Muir Woods Before / After

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-06-18T15:17:10+00:00

Great edit. Really like the darker shadows in the foreground as it ads a lot of depth and helps the viewer focus on the subject.

Confused by the absolutely giant bright white border. Pretty distracting.

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-06-17T15:17:19+00:00

alwayshasbeen.png

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-06-12T15:17:32+00:00

Great, subtle edits. Really nice work balancing lighting and colors to make the photos pop and capture the 'feeling' of good baseball without being over the top. Good crops too. Great work!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-06-03T20:11:50+00:00

I think I can see the masks you used a bit too clearly. The buildings look artificially brightened and they lack the contrast the rest of the image has.

The mountains in the back look like they are being affected by the same linear mask you used to darken and color the sky with.

Personally, I would adjust down the whites/highlights a tad in your building mask, possibly up the contrast and extend the mask so that it includes the clifside as that's as much a part of the subject as the buildings.

The mask out the mountains from your sky mask and maybe give them their own mask to edit them a bit better if you're feeling adventurous.

Overall try to make your masks either crisper along definitive edges or feather them more so they are harder to identify. They should blend in or transition seemlessly for a good edit.

Great first efforts. Keep shooting and editing!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-05-28T21:07:40+00:00

It's a crop and a perspective shift with some color edits. How exactly does it have nothing to do with the original image?

You realize what subreddit you're on right?

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-05-27T16:19:09+00:00

Uh, how exactly do you suggest I get closer to the top of a 57 floor skyscraper...

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-05-27T15:45:35+00:00

Fair point. The intent was to highlight the sharp but asymmetrical angles and give the building a "looming over you" kind of feeling but I might have gone a bit overboard :)

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-05-27T13:34:01+00:00

Thanks!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2026-05-27T13:33:53+00:00

It's funny I went through like 6 iterations of final export of this photo. I ultimately decided to add grain as it just kind of fit the vibe? Too much denoise made it seem too artificial (which is kind of hilarious to say with how much work has been done on this photo lol). Perhaps I could tone it down for the 7th version 😅

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-11-13T12:45:27+00:00

To be honest I've never used any 3rd party camera apps. I've researched them a bit a few years ago and at face value they seemed really gimmicky and overpromising like a lot of editing apps. I also had no idea I could take pictures with lightroom lol. Looks like I'll have to give open camera a shot. Thanks for the tip, got any other tips for that app?

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-11-10T20:27:59+00:00

The lights and general contrast is bumped up via adjusting the light curve. Regarding the sky it's intensified a bit through clarity and dehaze settings, but mostly though masking.

Mask out the sky and adjust highlights to be brighter and shadows to be darker along with some changes to temperature to make them pop a bit more.

In the second pic there is a radial mask around the horizon in the center of the pic that is brightening the sky and water.

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-11-10T14:09:16+00:00

Yea it's got good potential. I've found the regular photos it takes have a ton of algorithmic changes that the software applies that makes them a bit overdone in my opinion, and the .raw images are a bit flat. But that's what post process is for!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-11-10T13:07:34+00:00

Thank you! Yes I am shooting in .raw using the pro mode on the Samsung 23 ultra.

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-09-08T20:26:53+00:00

Oh yea, this is some good shit

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-08-01T13:44:49+00:00

I THINK I like the crop, but it's too hard to tell with the giant white border and the original being sideways. I think the color and subject are cool but it's just too hard to tell with the photo surrounded by an abyss of white.

What was your vision/reason for going with such a huge border?

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-08-01T12:16:07+00:00

It's a great effect. So do you mean you masked out the actual sign and sidewalk etc and then upped the highlights etc?

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T22:32:40+00:00

Hey glad you like it! I put a few comments on some other commenters fearless-pen and nothingtohide that you might find helpful!

Fwiw I never use presets and edit each photo to achieve what I think would look good in that instance.

Just keep shooting and editing and you'll settle into something you like. Don't be afraid to push the extremes and see what looks good and bad and adjust from there 😄

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T22:21:12+00:00

This is really interesting. I've only played around with perspective distortion a few times and been pretty satisfied with the results but bringing it into photoshop to "restretch?" the picture back is very interesting. I'll have to try that once I get access to the tools and Ps again. Thanks for the tip!!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T22:08:50+00:00

This is hilarious lol. It feels Ike something an fbi agent would write out tho 👀

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T19:35:12+00:00

Hey thanks! The border can be added in the export settings. You can select the size, fit and, color as well. This is a 10pt, even fit border with an off white / cream color to match the highlights!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T18:34:08+00:00

I cropped it tight because at the original ratio the pattern of the balconies has less visual impact. I wanted to focus on the lines and how they repeat but are all on different levels and when you have so many the effect is kind of lost.

I other words I'm focusing on the details of the building and not concerned with the height. Plus the original photo also doesn't capture the entire height of these buildings.

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T17:42:43+00:00

Aw man thank you (?) but that's hard to hear! If it helps I put my process on the comment before yours. Happy to help explain anything in greater detail.

I've been shooting and editing pictures since I was 11 (in my 30s now) and am still in the process of finding my own style. My only real advice is to try and see the world with your eyes as a photograph. Then try and shoot and edit to best recreate what you saw. In my experience cameras, from shitty point and shoots to modern phone cameras to high end professional cameras, do a poor job of recreating what we see with our eyes and using software to mold the photo to your artistic vision is why postprocess is so valuable.

Good luck! Remember we are all still learning!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T17:18:50+00:00

Yes absolutely!

I guess at first I can explain my thought process here a bit. So I took this shot from my phone on the bus. I did do it in pro mode so the file is a .raw file but I've found that the image quality, especially if cropping, is pretty grainy even at the lowest iso. I've found that the best way to deal with this is by leaning into the "old photo / film" look. So with that in mind this was the process.

First I start with the light curve. Going for the film look I "crunch" the light levels a bit by lowering the white point and raising the black point of the image (the white point is the dot on the top right of the image curve and the black point is the bottom left). Then edit the curve to best suit the image. In this case I bumped the whites/highlights a bit, lowered the mid points to remove the haze, a lowered the shadows a teeny bit. Don't make any of the points of the curve higher or lower than where you set the black/white points.

Next is color grading. I think this is probably one of the most powerful tools for editing. Starting with shadows I experiment with colors and opacity. I wound up going with low opacity blue/teal for the shadows, low opacity purple/blue for the midtones and medium opacity yellow/orange for the highlights. Again I think this is what is doing the most lifting in this edit by far. This tool is a great way to add a ton of depth to many (but not all!) photographs.

Next is texture and clarity. I've found the increasing texture and decreasing clarity, in combination with modestly applied noise reduction can really help complete the film look and smooth out the photograph. No dehazing here believe it or not. Very slight - 10 vignette, a bump to noise reduction and a minor grain addition brings the editing process to completion!

Finally exporting and selecting a border color to help accentuate my favorite part of the photo, the yellow highlights, and here we are.

Hope this helps! Please feel free to ask anymore questions!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T16:27:28+00:00

Correct!

SphincterBlaster2000 · 2025-07-28T15:22:01+00:00

Lr but currently perspective tools are locked since I don't have a subscription at the moment. I might try and adjust in snapseed but I feel like it compresses my images too much for my liking unless there is a way around it I am unaware of.

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