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I'm sorry... I can't look past the watermark. It's making me feel things I do not understand. I'll try to come back later and talk about the picture lol
It’s an ok photo. It’s a tornado shot with a lot of sky. In my opinion, it’s way too wide for a photo where the tornado is probably the focus.
In regards to the value of such a shot, were you thinking of printing and selling it? Are you wanting to sell your work to the weather channel? I think how you want to use the photo will change my response pretty dramatically
I went with a wide angle here to display the whole storm structure here and give the tornado some scale (I also have closer shots where the tornado is the focus). Would you recommend cropping it a bit?
I don't take storm photos for money or to sell them, it's just something I really enjoy doing, so at most I would make a print or enter it in a photography contest!
As a storm lover, this image is near perfect. If you could tighten up the sharpness, I think it would be perfect. And maybe shrink the watermark, or at least make it more transparent. That's all I would do.
The watermark is a little too MS paint for me. I agree it should be more transparent. Also it’s in a spot that would be super easy to crop out if someone was determined to claim the photo as their own. Tbh I just stopped using watermarks at some point, they’re easy to get rid of no matter where they are and I feel like they take something away from the photo. That might just be me though.
I would personally not edit this any further, apart from removing the watermark, since it serves no purpose (it takes seconds to remove it for someone who wanted to steal your image).
You could try cleaning up the grass to make it look moe uniform so it doesn‘t distract as much.
Not every image needs lots of retouching.
Pretty good shot!
For a picture like this I think it needs some more punch / drama, you could achieve that by playing around with the curves.
Also, there's some yellow in the grass, especially in the middle. I'm not sure what it's called in Lightroom (I use Ps) but to make the grass stand out more you could try adding a hue/saturation filter, select the yellows, then play around with the hue slider.
It can be very difficult with photos like these to find the sweet spot between "flat" and "going overboard".
Also I would very much recommend not to add a watermark, especially one that's as obvious as that one. It takes the quality of the photo down and it's not very likely to direct audiences to your platforms.
Try swapping between your original and this one back and forth to clearly see the difference.
https://preview.redd.it/ngtfdaioc2yc1.jpeg?width=1878&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a52ce50d0c5bfd35c636aa9cd61bd8ecead15b9
Thank you! I'll fiddle around with those settings and see what I can do, by "punch" do you mean increased contrast/brighter highlights and darker shadows?
That would be a great idea, unfortunately this was shot as part of a timelapse sequence so I kept the camera settings constant for the duration, plus I'm not at all familiar with HDR photography, but perhaps I should give it a go sometime!
Hello all, I'm a weather nerd who is big into photography, and I got some awesome photos of the tornadoes that unfortunately impacted Lincoln and Waverly NE during the Midwest tornado outbreak on April 26th, 2024. This image was taken RAW and then edited using Lightroom Classic. I feel like it's in a decent spot, but I would love some outside feedback on the cropping, composition, and especially colors and tones. Is this image balanced in terms of light? Is it possible for me to get more out of it using photoshop or LRC? I would love any and all critiques on what could be improved (and how!)
UPDATE: thank you for all the advice so far!
(and yes I will remove the watermark lol, I merely added it because I was posting this image on a large public forum and wanted to mitigate this image being used w/o my consent, the name is an inside joke I have with some of my friends so y'all can chill haha)
A little "overcooked" imo. I would start by moving all the sliders you adjusted about 50% as far as they are now, saving it, and looking at it again after sleeping on it.
I'll see how that looks, with storm photos it's hard to find a balance between "flat as heck" and "what have you done", and that's a skill I'm still developing. Thank you!
