlights and/or exposure.

You should be happy. Great work.

 

[bwheelz05]

Thanks for the input gentlemen! One shot is the original DNG and the other is the 'edited' product. Without the ND filter it was difficult to get the sunlight down with exposure,brightness layers etc... But I got it down to where I felt it was manageable. The problem is that in Photoshop the guide says that you should edit the photo at 100% zoom, so when I do is when I see all the imperfections such as lots of Pixelization, (JPG type pixels, although the format is DNG raw??) the mountains were also very hazy so I tried to smooth it out when you compare it to the original.

One issue that I am seeing though is T 100% zoom, I don't get quite the sharpness or clarity out of the shrubbery (closer to the bottom/camera) so when I go to edit it, it over sharpens it and it looks lousy. Now when I back the zoom level out to lets say 66% or 'print size' it looks much nicer.

Question; is 100% zoom really just too much for the 'average' viewer? When ever one magnifies any image, the imperfections will come out the more 'zoomed' the picture is. Correct?

More to come- Thanks

 

[bwheelz05]

I forgot these yesterday too Before and after.. perhaps I am underexposing initially too much??