Practical Photography - UK (2020-01)

76 PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY

It wasmy first

ti mein Banff,

Canada.Theday

af ter our arrival,

my girlfriend

and I decided

to drive to Jasper. En route,

something caught my eye,

like a scene from a movie.

I immediately stopped the car,

though I had to wait for the

clouds to be perfectly aligned,

which took several tries, but

I was satisfied with the result.

The image was edited using

Luminar 3, which is what Iuse

fo r all my editing.

instagram.com/yanteor

Ben says: Did someone say

Ansel Adams? There are

definitely shades of the great

American West legend in

Yan’s misty landscape, even

if we’re looking at the Rockies

hereratherthanYosemite.

Firstly, it doesn’t stick

rigidly to the rules – there’s

no immediate foreground, no

lead-in lines and no obvious

focal point. Instead, we have

layers and tones. Secondly,

although he often poured days

andweeksintoa single frame,

even Adams admitted that on

occasion he was simply in the

right place at the right time,

which Yan certainly was on

this occasion.

Yan’s image would look

truly stunning in black &

white,which,of course,

was Adams’callingcard

• al thoughhe alsoshot
  hundreds of colour slides.
  With a subtle mono
  conversion and some time
  spent dodging and burning,
  Yan’s Banff landscape could
  be transformed into a misty
  masterpiece. Skylum’s
  Luminar software features
  a huge range of mono Looks,
  which would be a great place
  to start, and you’ll find the
  Dodge & Burn tool in the
  Professional category of
  Filters. It’s still an epic shot
  though – nice work, Yan!

This doesn’t stick rigidly to

the rules of photography, but

it does have layers and tones

Misty mountains by Yan Teor

Olympus E-M5 | 21mm | 1/640sec | f/8 | ISO 200

Dodging and burning is an old darkroom technique

used to lighten and darken specific areas, and one

which Ansel Adams used extensively to create his

incredible large-format landscapes. Much of today’s

editing software is based on these old techniques

and works in much the same way – just without the

manic waving of hands under enlargers! The Dodge

Tool lightens while the Burn Tool darkens, and both

should be deployed only after you’ve applied your

basic edits such as white balance, exposure and

saturation. Give it a try and you won’t look back.

Enhance contrast