I'm curious...

[Lizziejane]

for those of you who are "seasoned" photographers, what % (roughly) of your shots do you adjust afterwards? I read somewhere that many professional photographers sharpen their photos 100% of the time, but I'm really curious about adjusting the color, highlights, shadows, etc.

The reason I ask is that I've taken some shots I was really happy with initially, only to see what the autofix in Elements does, and then realized my color wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was. I'm getting frustrated and disheartened! I want to be able to take good photos, but it seems I'm getting better faster at "fixing" them!

 

[ukcatfan]

I shoot in RAW, so I let the program take its best guess on what to do first, but I usually end up doing some modifications. I guess I am around a 95% guy.

Kevin

 

[photo_chick]

I shoot RAW and process every image individually, so I do end up adjusting each one to some degree. GOtta love those curves and levels!
I dont' see it as being any different than if I were printing using filters in the darkroom, or adjusting the settings on the enlarger, or dodging and burning.

Also remember your monitor's calibration has a lot to do with how you see the images on your computer.

I shoudl follow this up with a disclaimer... I have only been shooting all digital since 2005. Though I have been using Photoshop much longer!

 

[extreme8]

I only shoot RAW, so it's 100%, at least for sharpening and JPG conversion.

 

[Groucho]

I shoot in raw, check white balance (not too time-consuming as I'll do all the pictures taken in one environment at a time, and my DSLR is pretty good at auto white balance except in tungsten, which they all puke on), turn up sharpening slightly, and convert to JPG. After that, I may go back to the raw and reprocess to change the lighting... or possibly fiddle with colors slightly in Irfanview... and generally only go into Photoshop if I have dust on my sensor that needs cleaning.

For anything more than the basic white balance and jpg conversion, probably 5-10%? There are just too many pictures (and too many other things to occupy my time) to labor over each and every photo.

 

[photo_chick]

I guess that is where being a stay at home mom with nothing else to do comes in handy! Plenty of time on my hands when the monsters behave.

 

[pyrxtc]

While I don't shoot in RAW, I do print everything on metallic paper which needs a high contrast to really show off it's photo's. I play with every photo that I do as a photographer, as a mom, I rarely play with the photo unless I am enlarging it for the wall or to resize to print. I like to remember my kids and their moments exactly as they were. I only shoot in RAW if I am in a really lowlight situation and prefer not to use such a high speed, I use raw so that I can bring out the details later.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm not into editing too much, but DH enjoys it. So I shoot, he edits. With that said, we don't edit too often. But we got Photoshop for XMas so when we get better at using the program that could change.

 

[boBQuincy]

It's a rare image that can't be improved with at least a little dodging and burning. Some overall levels or curves, saturation, and color adjustment usually helps, followed by a final sharpening.

To answer the question, any image I plan to print gets adjusted. Same with the ones I put in my slide shows. The only ones that don't get worked on are the images I enter in the Disboards contest, and in a 750 x 500 size (on mostly uncalibrated monitors) the adjustments wouldn't really show up anyway.

 

[jann1033]

i shoot in raw as well so after the conversion( where i adjust maybe brightness, occasionally wb, mine has a landscape portait and a couple other preset things that sharpen, adjust color etc, which i occasionally use) i usually adjust sharpening( 20/60) in the editor, crop, sometimes boost the sat. a little. i don't seem to like the auto settings much so i don't ususally use them.

bobq could you give tips on dodging and burning? every time i try it it looks, well obviously dodged and burned. saw some really nice egs. where they did it to the outer edges then applied a frame but mine was nothing even vaguely similar, i have to heavy a hand/mouse i think as lots of my photoshop stuff looks like photoshopped stuff

i am extremly lazy cause if i don't like the photo out of the camera, i don't do anything to it

 

[garris3404]

I usually add a little pixie dust to the ones I don't delete?

 

[fitzperry]

bobq could you give tips on dodging and burning? every time i try it it looks, well obviously dodged and burned. saw some really nice egs. where they did it to the outer edges then applied a frame but mine was nothing even vaguely similar, i have to heavy a hand/mouse i think as lots of my photoshop stuff looks like photoshopped stuff

I have the same problem. I've tried adjusting the intensity of the dodge/burn and played with all the little sliders, but still can't get them to look right.

And if I could tack on another question here since several people have mentioned sharpening, how much do you sharpen your images? When I shoot in RAW and use Elements to convert, I usually just go with the default sharpening settings. Is there some rule of thumb that you use? Do you use the unsharp mask filter or just the sharpening function? I don't particularly care for the look of over-sharpened images, but I wonder if doing more would improve the quality of my pictures.

 

[Lizziejane]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I'm feeling a little better! What I'm getting from the answers is that adjustments are pretty common - while it would be nice to print the "perfect" picture straight from the camera - it's not "taboo" to make some adjustments?

 

[JarettK]

I shoot JPG for most, and RAW for some portrait sessions.
I usually wont do too much editing on my JPGs... I tend to hit the mark.

For portrait sessions and raw, Ill weed out the top photos I want to keep, and process those. Usually it is the basic raw conversion. I pick on setting that applies to all the photos. It isnt a matter of fixing mistakes, but setting contrast and tone curves.

 

[boBQuincy]

bobq could you give tips on dodging and burning? every time i try it it looks, well obviously dodged and burned.

I use a very light touch with this, if you can see it without comparing it to the original it is probably too much. An opacity of 10% or less, and multiple passes works for me. A brush with very feathered edges works best.

Another idea is to create adjustment layers (levels), lighten/darken, and mask out the parts you don't want to alter (again, multiple passes with a light touch and feathered brush). The cool part of this is it is easy to change the degree of burning/dodging without touching the original image.

I will try to post some examples later.