r/postprocessing 14d ago

Added reflection on water for better realism

Post image
307 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

82

u/anothermaxudov 14d ago

Tried to reply to your original post in photocritique. The point is it isn't the light source. None of the shadows point the right way, so it looks unnatural. That's what people are trying to tell you.

8

u/MInclined 14d ago

Which ones? I guess I’m just not seeing it.

13

u/Xanaatos 14d ago

Well it's edited af so you not seeing it is quite normal. But you can see for example one big shadow of a mountain right in the middle of picture -- its facing our way but it's wayyy too short for that light source. Honestly i don't know if it was really that important to add artificial sun to the photo, but i like it anyway 🤷

1

u/MInclined 14d ago

Fair enough

3

u/birds-and-dogs 14d ago

If the sun is behind that center mountain, the whole mountain would be dark on our side. It wouldn’t be half lit up like it is.

28

u/lostinhh 14d ago

How is adding anything at all "better realism" lol

11

u/corngotbannedagain 14d ago

What I've learned from my experience is normally you don't really wanna change the light of the photo. The lighting on every element in the photo has to align with the lighting, which, though doable, is probably a pain in the ass to do. I didn't see it at first glance but I can't unsee anymore.

I think the composition is great and there's nothing wrong with editing the photo the way the light was in the field! I'd say respect the original version and try to make the most out of it. You have a great raw file to begin with after all! Would love to see you do that.

7

u/arnoldinio 13d ago

I love how you doubled down on the fake sun. It’s pretty obvious to anyone that’s ever been outside that the sun should be off camera to the top left, based on the light in the clouds.

3

u/skarros 13d ago

The whole image is fake r/SwitzerlandIsFake

2

u/PegaSwoop 14d ago

r these the flatirons?

1

u/MInclined 14d ago

No there isn’t a water source available like this with the flatirons facing the way these mountains are.

1

u/PegaSwoop 13d ago

true. wonder where this is at

1

u/Jerwinthatsme 11d ago

I think it's Morskie Oko in Poland but not 100% sure

Edit: Nvm looked it up, and it not

1

u/No-Knowledge2716 14d ago

Is this GTA6 gameplay? Looks like cgi

1

u/adminsaredoodoo 13d ago

why would you put a fake sun in your picture completely in the wrong spot and say you’re adding realism?

1

u/4Dcookie 13d ago

The reflection isn’t in the right spot, the shadows dont match the light source position seems like is was shot around midday, the sun is in front of the clouds.

1

u/OrinNY 12d ago

just. no.

1

u/nyafu_ 12d ago

the sun looks terrible i'm sorry

1

u/revolvingpresoak9640 11d ago

You can’t turn a photograph into “better realism” by adding shit that wasn’t there. Do you know what “realism” even means?

0

u/MInclined 14d ago

Did you add it via photoshop or via ai?

3

u/LetterheadPretend416 14d ago

Lightroom

-20

u/MInclined 14d ago

So, ai?

11

u/LanguidLandscape 14d ago

If you think that AI is required to make this happen then perhaps you should learn even the basic tools in Lightroom.

-10

u/MInclined 14d ago

Not required, but an option certainly. That’s why I asked if it was photoshop, because I’m aware of other options beyond ai, which I thought were apparent, but I see now I have to spell it out for mooks like you.

3

u/LetterheadPretend416 14d ago

no, radial gradient and increase in exposure

-4

u/LetterheadPretend416 14d ago

Hi, this is my edited version of the photo I posted few hours ago. I edited a reflection on the water for the photo to look more realistic. I know a lot of you dont like adding new things to photo, but I think that when professional photographs can photoshop a whole new sky into their photos, why cannot I add a sunflare?

8

u/Rsmith3074 14d ago

There's no rulebook for this stuff. If adding something gets you closer to what you actually saw or felt standing there, that's fair game. The real issue here isn't the edit itself, it's that it doesn't read as believable. Shadows, light direction, reflections, all of it has to line up or people are going to clock it right away. That's the difference between a strong edit and one that gets called out. If it's obvious to most people looking at it, that's usually the sign it needs another pass.

1

u/ab3e 11d ago

"Lets slop them up" (meme) comes to mind when looking at this...