image post processing

[SrisonS]

6932 levels by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr


As you can tell, this was definitely underexposed. So I increased Exposure, and added some Fill Light for the areas that were still dark. I then adjusted the Temperature. I tend to give my shots a little more warmth... but that's just me. I also like to decrease the Luminance of the colors; because this seems to deepen them, and also brings out more details/definition (try adjusting Blue for a sky with clouds). But I've recently noticed that increasing the Yellow Luminance has a nice effect of also bringing out those details.... sometimes anyway.

And although it isn't shown, I used the Brush the lighten up the end of this alley. I also used it to slightly darken the edges around the pic (the darkening is actually something I do to most of my pics.... again, just me).


Final Product....


Get Lost by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr


And oh yeah... the borders are added on Export with the 'Mogrify' plug-in.

 

[SrisonS]

Not to run completely the other way, but how do ya'll like lightroom? Does it do pretty much everything that you need out of photoshop, or do most of you use both? I see that lightroom does alot of the "cool"processing, but would you combine an elements package with the lightroom?

Great thread by the way, I love doing this stuff, but sometimes can't figure out the in between steps.

Lightroom can actually do A LOT. Definitely not as powerful as Photoshop, but it handles all that I want to do. But I don't have Photoshop, so I can't totally give a great answer.

 

[rmdavis]

I am glad to see this thread. I just bought Photoshop elements 8 and have figured out I have a LOT to learn.

 

[millys]

OK - I need to preface this post with a little information....

When I (as many others do - I'm sure) look at some of the things that you guys are able to do - both in your composition of photos and also the post processing techniques that you use - I am in complete awe....and this board is what has inspired me to get out there and try this photography thing as a new hobby. That combined with being in the happiest place on earth I guess!

I have no skills in either taking photographs or processing them afterwards - so I just thought that this might be a good thread to drop into to say that - even with my (VERY) limited ability and eye for detail - sometimes (although not frequently) I can get more or less - the exact shot that I saw in my mind prior to pressing the shutter button...!
And even if it does need a bit of work afterwards - then I may be able to get lucky with the buttons and sliders of one of those great P P Programs.

It's a bit like my golf game - I can whack, thump and skew that pesky little ball all over the course for 4 x hours and end up with a triple digit total - but the reason that I continue to do it because of the one shot that I remember - that one time that you pick the right club, use the right strength and by some miracle you manage to fluke the sweet spot of the club head and it sails up and away and lands on the green within a few inches of the flag. It doesnt matter how poorly the rest of the game went - that's the one I remember.

My photography is about the same - I get under/over exposures.
I find lamp posts, people, sheep and many other inanimate objects in the corners of the frame.
My horizons generally look like the picture was taken on the Disney Wonder in a force 9 gale.
I forget to change the ISO and end up with a completly white/black frame.
I forget to put the card back in the camera after removing it to load onto the computer (very annoying when a UFO has landed in the back yard and now you have no evidence!!!).

Anyway - the point is that even a complete numpty like me can - every now and then - get a reasonable shot - so - to those of you out there like me - who aspire to be the next Ansel Adams - but are actually more akin to Uncle Fester - I say to you - keep trying.

This picture is probably from one of my better days - maybe it was just the fact that I was in glorious Florida sunshine at Christmas with my family - rather than back in the dreary U.K in the cold and rain - but I actually imagined that this was the shot that I had taken when I pressed the shutter - and much to my amazement when I loaded it onto my computer - there it was!!!!
The only problem was - it contained a bunch of people who had nothing to do with me.
OK - they were not the most un-attractive of people - but they were just not 'My People'....!
So I tried to crop the picture and then use one of the smudge/fudge/splurge tool thingies to remove the said people's heads (apologies to you if you were one of these people - no offence intended - you are probably very nice people but just not as nice as my prize giraffe..!!!)

