What changed your editing life for better? What do you find yourself using on most of your pictures?
I want to get better at my editing, and would like to learn tips from so many people here whose editing makes a difference to their pictures. Please share your best editing tip or series of edits you do to achieve a certain look please?
smart filter. gaussian blur. diffuse. smart sharpen. dodge and burn. to name some of my personal faves... always learning, adjusting, tweaking, experimenting... and just barely scraping the surface.
what kind of software you using? i'm digging your project!
@grecican "always learning, adjusting, tweaking, experimenting... and just barely scraping the surface." You summed up my current situation perfectly. I'm enjoying the process though even though sometimes it's frustrating it's not faster. :-)
I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS5. I know I am not scratching the surface of it. Gaussian blur is definitely the most overused item. I know great things can be done with dodge and burn, haven't tried it yet. Recently, learned about diffuse ( I think it was from you), don't know what smart filter is and how to smart sharpen. Thanks for the reply and the compliment on my project, it means a lot.
To one I do every time is adding my name ;-) Well it depends on the pic and the idea. But I do like half-tone a lot, although not used in a daily bases. I just use a lot of layers with all kinds, and sometimes nothing at all
for example two pics, same day, same subject
first one: Auto tone & color applied to the skin (skin was a bit to red for my liking due to the lighting of the eye) + name added, otherwise SOOC
Second one: Edits:
Iris selected, layer via Copy, edges softened with soft brush eraser, blending mode "Multiply" 100%, Hue & saturation adjusted.
Background levels and saturation adjusted to liking. Vibrance tuned up, High Key curves applied
Iris; mid-tones and shadows with burn-tool at 15 - 35%, Highlights with dodge tool at 25%
Top transparent layer with white painted across Iris, Overlay blending mode at 25% Opacity
The white layer "trick" on the second one I like do in pics were the eyes need a bit "something extra" Like HERE and HERE Blending mode can differ with the pic... That is just experimenting ;-)
Some faves in Photoshop:
• Duplicate Layer > High Pass > Overlay (for sharpening).
• Lately i've been doing this to emphazise skies and textures: duplicate layer > turn the new layer into B&W > Adjust contrast at will > Overlay (with 50% opacity). Usually together with High Pass.
• Also some Shadow/Highlights too.
@catalfonso Oh yeah, liquify tool! I discovered it two weeks ago too, when we went on our girls trip. Making everybody looking good in the pictures is not an easy task. :-)
I add duplicate layer, gaussian blur the shiz out of it, then overlay the original pic and use eraser set at different strangths to rub through, that way you get some sweet dof effects, and smudge out the rubbish bits of your pic, and flatten layer - whoop - Electric-picture-results. cool.
@elke Thanks for taking time to explain. I like the boost to the eye in the second pic. I'll try this in the evening. @gabrielklee I think I came across this method in a you tube video, 2 minute sharpening or something. Thought it's pretty cool, but forgot about it later. Thanks for the reminder. @sdpace Thanks. Do you do this mainly for landscapes. Is there a use for this in regular everyday pictures like portraits? Maybe it's a temporary substitute for wide angle lens? @chewyteeth Love Gaussian blur too. But haven't used overlay though. I usually erase with an eraser to bring out important details. Will try this. Love that picture. What tone did you use there? Thanks.
@ikamera i don't know if you would ever use it for portraits unless you're photographing Hands Across America or something. I don't think it's a subsitute for a wide-angle lens either. You can do a 360 degree panorama, which is something no single lens could capture. Panorama is just a different type of photography and editing.
@sdpace Stacy, Interesting! Doyou have any examples of such 360 degree panoramas in your or anybody else's project. Would love to see. @jlhopgood Thank you! Learned about shadow/highlights recently too. Amazing how It brings up details and increase contrast.
Question for everyone: there seems to be lot of different ways to do something in photoshop. For example, shadow/highlights and brightness/contrast.
Levels/curves/brightness/contrast. Is there a particular method suited to particular type of photograph? Do you prefer one over another, why?
I saw shadow/highlights used by a professional real estate photographer to bring out details in a room like knock-knacks in a cupboard for example. It made sense because brightness would have brightened the whole picture including the shadows. Any other differences/examples on when to use what?