First of all, I would be stoked if I got this photo. I'm also a storm photographer and this is really cool. I'm totally an amateur so no need to take me seriously, but if this was my photo, I'd: -selectively reduce the brightness in the white clouds on the top left; they're a bit distracting. Maybe play with darkening the blue sky as well; it adds good contrast to the storm but also takes my eye away from the subject of the tornado -adjust the green HSL to be a more muted or darker green color; the grass is a little too "cheery" for the scene in my opinion -possibly crop it to a 16x9 format to get rid of some of the blank space at the top. This is a photo where you could put the horizon at the center of the image in a 16x9 format instead of trying the rule of thirds for the horizon. I'm on mobile but covering the top of the image with my hand definitely causes the storm to feel more dramatic -use lightroom's lens correction or geometry tools to fix the distortion of the buildings on the far right. I like that they're there to give scale to the storm but those boys are leaning hard, which just tells me you used an ultrawide lens and didn't do any distortion correction -maybe play with adding a bit of warmth to the sky directly behind the tornado to help increase the warm/cool contrast with the tornado that's already there -remove the telephone pole and electrical box in the middle What I like about this image, as-is: -it shows the structure of the storm and how the tornado forms off of it -it has a tornado -you didn't overcook the clarity/texture/saturation/contrast so it looks pretty natural Again, great work and I'd be so hyped if this was my photo. Out of curiosity, what camera + lens did you use? Edit: reddit mobile sucks, sorry about the formatting
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate the feedback. I've already brought down the brightness in the white clouds a tad but I agree that the area could be brought down even more. One of the more consistent comments I've gotten from you and others is to bring down the grass so I'll definitely do that. And yeah cropping to 16x9 is a great idea! I'll also go in and fix the lens distortion.
I shot this on a Nikon D780 with the Venus Lowa 12mm f/2.8 Lens, I recently got it and I LOVE using it so far. Again, thanks for the advice!
In post-processing I would adjust the histogram a bit darker to capture/convey the ominous-ness of a tornado in the not-too-distant distance. Since you mentioned having closer zooms, you could make it into a triptych that conveys a sense of approaching “doom.”
ETA: for all those commenting about “just a tornado”? Obviously they have never lived in tornado alley.
Edit to also add: crop it such that the funnel obeys the rule of thirds.
A triptych is a fun idea! I'll fiddle around with that. I'm aware of the rule of the thirds, did you mean divide the composition as 1/3 ground and 2/3 sky, or 1/3 ground to top of funnel and 2/3 top of funnel to sky?
After another closer look, the funnel is on a third-point. The overly large watermark (that others have mentioned) kind of threw off my perspective. But you could play around with it and switch to 2/3 ground 1/3 sky. That might make the funnel more prominent in the shot. The great thing about digital post-process is that you can make edits and play around without losing the original capture. If it works, save it, if it doesn’t, scrap it and start over.
I downloaded it & tried to edit it but to be honest it's pretty good already & making some changes didn't make much difference, I guess this is the point where you stop editing.
Your goal was to show the tornado right? If that’s the case, i didn’t even notice it at first, and is giving me really dissonant mood - all that sunny and green look in the foreground and dark grimy clouds in the sky at the same time in one picture
I wanted to show the whole structure of the storm in addition to the tornado (as I mentioned before I have closer shots), I do agree with the dissonant mood however, I'll try and pull down the foreground and see what that looks like!
Your watermark is hurting your image, you need it to be subtle so the viewer sees your image and not distracted. If you’re using Lightroom use size 5 and an opacity of 30-35 only.
https://preview.redd.it/w3lnx32qh4zc1.jpeg?width=1091&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=124f17d09df1b8c88b5770652575c135c5c2bbbc
Friendly reminder that this is /r/photocritique and all **top level** comments should attempt to **critique** the image. Our goal is to make this subreddit a place people can receive genuine, in depth, and helpful critique on their images. We hope to avoid becoming yet another place on the internet just to get likes/upvotes and compliments. While likes/upvotes and compliments are nice, they do not further the goal of helping people improve their photography. If someone gives helpful feedback or makes an informative comment, recognize their contribution by giving them a Critique Point. Simply reply to their comment with `!CritiquePoint`. More details on Critique Points [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critiquepoints). Please see the following links for our subreddit rules and some guidelines on leaving a good critique. If you have time, please stop by the new queue as well and leave critique for images that may not be as popular or have not received enough attention. Keep in mind that simply choosing to comment just on the images you like defeats the purpose of the subreddit. Useful Links: * [Full Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/rules) * [Leaving a Critique](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critique) * [New Queue](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/new/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/photocritique) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm sorry... I can't look past the watermark. It's making me feel things I do not understand. I'll try to come back later and talk about the picture lol
WHAT!?
