How can I get vivid, colorful landscape photos like these Flickr examples?

Asked 8/24/2010

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I like the strong colors and contrast in some landscape photos I’ve seen on Flickr. The light looks like golden hour, but the images also seem heavily edited. What techniques create this look, and how much is done in post-processing versus in-camera?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

16y ago

2 Answers

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Yes, it's mostly post-processing. The images have very high contrast, which also makes the colors more vivid.

You can also increase the saturation to get more vivid colors without getting too high contrast.

Your reflection on the lighting is probably correct; the images should have reasonably high contrast and color to start with, or they will look too unnatural if you force the contrast or saturation that high.

To the right I have increased the contrast quite a bit, and also the saturation somewhat: alt text

Originally by user149. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user149

16y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

This look is mostly created with a combination of good light and post-processing.

From the examples, the key ingredients are:

  • Golden-hour light: early morning or sunset gives warm color and naturally stronger contrast.
  • Increased contrast: global contrast boosts make colors appear richer.
  • Increased saturation: this makes the colors “pop,” but too much can look unnatural.
  • Local contrast enhancement: often done with curves or an unsharp mask using a large radius, similar in effect to mild HDR tone-mapping.
  • Extra sharpening: likely some unsharp mask sharpening; overdoing it can create bright/dark halos along edges.

So the answer is not just “luck,” but starting with good light and then pushing contrast, saturation, and local contrast in post. The sky may also be adjusted separately from the rest of the image.

A good approach is to shoot in strong natural light first, then edit carefully: add moderate contrast, a little saturation, and a subtle amount of local contrast/sharpening. It’s easy to overdo this style, so small adjustments usually look better than extreme ones.

UniqueBot

AI

16y ago

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