Subtle scenery please, easy on post-processing

November 19, 2021 9:58 AM

Natural Landscape Photography Awards 2021 — The competition was focused on awarding images based on composition, lighting, and originality as opposed to post-processing techniques or outlandish compositing: Why?, Winners, Galleries, Rules, Judging.
posted by cenoxo (13 comments total)

This is very cool, and the results are all the more stunning for the constraints placed on entries. A breath of fresh air, as it were, after getting blasted with HDR monstrosities on Flickr. Definitely provides inspiration as I'm trying to get back into the hobby.
posted by supercres at 10:58 AM on November 19, 2021

Between stacking for HDR, easy sky replacement, and some crazy tone curves it seems like a lot of landscape photography has become more about post processing and retroactive composition than about actually being in the moment and recording what you see. One thing I've found with a lot of my photography is that even though I'm shooting RAW+JPEG it's rare for me to be able to do better in software than my camera's built-in JPEG output already did. The exception is when I know up front that I'm going to need to bring out more highlights or shadows and so I push or pull my exposure a bit to help myself in post. Whenever I wonder if I'm missing something I'll push an exposure to the limit but it always just ends up looking gaudy to me. I'm here for any and all more naturalistic photography.
posted by fedward at 11:03 AM on November 19, 2021 [4 favorites]

Whoops, reviewing the rules, it looks like exposure and focus stacking is in bounds, but I didn't get that from the list of winners, i.e., it didn't slap me in the face. Subtlety-- who knew! Also a large leap from that to focal length stacking or sky replacement, etc.
posted by supercres at 11:08 AM on November 19, 2021

This style appeals to me! Although I do generally do some post-processing of my RAW images it's as little as I can get away with, to merely make them look as "natural" as possible and match what my eyes saw when I was there taking the picture.

These images are inspirational. My own photography efforts have been lying fallow for the past couple of years due to the pandemic, but these remind me of what fun it is and make me want to get out and clicking again.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:35 PM on November 19, 2021

It's actually somewhat depressing to me how you can't trust dramatic photos of nature to have much correspondence to what the eye actually saw. I know it's a continuum and every shot by its very nature is altered by photographer choices, but the fake spectacle disappoints me.
posted by praemunire at 12:39 PM on November 19, 2021

the fake spectacle disappoints me.

Unfortunately that's usually what sells (or gets you fake internet points).
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:53 PM on November 19, 2021

I really enjoyed these - thank you!

The "Photograph of the Year" winner really messes with my mind. It's like my visual software/hardware can't process that to see what it is.
posted by Caxton1476 at 1:18 PM on November 19, 2021

I'm glad it's not just me; I have stared at that photo for minutes and still have no idea how to form a model of the scene in my mind.
posted by ChrisR at 2:21 PM on November 19, 2021

Come now. Let's do it properly.

Metafilter: The fake spectacle disappoints me.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 3:01 PM on November 19, 2021

I'm glad it's not just me; I have stared at that photo for minutes and still have no idea how to form a model of the scene in my mind.

Same; this is what finally made it click for me.
posted by brook horse at 3:09 PM on November 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Unwritten rule, you must have a penis with which to push the shutter button, or else your photos just aren't good enough.You, you, you...losers!
posted by Oyéah at 6:33 PM on November 19, 2021 [4 favorites]

I wondered about that, then got distracted by the purty pitchers - which I guess means I'm actually evolving, but very very slowly... :/
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:38 PM on November 19, 2021

As someone who spends a reasonable amount of time taking photos but is too damn lazy to postprocess, I really enjoyed this.
posted by sciencegeek at 4:15 AM on November 20, 2021 [2 favorites]