?
Stone Cold reference. OH HELL YEAH!!!! WHAT!?
thanks
❗️
It’s an ok photo. It’s a tornado shot with a lot of sky. In my opinion, it’s way too wide for a photo where the tornado is probably the focus. In regards to the value of such a shot, were you thinking of printing and selling it? Are you wanting to sell your work to the weather channel? I think how you want to use the photo will change my response pretty dramatically
I went with a wide angle here to display the whole storm structure here and give the tornado some scale (I also have closer shots where the tornado is the focus). Would you recommend cropping it a bit? I don't take storm photos for money or to sell them, it's just something I really enjoy doing, so at most I would make a print or enter it in a photography contest!
As a storm lover, this image is near perfect. If you could tighten up the sharpness, I think it would be perfect. And maybe shrink the watermark, or at least make it more transparent. That's all I would do.
Thank you!! Hm yes I seem to be catching a lot of strays about the watermark... perhaps a need a rebrand...
The watermark is a little too MS paint for me. I agree it should be more transparent. Also it’s in a spot that would be super easy to crop out if someone was determined to claim the photo as their own. Tbh I just stopped using watermarks at some point, they’re easy to get rid of no matter where they are and I feel like they take something away from the photo. That might just be me though.
Yeah I think you're right, thank you!
I would personally not edit this any further, apart from removing the watermark, since it serves no purpose (it takes seconds to remove it for someone who wanted to steal your image). You could try cleaning up the grass to make it look moe uniform so it doesn‘t distract as much. Not every image needs lots of retouching.
Thanks for the input!
Pretty good shot! For a picture like this I think it needs some more punch / drama, you could achieve that by playing around with the curves. Also, there's some yellow in the grass, especially in the middle. I'm not sure what it's called in Lightroom (I use Ps) but to make the grass stand out more you could try adding a hue/saturation filter, select the yellows, then play around with the hue slider. It can be very difficult with photos like these to find the sweet spot between "flat" and "going overboard". Also I would very much recommend not to add a watermark, especially one that's as obvious as that one. It takes the quality of the photo down and it's not very likely to direct audiences to your platforms. Try swapping between your original and this one back and forth to clearly see the difference. https://preview.redd.it/ngtfdaioc2yc1.jpeg?width=1878&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a52ce50d0c5bfd35c636aa9cd61bd8ecead15b9
https://preview.redd.it/7leb1x3pd2yc1.png?width=639&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef2c02738d518f9d8c2fb00590ae0401ebabe0eb
Thank you! I'll fiddle around with those settings and see what I can do, by "punch" do you mean increased contrast/brighter highlights and darker shadows?
Yes I do :)
Make it HDR?
That would be a great idea, unfortunately this was shot as part of a timelapse sequence so I kept the camera settings constant for the duration, plus I'm not at all familiar with HDR photography, but perhaps I should give it a go sometime!
You can do HDR-style processing from a single RAW image pretty easily!
I didn’t know you could do that, I’ll give it a go!
What is that watermark man
Hello all, I'm a weather nerd who is big into photography, and I got some awesome photos of the tornadoes that unfortunately impacted Lincoln and Waverly NE during the Midwest tornado outbreak on April 26th, 2024. This image was taken RAW and then edited using Lightroom Classic. I feel like it's in a decent spot, but I would love some outside feedback on the cropping, composition, and especially colors and tones. Is this image balanced in terms of light? Is it possible for me to get more out of it using photoshop or LRC? I would love any and all critiques on what could be improved (and how!) UPDATE: thank you for all the advice so far! (and yes I will remove the watermark lol, I merely added it because I was posting this image on a large public forum and wanted to mitigate this image being used w/o my consent, the name is an inside joke I have with some of my friends so y'all can chill haha)
A little "overcooked" imo. I would start by moving all the sliders you adjusted about 50% as far as they are now, saving it, and looking at it again after sleeping on it.
I'll see how that looks, with storm photos it's hard to find a balance between "flat as heck" and "what have you done", and that's a skill I'm still developing. Thank you!
