I know this has been done before, but not for a while. I recently posted a before and after of one of my photos on Facebook to show the photo processing that had taken place and I myself found it really interesting looking back at the original image. Friends of mine were also shocked at what could be done to an image.
I know there are a lot of people who don't like to process, and each to their own, but I personally love to process my photos. I find it a challenge to see if I can turn a fairly boring image in to something artistic. Therefore I thought it would be nice to see other people's before and after photos.
It doesn't even have to be done for "artistic" reasons, but to return detail, light and contrast to a shot that the camera cannot handle by itself. I'll post one or two later today to show you what I mean.
Wonderful final edit Elizabeth! Really like that punch of colour.
I absolutely love to edit shots and that's what keeps me interested in photography! I always come away with something different and it helps me explore my artistic side.
In this shot, I wasn't happy with the original colours and knew this would work better in b&w:
I sell cards and prints and this one is part of a new series I'm creating. I started with a single cherry and decided to turn it into 'frutti four square' LoL :)
@kass thanks for your pictures. I especially love what you did with the statue picture. It creates so much atmosphere and nostalgia. The cherry picture is also brilliant. It looks like it could be on a canvas. It also gave me my idea for tonight's project picture; I haven't before used more than one image in my project.
As well as this I LOVE your photos. Your style is right up my street. Looking forward to following you.
I'm now unemployed as I'm having to follow my military husband to America and I'd love to be able to design cards and prints. Im hoping the upside of not being able to work for a while is that I can revisit my creative side!
@nytewind wow you did a great job there, the colours really pop without looking too over-saturated. Good job! Thanks for sharing. What editing software do you use?
Points to note, if they aren't obvious to you. The subject, by the way is certainly not very inspired I am afraid.
1. Strongly backlit images will always turn into "sort of" silhouettes, bad silhouettes, as shot. The trick is to know and accept this, shoot the frame so as not to lose detail either in the shadows or the highlights, the result will be rather blah as here, and then fix with a good raw processor. Note I said raw.
2. A 4-3 crop rather than the camera 3:2 I think fills the frame better in this case.
3. Shot with the "only average" Sigma 150-500 zoom, so all the standard lens corrections are necessary - light drop off on the edges, significant pincushion distortion and significant added sharpness needed to "cut through" the long distance blur are the three biggies needed here.
4. Some of the "blend if..." options on the sharpening layer reduced some of the edge glows but not all. If I were presenting this in a competition, I'd have to do over them and clone them out with a very narrow brush.
5. While on the subject of the "only average" lens, the bokeh is really nasty with this lens when stretched out to 500mm, and I could have spent a lot of time smoothing that out (the background foliage), but it's not worth the effort on this example I think, not too great a composition to begin with.
6. Shadow recovery, clarity and exposure tweaks, widen out the gamut almost to full black and full white (I think essential on this one, but sometimes not required). Blend in some added "contrast" by duplicating the background layer, adding some "soft light" blending and then significant doses of "blend if" to smooth it all out.
On a very different subject and shot with a very different lens, much the same techniques of tone recovery in principle that Angela @nytewind has already showed you. She did a very nice job. She was (probably) not faced with the significant long range lens difficulties, though.
And note that this doesn't do anything for the content, or otherwise retouching, let alone "significant" content additions, via compositing, or deletions, via cloning. For me on a very different level from these rather basic techniques to recover tone and detail.
@frankhymus very nice edit. You are correct about similar techniques (though I do admit to cloning out the hoop and sidewalk dip) and the fact I did use a much shorter lens.
Edits: Composite of seven images to remove people and other distractions, various adjustments to temperature, exposure, perspective corrections, cropping, & contrast.
@frankhymus Thanks for all that detail. That's really useful. As a bit of a beginner it's great to get some tips. It also always amazes me how much detail can be brought out of the shadows!
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I absolutely love to edit shots and that's what keeps me interested in photography! I always come away with something different and it helps me explore my artistic side.
In this shot, I wasn't happy with the original colours and knew this would work better in b&w:
I sell cards and prints and this one is part of a new series I'm creating. I started with a single cherry and decided to turn it into 'frutti four square' LoL :)
As well as this I LOVE your photos. Your style is right up my street. Looking forward to following you.
I'm now unemployed as I'm having to follow my military husband to America and I'd love to be able to design cards and prints. Im hoping the upside of not being able to work for a while is that I can revisit my creative side!
I developed the raw in Light Room and softened in Photoshop
And here's the adjustment.
Points to note, if they aren't obvious to you. The subject, by the way is certainly not very inspired I am afraid.
1. Strongly backlit images will always turn into "sort of" silhouettes, bad silhouettes, as shot. The trick is to know and accept this, shoot the frame so as not to lose detail either in the shadows or the highlights, the result will be rather blah as here, and then fix with a good raw processor. Note I said raw.
2. A 4-3 crop rather than the camera 3:2 I think fills the frame better in this case.
3. Shot with the "only average" Sigma 150-500 zoom, so all the standard lens corrections are necessary - light drop off on the edges, significant pincushion distortion and significant added sharpness needed to "cut through" the long distance blur are the three biggies needed here.
4. Some of the "blend if..." options on the sharpening layer reduced some of the edge glows but not all. If I were presenting this in a competition, I'd have to do over them and clone them out with a very narrow brush.
5. While on the subject of the "only average" lens, the bokeh is really nasty with this lens when stretched out to 500mm, and I could have spent a lot of time smoothing that out (the background foliage), but it's not worth the effort on this example I think, not too great a composition to begin with.
6. Shadow recovery, clarity and exposure tweaks, widen out the gamut almost to full black and full white (I think essential on this one, but sometimes not required). Blend in some added "contrast" by duplicating the background layer, adding some "soft light" blending and then significant doses of "blend if" to smooth it all out.
On a very different subject and shot with a very different lens, much the same techniques of tone recovery in principle that Angela @nytewind has already showed you. She did a very nice job. She was (probably) not faced with the significant long range lens difficulties, though.
And note that this doesn't do anything for the content, or otherwise retouching, let alone "significant" content additions, via compositing, or deletions, via cloning. For me on a very different level from these rather basic techniques to recover tone and detail.
After:
Edits: Composite of seven images to remove people and other distractions, various adjustments to temperature, exposure, perspective corrections, cropping, & contrast.