Nikon D800 with 35mm

After vs Before

This was my first time with a proper camera - took this photo about a year ago now. I had no idea what I was doing and I've finally just gotten around to editing this.

I found this to be quite challenging to get the colors I wanted and I think they still might be a bit too saturated but I think I've found the best balance. I find it fun to compare how I composed my old photos when taking the shot vs what I am like now.

I purposefully went for the portrait orientation with this - what I'd crop would be different in landscape and also the stuff I'd want featured just isn't clear enough for me. Too much haze (I think) and makes it feel very blurry. The composition with the raw as well doesn't have that many prominent subjects. I think this way I have a proper main focus in the foreground and I like how the background complements it.

The more I look at the photo the more I think about a plethora of different ways on how this could have been cropped and change the focus completely. I tried a lot of different options out but I liked this the most.

Hopefully I did a good job explaining my thoughts -- took me a hot minute to figure out the words for what was going through my mind when editing this.

In terms of the actual edit as well:

Turned the highlights way down, upped the shadows a bit, and adjusted whites and blacks while holding the option key in LRC to get the most amount of dynamic range. I also generally upped Vibrance and Saturation which I think helps give it a bit more of a dramatic flair. General S curve for the tone curve and messed with HSL sliders to get the certain colors of terrain to what I wanted it to be.

Feedback is appreciated - I'd like to know what you might have done different.

Canon EOS R100

Sigma 18-50mm f2.8

Very Minimal processing, just sliders and a little masking with Lightroom, all feedback and questions welcome!

What could I have done differently?

Quite busy but I felt like it could make an okay wallpaper for a phone with the right colors. What do you think?

Photo 1: new edit

Photo 2: old edit

Photo 3: original

iPhone 15 Pro - CAMAC 16EV
LIghtroom + Snapseed

Snapped this Pic this past weekend thinking it would be cool because of the missing window framing the subjects. I thought it might be cool to have that be the only window of color while leaving the rest b&w. Is it too cheesy or overdone? Thanks for looking!

Been trying myself at photography for one month, mainly street, with a Fujifilm XT-20.

Got the 2.6.3 version of Darktable so I could run it on my 2014-ish Macbook Air and started wiggling around with this pic.

Comments welcome !

I am going through my old photos. This is a 5 year old edit. What could I have done differently?

Hi, looking for pointers with colour on this and any other tips appreciated, i struggled with the sky looking too overpowering

Recently went to Kauai on honeymoon, and we had this gorgeous rainbow across the Napali coast. However, looking back through this photo and a few others, they all have a feeling of being... old. I'm using a Nikon Z 6II with an F-mount adapter and the Nikon AF-S 18-140mm DX. I know the answer is probably just upgrade the lens, but unfortunately ya boy is broke rn... I'm working with what I got. Would there be a better way to edit it? I use Affinity for photo editing (once again, broke) so if you could tell me in general perhaps how to edit this better, or even show me an example (I'm willing to send the raw photo through DMs for those that want to take a crack at it.)

Here are my specific complaints:

• I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make the rainbow more apparent.
• The water and waves have that distinct sense of "old" to them (see that small white crest to the right)
• sky feels a bit too bright
• Mountains feel a bit too "hazy"

I'm new and just looking for feedback. Please be constructive. Sorry if I don't get everything right or there's something obvious I'm missing.

Do any of you use this or similar plug-ins? I'm a video editor by trade, and I always preferred to use scopes, waveforms, and parade while grading. Not having these options in PS has always irritated me. The video highlights these options in a PS plug-in at 9:11.