‘Niagara Revealed’ - Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls, Canada-USA border
photo by Christoph Fischer
website - https://beautysurroundsyou.com/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50452656382_91b0634dc2_b.jpg
Niagara Falls are grand just by themselves, but this moody lighting and great camera angle makes them spectacular.
I removed the sun from behind the mist, it was looking like white blotch.
‘Clandestine’ - Cuerno Principal and Este mountains, Torres Del Paine National Park, Southern Patagonia, Chile
photo by Ted Gore
website - http://www.tedgorecreative.com/
original image - https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5349724ee4b056257cdcb44b/1455149006523-DJAPHH7TCQPQDTYTQ6ZT/24794871145_5f1c52194c_o.jpg
Nice framing by the couds.
The Magic Hour seemed a bit too orange to me, so I let some blues back in.
‘Yorkshire Dales Sunset at Twistleton Scar Limestone Rock Pavements’ - Yorkshire Dales National Park, Yorkshire, England, UK
photo by Daniel Kay
website - https://www.danielkayphotography.co.uk/
original image - https://www.dreamstime.com/sunset-yorkshire-dales-national-park-windswept-tree-limestone-pavement-yorkshire-dales-sunset-twistleton-scar-image185785437
A different take on this by a different photographer, and in a different season - the trees have leaves now. Still dramatic.
I reframed the photo to focus on the trees, brought back some color so that everything isn't just yellow, removed a shadow that I didn't like from the clouds, and - this was the most difficult part - got rid of the flare from the sun.
Scenic sunrise over Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming, USA
photo by Anthony Heflin
website - https://www.instagram.com/anthony_heflin_photography/
original image - https://www.dreamstime.com/scenic-sunrise-over-wyoming-s-devils-tower-national-monument-warm-sunset-light-filters-across-meadow-gravel-road-below-image124973134
Another land feature made famous by a... well, feature - Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A nice dramatic photo with a path that leads your eyes right to the Devils Tower.
The colors were too sugary for my taste, so I limited them somewhat, mostly by getting rid of the pinks. At least the clouds don't look like cotton candy any more. There was also a halo around the tower, got rid of that.
Dún Briste sea stack, Downpatrick Head, Ireland
photo by Frederick Bancale
website - https://www.flickr.com/photos/fbancale/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47932740067_86e9ca0592_k.jpg
Another subject that I had trouble finding good photos of. Plenty of portraits, but the landscapes were lacking. I like the atmosphere of this one. The colors are right at the edge of being too sugary, still they are alright. However, this is a prime example of a photographer who doesn't know what the hell he's doing in Photoshop, and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near it. For some reason, he didn't like something on this wonderful sea stack. A flock of seagulls? A bunch of suicidal tourists? That particular rock over there? I don't know, but whatever it was, he sure cloned the hell out of it. It’s horrible. Repeating patterns everywhere.
He also didn't like something about that cape in the background - perhaps its very regular layers? So he cloned that out too, using the sea stack as the source. The result was... a mess.
So, I restored all that. I lifted the stack and the cape off of another photo taken from the more-or-less same position, put that in, sorted out the colors and the contrast, and cleaned-up some weird blotches all over the sea, which I'm guessing were the result of indiscriminate dodging and burning. And there was a vignette there, of course. Luckily, it wasn't too bad. Out it went.
‘Escape’ - Twistleton Scar, Yorkshire Dales National Park, Yorkshire, England, UK
photo by Pete Rowbottom
website - https://peterowbottom.net/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51100459436_5816a2b8bc_k.jpg
It's so windy there that the trees are permanently bent. Wonderful atmosphere and colors. This is the kind of Magic Hour lighting that I like.
I removed some halos, darkened and sharpened the image a bit.
‘Glow on the Pavement’ - Tesselated Pavement, Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania, Australia
photo by Robert Garrad
website - https://500px.com/p/robertwgarrad?view=photos
original image - https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/201596761/q%3D80_m%3D1500_of%3D1/v2?sig=347714a7539f344d35370b210c8ca90267a2f736c7cb537fb3abc39d4ac3070e
Contrary to what it looks like, this is a natural formation. Strange stuff, but beautiful, especially when you have a spectacular sunset and clouds for reflections.
I edited the colors here, because the original looked like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion to me. So I set them to something I think is more plausible.
‘Golden Hour’ - Ynys Llanddwyn, Wales, UK
photo by Howard Renshaw
website - https://www.flickr.com/photos/howard_renshaw/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/40701316233_9954f04a3a_o.jpg
Despite the title of the photo, it looked a bit too dusty and filtered to me, so I returned some of the color, and changed the atmosphere to something more like twilight.
Other than that, I reframed the photo to focus more on the chubby lighthouse, which I find to be the most interesting part of it.
