This article teaches about Forrest’s winning photo and creative workflow. Forrest explains how to capture dynamic ranges of textures and colors and how to use masking, gradients, dodging, and burning techniques to control light sources and guide the eye of the viewer.
I mainly look for the dynamic range of textures and colors in artwork. I love locating certain environments that captivate anyone viewing my work so they can stare deep within the roots of the photo and enjoy the details and textures provided. I love how I dictate my color scheme with luminosity masking, providing lights and darks throughout my photos to make them pop.
Coasts are my favorite subjects, especially waves crashing along rocky shores. These add so much drama and provide the best textures. I’m super stoked when I can drive to a remote area on the west coast and have a field day with one of nature’s most beautiful and powerful creations. The rich blues and greens/yellows on the shores complement each other well!
I am also a fan of snake-shaped roads, and the winning photo is a good example.
This particular shot of Hwy 550, better known as Million Dollar Highway, between Ouray and Silverton, was an unplanned photo due to the weather. This photo was taken during my annual fall foliage trip. We were blessed with beautiful white snow covering the golden aspens throughout the San Juan Mountains the night prior. The iconic S-shape of Million Dollar Highway was on the bucket list. We managed to get there around 8 am, just before the sun peaked over the mountaintops and had around 30 minutes to get whatever we could.
This composition is very popular, so it’s not new. I always try to find different compositions of iconic places because I don’t want to be too cliché with my work. But it’s so hard to beat this composition, so I snapped it either way, along with many others. But I think the snowfall greatly spruced up the photo!
My approach with my edits recently has been increasing contrast, adding more of a mood, and focusing on one or two colors to complement each other. With that being said, I want a moody vibe but simple enough. Keep some vibrancy and dull the others. With snow, I always see blues within the shadows. I’m not particularly a fan of blues in that aspect, so I muted the blues throughout the photo. It’s still present but not overwhelming.
Masking is vital to all of my edits. I always work with radial gradients to add more light to the light source or any object impacted by the light. For this, I increase the exposure, drawing down the clarity and dehaze and adding warmth to the temperature.
I also inverted radial gradients to create vignettes. They are always opposite my light source and usually placed where the light would not reach. So, in this case, there’s a vignette on the bottom left and bottom half of the photo.
I normally add a linear gradient on the bottom half of the photo with my masking, and I’ll increase the clarity to create more light and definition. Dodging and burning have always been in my arsenal. Increasing and decreasing the exposure in certain areas will draw the viewer into the photo more. Give it that added “pop,” so to speak. Dodging and Burning is done either with the Color Range mask or/and the Brush Masking tool.
Lastly, I always finalize my work in Photoshop. That’s where I do all the cleanup: spot healing, clone stamping, etc. Once that is done, I’ll add a LUX filter and Orton/Sharp effect. A LUX filter increases the brightness and balances exposure. Just add another “pop” to the edit. The Orton/Sharp result is a post-processing technique that creates a soft and dreamlike effect. I love this effect so much, and it’s my signature style that everyone has learned to love.
All in all, the four ingredients for a great landscape would be to find an interesting foreground, create leading lines that draw the viewer into the photo, work with the conditions as best as possible (lean on low light to work with your bright and darks in post-processing), and be patient. Do not rush the process. Also, get more than just one photo of the same composition to choose which one works best for you.
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