So - my point is - this may not be the best 'technical' shot but to me it's a keeper and one that as my skill with 'Photoroomlightshop CS Version 95.4' improves - I may be able to go back to some day and reprocess it to make it even better.


This was the shot I took...

And this was the aftermath of fiddling......

Milly

 

[oregondaddyof2]

That is a really cool shot Millys... I really like that... It makes me want to duck... It actually has the appearance of a 3D image... Good job with the PP also... I would have never guessed there was people in the picture if you wouldn't have told me...

 

[SrisonS]

Awesome work, millys!!!! And i think it's great that you used the flash here. I almost never think of using a flash in the daytime, even when I know it's necessary. I've been trying to make myself more aware of those situations though. I've had one too many missed opportunities to turn out some good shots, because a flash was needed.

I kinda like the people in the shot.... the ones facing you, anyway. I think it's great how the giraffe stuck his head right between them to get at the food.

 

[TheGoofster]

Taking items out of a shot

Some times (not too often) I'll have a shot where I find an item or two to be distracting, so I edit that item out of the shot. I'm using Corel Paint Shop Pro Ultimate X2, so I use the Clone feature. Depending on how complex the background is, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to a good 20 or 30 minutes to get the look I want.
Here is an example of a shot I took in the UK pavilion. Even though it was a pretty empty shot, there are a few things which I found were distracting (the stroller, the Electric chair, and the guy with the red shirt), so I took them out.

original:

Edited:

I was just wondering how others edit items out of a shot.

 

[ColleenG]

For a total newbie, is one program easier to learn than another. I have PSE on my computer but haven't played with it much. Right now I use the software that came with my camera (Canon) for all my pp. DH says he can put Photoshop on my computer, but I remember it being overwhelmingly complicated the last time (many years ago) I tried to use it.

 

[Spaceace5150]

Taking items out of a shot

Some times (not too often) I'll have a shot where I find an item or two to be distracting, so I edit that item out of the shot. I'm using Corel Paint Shop Pro Ultimate X2, so I use the Clone feature. Depending on how complex the background is, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to a good 20 or 30 minutes to get the look I want.
Here is an example of a shot I took in the UK pavilion. Even though it was a pretty empty shot, there are a few things which I found were distracting (the stroller, the Electric chair, and the guy with the red shirt), so I took them out.


I was just wondering how others edit items out of a shot.

Nice work!

Is this an example of an edit taking 30 minutes or a few? Just trying to get a time estimate... thanks!

 

[TheGoofster]

Nice work!

Is this an example of an edit taking 30 minutes or a few? Just trying to get a time estimate... thanks!

Thanks!

This one took about 15 minutes - mostly because of the sidewalk behind the electric wheel chair. Rebuilding crooked lines always seems to give me fits.

 

[tlcmommyx4]

Can anyone help me make the eyes sparkle in pictures with Lightroom 3? I just finished taking our School pictures and would love to just punch up the eyes and all I have is Lightroom 3, and just can't seem to get it done. Any help would be wonderful!

 

[TheGoofster]

I see (according to the photo board main page) that Tlcmommy had the last post (before this one), but it's not showing up. Just checking to see if this thread is still working properly.


edited to add:

OK, now that I posted this, Tlc's post is now showing. Huh, go figure.

 

[TheGoofster]

Here's a fun edit that I did, that actually turned out better than I thought it would when I first took the picture. If you're looking for a fun place to get a unique shot, this is in the animation building in DHS. I'm not sure how long this will be there, but if you go in the next month or so, I imagine that it should still be up.

Original shot:

After some cropping and eliminating (and rebuilding) some items:

Honestly, I was a bit lazy with some of the lines in the poster, but thankfully the kind of picture it is allows for not-so-perfect features. The main reason I cropped it down as much as I did was to avoid having to try and rebuild his hand.

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

Can anyone help me make the eyes sparkle in pictures with Lightroom 3? I just finished taking our School pictures and would love to just punch up the eyes and all I have is Lightroom 3, and just can't seem to get it done. Any help would be wonderful!