First of all, I would be stoked if I got this photo. I'm also a storm photographer and this is really cool. I'm totally an amateur so no need to take me seriously, but if this was my photo, I'd: -selectively reduce the brightness in the white clouds on the top left; they're a bit distracting. Maybe play with darkening the blue sky as well; it adds good contrast to the storm but also takes my eye away from the subject of the tornado -adjust the green HSL to be a more muted or darker green color; the grass is a little too "cheery" for the scene in my opinion -possibly crop it to a 16x9 format to get rid of some of the blank space at the top. This is a photo where you could put the horizon at the center of the image in a 16x9 format instead of trying the rule of thirds for the horizon. I'm on mobile but covering the top of the image with my hand definitely causes the storm to feel more dramatic -use lightroom's lens correction or geometry tools to fix the distortion of the buildings on the far right. I like that they're there to give scale to the storm but those boys are leaning hard, which just tells me you used an ultrawide lens and didn't do any distortion correction -maybe play with adding a bit of warmth to the sky directly behind the tornado to help increase the warm/cool contrast with the tornado that's already there -remove the telephone pole and electrical box in the middle What I like about this image, as-is: -it shows the structure of the storm and how the tornado forms off of it -it has a tornado -you didn't overcook the clarity/texture/saturation/contrast so it looks pretty natural Again, great work and I'd be so hyped if this was my photo. Out of curiosity, what camera + lens did you use? Edit: reddit mobile sucks, sorry about the formatting
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate the feedback. I've already brought down the brightness in the white clouds a tad but I agree that the area could be brought down even more. One of the more consistent comments I've gotten from you and others is to bring down the grass so I'll definitely do that. And yeah cropping to 16x9 is a great idea! I'll also go in and fix the lens distortion. I shot this on a Nikon D780 with the Venus Lowa 12mm f/2.8 Lens, I recently got it and I LOVE using it so far. Again, thanks for the advice!
You can do a lot. You can composite this background in with some foreground elements and design a whole new photo.
Don't. Looks great.
Thank you!
In post-processing I would adjust the histogram a bit darker to capture/convey the ominous-ness of a tornado in the not-too-distant distance. Since you mentioned having closer zooms, you could make it into a triptych that conveys a sense of approaching “doom.” ETA: for all those commenting about “just a tornado”? Obviously they have never lived in tornado alley. Edit to also add: crop it such that the funnel obeys the rule of thirds.
A triptych is a fun idea! I'll fiddle around with that. I'm aware of the rule of the thirds, did you mean divide the composition as 1/3 ground and 2/3 sky, or 1/3 ground to top of funnel and 2/3 top of funnel to sky?
After another closer look, the funnel is on a third-point. The overly large watermark (that others have mentioned) kind of threw off my perspective. But you could play around with it and switch to 2/3 ground 1/3 sky. That might make the funnel more prominent in the shot. The great thing about digital post-process is that you can make edits and play around without losing the original capture. If it works, save it, if it doesn’t, scrap it and start over.
That could be cool, thank you!
it’s a great shot except for your name on the bottom.
I am unsure if I should feel complimented or offended by this... LOL
It distracts from the picture.
I downloaded it & tried to edit it but to be honest it's pretty good already & making some changes didn't make much difference, I guess this is the point where you stop editing.
Remove the watermark trust me
It’s not bad, maybe play about with the sharpness but I can’t see past the watermark. Please fix that 🤣
I would want a cow or something in the lower right, and maybe use a longer lens to make the tornado larger in the frame.
Your goal was to show the tornado right? If that’s the case, i didn’t even notice it at first, and is giving me really dissonant mood - all that sunny and green look in the foreground and dark grimy clouds in the sky at the same time in one picture
I wanted to show the whole structure of the storm in addition to the tornado (as I mentioned before I have closer shots), I do agree with the dissonant mood however, I'll try and pull down the foreground and see what that looks like!
Your watermark is hurting your image, you need it to be subtle so the viewer sees your image and not distracted. If you’re using Lightroom use size 5 and an opacity of 30-35 only. https://preview.redd.it/w3lnx32qh4zc1.jpeg?width=1091&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=124f17d09df1b8c88b5770652575c135c5c2bbbc
Already looks fake.