After a break from photo processing during August, while sailing with our family, we are back to the normal rhythm! So I am joining the One Four Challenge, hosted by Robyn Gosby at Captivate Me. For those not familiar with this challenge, it requires participants to select an image and edit it in four different ways over four weeks. It is always a good exercise in finding ways to present your image differently and I learn a lot along the way.
September Image
Mangrove – Original Image
Our Winter cruise in Queensland provided some new material for me to work with and for September I am choosing to focus on an image of mangroves. This photo was taken during a coastal walk along the Pancake Creek Anchorage, when strong winds forced us to take shelter. I love the shapes and the aerial roots.
Week One Process
The horizon line on the original was a little crooked and the image was a bit overexposed, having been taken in the middle of the day. So here are the steps I took:
- Straightened and cropped the image using Lightroom
- Applied the usual adjustments I tend to use: small increase in the contrast, moderate increase to shadows, clarity and vibrance and a touch more saturation
- Added a graduated filters to the sky to deepen it a little
- Applied the Lightroom “Warm Sun” pre-set to bring a light ochre tinge to the image and render it as I remember the scene
Here is the result:
Mangrove – Week One
As always, kind comments and suggestions are welcome. Let me know what you think!
You might like to visit our group’s contributions by clicking on this One Four Challenge link. There is always very inspiring work posted each week.
Sv-Anui 
The mangrove leaves are clearer in the improved shot, brighter too
Yes they are. The adjustments are my routine tweaking with any image, since I shoot in RAW rather than JPEG, but they do make a difference.
We think your mangroves are beautiful! Good luck with the contest.
-Tiffany and Charles, SailingChiron.com
Hi guys, those challenges are good fun. You should join in!
Mangroves are really interesting and I like how they are lined up in this shot. Thanks for commenting.
Such cool trees…I don’t think I have ever seen photos of them before. I love the composition of this shot.
Thank you so much for the feedback. Yes the mangroves are interesting trees- very sculptural.
The mangroves are fantastic aren’t they? I bet they look interesting up close too.
I really like the changes so far and the shadows in the foreground are great!
Looking forward to the next editions Chris 🙂
Thanks Robyn – I love these trees. I took so many different photos of them when we were up north.
I’ve never seen these close up and love those root systems!
A nice image for this type of challenge. I really like the shadows on the sand. I am not sure what i could suggest for future edits, maybe some cropping to see what comes out.
Thanks Ben!
Chris its a great image, lots of challenges with the shadows and lots of fine detail to work with 🙂 I love the aerial roots – does the tide come in up over them?
Hi Stacey, yes the tide comes right up and some of the roots get covered but you can often seen the network close to shore.
Mangroves are so cool — they look as if they could just pick up those roots and walk with long, elegant steps. The warmth and detail in the edit is great.
Thank you Kaz – i like the imagery you gave!
This is a neat image and your edit gave it a more vibrant/alive feel. I liked it very much.
Thanks Ida for the kind feedback.
I’ve never seen baby mangrove trees before. They look like they’re walking along happily holding roots. This is a very subtle edit but I like the warmer tones, it feels more tropical.
I like the imagery… Holding roots! Thanks Elizal 😊
A great image and I like your week 1 tweaks. 🙂 I look forward to seeing where you go with it next.
Thanks for the feedback.
A very interesting image. The original suffers from a lack of contrast and (apparent) sharpness, looking a bit flat. The edit, with little changes, really improves on this and gives the image depth. It looks much more real. Great image framing. I eagerly look forward to more.
Thank you Joanne for your feedback. Yes the original wad taken in the middle of the day and did look a bit washed out. It good to work on it and have it looking more like I remember!
Great editing, SV! Love the “warm sun”. I should try LR presets more often.
BTW, I reduced the curve as you suggested, it did sharp the image. Thank you again for the feedback! 🙂
Pleasure😊 BTW the SV in the URL stands for Sailing Vessel… I’m Chris…. Thank you so much for the follow.
Very nice!!
Thanks Nora!
subtle changes, but added together make a really nice image. The roots are so neat! What a great find. 🙂
Hi Nic – aren’t they amazing! Thanks for the feedback.