Free RAW Photo to Edit (Canon): Bryce Canyon (Utah)

I took the free RAW photo a few years back while visiting Toronto on non photography related business.

I took the photo with my Sony a6000 camera and Sony 16-70mm f/4. I was on the ferry taking a short ride from downtown Toronto to the Toronto Islands.

Exif Data:

Camera: Sony a6000
Lens: Sony 16-70mm f/4
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/250s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 21mm

Every time I visit Toronto, I always try to visit the islands and take at least a couple of shots. The views of downtown Toronto from the islands are spectacular.

Free RAW Photo: Toronto Skyline (Canada) 1

Raw Image Download

Free RAW Photos for Editing Library

The day I took the free RAW photo, I was not very lucky with the weather. Even though it was early fall and it was pretty chilly, the air was not clear. The air haze made everything colorless with no contrast.

In order to bring the photo back to life, you will need to be quite aggressive with Lightroom editing.

Here are the things you need to address while editing the photo.

Perspective distortion. When I was taking the shot, I unintentionally tilted the camera back, and it caused the distortion.
Cropping. The composition is not too impressive because the massive area of the sky overpowers the rest o the elements.
Contrast. You will need to boos the contrast to the extreme level.
Cleaning. In the middle of the sky, there are few rounded spots introduced by tiny drops of water on the front elements of the lens.

Good luck with editing.

My RAW Editing Version

And here is my editing version of the free RAW image. You can access all my editing steps from the Snapshot panel of the Develop module in Lightroom.

Free RAW Photo: Toronto Skyline (Canada) 2

My first goal was to improve composition by cropping the image. I decided to go for the 16:9 panoramic aspect ratio instead of the original 3:2.

Next, I used the sliders from the Transform panel to fix the perspective distortion.

I used the Spot Removal tool to clean up the area of the sky.

And I used both the Basic and Tone Curve panels to boost the contrast.

To enhance the colors, I used the HSL and Calibration panels.

What About Copyright?

All free raw images I share, I took myself, and they belong to me. They are not sourced from the public. But they are still copyrighted.

You are free to edit my RAW photos. And if you want to share them on your blog or social media, go for it; all I am asking is to credit me with the link to my site. And you can not use them commercially.