Hey! This looked kinda cool so I thought I’d jump in. I’m proud to say that @jamesstaddon was the first one to show me how to edit a RAW image at a homeschool conference eight years ago… it feels interesting to edit his image using some of his same techniques!
Like @lenspirationlydia, I didn’t look at James’s image before starting. I’m using ON1 Photo RAW 2023 to edit this image.
The first thing I noticed about this pic was that the composition wasn’t grabbing me as much as I’d like… I’m not on scene, but I do have a powerful tool at my disposal: the crop tool (Lenspiration tip #1). I cropped the image down to a 8×10 aspect ratio, putting the house (which I thought was the best spot for the eye to go) on the 3rd.
I then went into exposure and cranked it up about a stop and a third. Snow is supposed to be white, not grey! Usually the next thing I’ll do here as well is drop my blacks about 8-10 clicks (Lenspiration tip #2) and then because it’s a snowy image I popped the whites a little bit as well. I increased global contrast a bit too, gave it a little bit of structure (I think lightroom calls it “clarity”) and warmed up the white balance a smidge.
Then I went into my ON1NoNoiseAI section (the image didn’t really need it but ON1’s denoiser is scarily amazing and it also sharpens the image nicely). I let the robot do the work here and didn’t touch it after turning it on.
Jumped into curves, played a little bit with the contrast again…
At this point my sky was really blown out, so I went into the local settings, painted a mask over the sky using a feathered brush, dropped the exposure about a stop or two, popped the contrast, and then played with curves again for the sky. I brought in a little bit of red and blue with this tool as well to try and warm it up and make it play to the morning light.
Last thing I did was pop a vignette over the top of it (Lenspiration tip #3)… this draws attention more toward the sky and house.
If I were taking this picture, I’d probably recompose a smidge (at least for my edit style). I like the tree, but I feel the creek is a lead-in line that keeps derailing my eye to the left side of the frame.
… and then I looked at James’s edit. Very moody! It makes me feel like this image was taken at dawn… his edit is good too because he darkens the whole image except for what he wants the attention at.
… and then I looked at Lydia’s edit. Light, bright, and airy, which is part and parcel with what I’ve seen Lydia shoot before 🙂
… and then I looked at @samuelwest ‘s edit. I like how he captures the texture in the snow. It looks soft and inviting, which is something I don’t think I did very well.
… and then I looked back at mine. If I had to do it over, I’d decrease my contrast a bit.
This was a good challenge and I think it’s cool to see how we all approached the same image differently!
