Seems muddied, lacklustre in colour. Help needed please.


2026-07-07_14-36-17.cr2.xmp (25.3 KB)

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Not sure if I loaded your XMP correctly, but your edit looks dark to me. Is your monitor calibrated? Unless editing for HDR (which I rarely try), my monitor is around 150-160 nits.

Quite a few factors contribute to “pop”, I think. At least for me microcontrast is one important factor, thus, I usually use Richardson-Lucy deconvolution to bring out details (instead of sharpening). I’m not sure what lens was used, but f/11 might be too much and loosing details due to diffraction (f/8 is the smallest I usually use for landscape).

I like natural look, not a fan of saturated, so here’s one from my usual workflow. Somehow I like your composition, the large sky with a hint of blue at the top gives me the openness of the scene/sky so I didn’t crop.


2026-07-07_14-36-17.cr2.xmp (9.5 KB)

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Here’s my first version,

I made it considerably lighter. +1.5EV
No fan of white mountains as they are in the distance, tried to keep them soft as probably the scene was lighted with soft warm winter light.
Not sure about the crop, tried to make the mountains the subject…
Removed small airplane, straightened, added frame.


2026-07-07_14-36-17.cr2.xmp (117.9 KB)

Considered making two photo’s out of it, one for the water-tower and one for the mountains.

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20260707_1436_0617.cr2.xmp (11.4 KB)

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I gave this one a go, but I must say, my take is completely lacking in color!


2026-07-07_14-36-17.cr2.xmp (17.5 KB)

I wonder if you might have been happier using a polarizer here. :man_shrugging:

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My aim was to have a natural look (or what I think is a natural look ^^ ) and have some details of that nice mountain.


2026-07-07_14-36-17.cr2.xmp (12.9 KB)

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