Use your adjustment brush. Where it says "Custom" click and there will a drop down menu that has some presets. One is called "Iris Enhance". I have made my own preset for Sclera whitening as well. You could just use the "Teeth Whitening" preset but I would bring up the saturation a bit since it looks to white for eyes. You can also use the adjustment brush to sharpen eyelashes. There are many videos out there on how to enhance eyes with Lightroom.

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

Here is a simple processing of the jail scene for POTC and the importance of shooting in RAW.

Original Shot 1/60sec f/1.4 ISO 3200

Its a good capture but the color is all wrong .

The first thing I do is to correct the noise since this was shot at ISO 3200. I have made a preset that works on most pictures and from there I can adjust. This makes it very simple to apply this treatment to multiple photos at once.

Next I will use the color dropper to find and area that is close to gray or white. From there I will fine tune the temperature to get something that looks more normal. As you can see we had to drop the temperature all the way down to 2000.

Here you can see the difference between the before and after.

I will then crop the shot and you end up with this.

And for those of you that are still shooting JPEG, I converted the original RAW capture to JPEG and then processed it the exact same way I did the RAW file. This is the best I could do.

As you can see a JPEG can not be corrected nearly as well as a RAW file.

 

[ColleenG]

I will have to show this to my DH. He always says shooting in RAW is a waste of time because you can adjust to jpg file anyway. I've tried to explain it to him, but he doesn't get it. You have reconfirmed my need to shoot in RAW!

 

[wenrob]

Another example of RAW saving the day. This was a shoot from the hip shot as I was surprised DS and DD actually went up to Minnie. I don't remember exactly what I did but probably upped the exposure, added some fill light and most likely decreased the blacks. My general settings for a properly exposed pic are:adjust WB if needed, up vibrance, +2 saturation and high contrast. So add those as well, though I probably left the contrast alone since it was so under exposed.

 

[wenrob]

Here's one that I blew. I almost didn't mess with it but gave it a try anyway. Settings to the right.

 

[Groucho]

Another example of RAW saving the day. This was a shoot from the hip shot as I was surprised DS and DD actually went up to Minnie. I don't remember exactly what I did but probably upped the exposure, added some fill light and most likely decreased the blacks. My general settings for a properly exposed pic are:adjust WB if needed, up vibrance, +2 saturation and high contrast. So add those as well, though I probably left the contrast alone since it was so under exposed.

Did you try any Recovery with that one? It can be a real handy tool - I didn't use it much for a long time, but lately I've had a few shots where I've almost maxed it out, especially when bring out shadow detail in shots similar to yours.

ColleenG, dark ride photos are one of the best places for shooting in raw... not only for the extra shadow and highlight detail, but because the lighting is so funky-colored that you're almost guaranteed to want to play with white balance. Part of the problem is that, with all the colored gels and such in use, the ride often is tinted tremendously but that looks really odd in photos, so we tend to try to balance out the colors to be more like they would be under neutral lighting - even though it's not what the eye sees on the ride itself. I think that's an ongoing question to ask, if you want white balance as it looks in person or to neutral? IMHO, there is no clear answer, it all depends on the photo itself.

I'll have to prep a couple of my "raw saves" for the thread... I've had a few real lucky ones. I've also been working a little on refining my knowledge on a few non-obvious things... like the difference between Brightness and Exposure.

 

[wenrob]

Groucho-Do you mean the Shadow slider on the Minnie pic? I've never used it, half the time I forget it's there, lol. I did use the Recovery Slider on the sign though lately I have been doing whatever I can with the exposure and brightness first when it comes to being blown before I use it.

I have also been learning about the difference between exposure and brightness.

These days it's rare that I end up blowing pics that bad in either direction like the two above ( hey out of 900 not too bad, lol) but boy, RAW sure comes in handy when you do.