Post Processing How to achieve the "dramatic" effect in these photos?

[markzg2]

Hi all,

I am trying to make some posters for my apartment, downloaded some images from unsplash and now trying to edit them to make them pop. I found the same images, edited, on another forum (but they are low res) and now I am wondering how they achieved the "dramatic" effect that really makes them stand out?

I converted images to black and white, and played with saturation, brightness and some photo filters, but can't achieve anywhere similar results.

What do you think the person used to turn the images the way they did? Are there any tutorials you can point me to?

Thank you so much for your help

 

[Rich54]

Take a look at this tutorial, which gives two methods for creating dramatic B&W images: using the B&W adjustment layer, or using the Camera Raw filter.

Be aware that these methods only work for converting color images to B&W. They will not work when the original image is B&W to start with.

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome!

Is there any chance you could post an unedited version of one of the images? One unedited photo will be fine. We may need one unedited photo to experiment with.

 

[markzg2]

Hello and welcome!

Is there any chance you could post an unedited version of one of the images? One unedited photo will be fine. We may need one unedited photo to experiment with.

Sure, here it is

 

[markzg2]

Sure, here it is

 

[JeffK]

Wasn't sure if you wangted to keep color or not - but I just played a bit with the color version.

First thing I did was remove that white roofline at the top of the castle - in color, or black and white, it pulls the eye right into it:



Another tip is to use sky replacement feature of Photoshop to place a more dramatic sky - if you don't have that version, you can always download a sky from either Unsplash or PetaPixel:



Since the castle is really the focus of your attention, I'd want it to dominate the image. I played with the following technique:

A Clever Photoshop Trick for Making Landscape Photos More Dramatic

A common issue in landscape photography is shrunken backgrounds due to using a wide angle lens. This excellent video tutorial will show you a neat technique for fixing the issue in Photoshop. Coming to you from Brian Matiash, this great video tutorial will show you an interesting technique for...

fstoppers.com

I used the lasso too to select the castle, part of the sky, and the trees:



Then, feathering the selection, I used the transform tool to increase the size of the castle:



I didn't get deeply into the details - just wanted to offer a start These are just my opinions - others may com in with alternate ideas for you.

- Jeff

 

[markzg2]

Wasn't sure if you wangted to keep color or not - but I just played a bit with the color version.

First thing I did was remove that white roofline at the top of the castle - in color, or black and white, it pulls the eye right into it:

View attachment 135916

Another tip is to use sky replacement feature of Photoshop to place a more dramatic sky - if you don't have that version, you can always download a sky from either Unsplash or PetaPixel:

View attachment 135917

Since the castle is really the focus of your attention, I'd want it to dominate the image. I played with the following technique:

A Clever Photoshop Trick for Making Landscape Photos More Dramatic

A common issue in landscape photography is shrunken backgrounds due to using a wide angle lens. This excellent video tutorial will show you a neat technique for fixing the issue in Photoshop. Coming to you from Brian Matiash, this great video tutorial will show you an interesting technique for...

fstoppers.com

I used the lasso too to select the castle, part of the sky, and the trees:

View attachment 135918

Then, feathering the selection, I used the transform tool to increase the size of the castle:

View attachment 135919

I didn't get deeply into the details - just wanted to offer a start These are just my opinions - others may com in with alternate ideas for you.

- Jeff

This looks great, love it! Especially the sky replacement tool is incredible. What tool did you use to remove the object? I tried healing patch and content aware fill but got bad results.

 

[markzg2]

Wasn't sure if you wangted to keep color or not - but I just played a bit with the color version.

First thing I did was remove that white roofline at the top of the castle - in color, or black and white, it pulls the eye right into it:

View attachment 135916

Another tip is to use sky replacement feature of Photoshop to place a more dramatic sky - if you don't have that version, you can always download a sky from either Unsplash or PetaPixel:

View attachment 135917

Since the castle is really the focus of your attention, I'd want it to dominate the image. I played with the following technique:

A Clever Photoshop Trick for Making Landscape Photos More Dramatic

A common issue in landscape photography is shrunken backgrounds due to using a wide angle lens. This excellent video tutorial will show you a neat technique for fixing the issue in Photoshop. Coming to you from Brian Matiash, this great video tutorial will show you an interesting technique for...

fstoppers.com

I used the lasso too to select the castle, part of the sky, and the trees:

View attachment 135918

Then, feathering the selection, I used the transform tool to increase the size of the castle:

View attachment 135919

I didn't get deeply into the details - just wanted to offer a start These are just my opinions - others may com in with alternate ideas for you.

- Jeff

Another question,

I am trying to remove the boat from this picture, but all the moethods I tried give bad results (content aware fill, patch, clone). Is the removal of the object even possible or is it too complex?

 

[markzg2]

Another question,

I am trying to remove the boat from this picture, but all the moethods I tried give bad results (content aware fill, patch, clone). Is the removal of the object even possible or is it too complex?

View attachment 135924

The issue is I think, there is a lot of shadows and different shades of water

 

[JeffK]

This looks great, love it! Especially the sky replacement tool is incredible. What tool did you use to remove the object? I tried healing patch and content aware fill but got bad results.

I used the quick selection tool since the borders seem well defined. Then used the clone tool, choosing the lower part of the sky, and filled it in. The selection creates a "container' that keeps the cloning within the selection and preventing it from spilling over onto the adjacent parts of the image. Then, when you use the sky replacement tool, it chooses that section as well so the replacement is uniform.

 

[JeffK]

The issue is I think, there is a lot of shadows and different shades of water

Your best choice is the clone tool - but we can only work on one image per post. @IamSam, can you create a new post out of this request?

 

[MrToM]

Is the removal of the object even possible or is it too complex?

Sort of.
With a little more care and attention I'm sure you could do better than this...



Unfortunately I didn't really use any other techniques other than those you have already pointed out.
There is a wealth of resources to choose from in the image with only a very small portion needing more than one stiff drink to accomplish.

I can go into more detail if you want but it may be best for you to start a new thread with just the Tower Bridge image in it.

Regards.
MrToM.