Dealing with Flat Lighting Introduction

Nod your head if this sounds familiar… You’ve carved out the time for landscape photography. Maybe you’re traveling, or maybe your schedule limits how often you can get outside with your camera. Your coveted photo time arrives, you’ve gotten yourself to a great location, and… the light just isn’t there. Flat light. This is a common challenge landscape photographers face. I’m certainly no stranger to it!

In this video, join me on my search for a classic California sunset photo. I make a number of visits to the San Diego coast. However, Mother Nature keeps serving up overcast skies. During each visit, I share the challenges of the location and why, in some cases, the camera never came out of the bag.
I do capture a few frames across the multiple visits and talk about the types of photos I will capture on overcast days. I cover field tips and techniques for capturing a seascape, and why it’s valuable to take several images of the same composition.
Back in the studio, I craft two different interpretations of the scene. First, I process the photo as a more classic landscape. I also make a moodier, darker rendition of the photo. You’ll see lots of ON1 Photo RAW features put to use to make the final photos including layers, masking, compositing, luminosity masks, and presets.
Practice images are included so you can follow along with the editing process. I’ve also included the preset I use in the video.