@ikamera shadow/highlights many times degrades the images. It's easy to lose control and end up with a overdone edit.
I don't think there's much difference between levels/curves/brightness & contrast...
I prefer levels and brightness & contrast because i get lost playing with the parabola graphic in curves.
I many times use curves to edit specific colors in a picture: for instance when you need a series of pictures to look one exactly like the other. Like a laboratory or spa photo, when you need the wall and sheets perfectly white.
(to do that you pick a color with eyedropper tool, save the number and enter the number in the inpu option in Curves menu. Then enter the number it should be in output option.)
But you can also do that in levels (click the white eyedropper in levels menu) and click in the brightest area of your photo. It adjust that color to white (and the entire pic goes with it).
I usually try a freaking load of things before setting down. What i always do is edit with layers and layer modes, to preserve the originals. Duplicate, overlay, set a different exposure. Duplicate, multiply or color burn... and so on.
Here's a trick which can work on very bland photos to add a lot of depth to them.
1. make a black and white gradient map.
2. set it to either hard light or overlay (depending on how saturated you want certain colors).
3. regulate opacity to not overdo it.
it really depends on the lighting of your original photo though.
@gabrielklee Looking forward for your photomerged picture. Thanks for taking time for explaining the different methods. My major major limitation is degradation of the picture when editing. I like how photoshop let's me fix my bad exposure, color, composition, pretty much everything, but each edit creates noise and degrades the picture tremendously. To compensate, I end up using lots of Gaussian blur losing much of the sharpness of the original.
I realize now that editing should only help the picture by 5 to 10% especially in factors like exposure and composition where the camera should do the heavy lifting. That means don't move the slider way to the right for exposure and brightness in raw and don't crop a picture taken with 50mm to look like a macro.
Having said that, I only understand this phenomenon and still working to get better at it.
@axel Thank you. I'll try this in the evening. @grecican I think so too. I feel like im already improved compared to this afternoon just by reading the replies. Pretty sure i'll be loads better when I try them.
Here's a good example of fixing bad exposure( taken under horrible indoor lighting due to lack of natural light and speedlite) in photoshop. Went way overboard and added Gaussian blur to compensate. Managed to make it look artistic and on purpose but I hate it.
I'll tell you what instantly changed my life for the better. Layer Masks. If you don't know how to do them, it's sooo worth it to learn. You can use them for anything and everything. I do!!
Quick How To: (Eh, say you want to blur your background, but not your foreground)
Duplicate layer (Command +J)
Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur, then just turn it up to your liking. Press OK.
Now hold the ALT key, then press Add a Mask, at the bottom of the layer panel. (It's a gray square with a white circle). So that makes a Black Box in layer 1, and it will appear as if the effect is gone.
Now press B for brush. Press D to set your brush color to white. Then paint just your background with the brush..
You're painting the effect on with the brush.
@sweett Jessica, I know this trick. I use this on 90% of my pictures. I used it on the picture above too. I would say layer masks changed my life for better too. I bought CS5 for layer masks because it is a pain to create layer masks in PS elements.
Thanks for chiming in because I am sure your reply will change a lot of other people's editing lives who might not know about layer masks.
Other ways I use layer masks:
If one person in the group blinked their eyes, or if you want to merge two pictures with best of each. I'm sure you can do this also with PS automatically but layer masks give me more control especially if things are not lined up properly.
Also, in this example,
I sharpened the picture to max to sharpen the eye which made the face all blotchy, then layer masked everything except eye to the regular skin texture. You can also copy eye to a different layer and sharpen it. As I said before, there seems to be multiple ways to do everything in PS.
@ikamera
that's pixlr magic dude, www.pixlr-o-matic.com (I think)
If I remember right its like the third or fourth colour setting, can't remember the name though.
@ikamera i agree you end up degradating the picture, yes. But not that much. Depends on your use, and the gains can be overwhelming.
I think my explanations were a little confusing. Ask if you have some doubt.
Also, watch the photo histogram. You know it is degraded when the histogram show a lot of failures (for instance lots of straight lines in the graph). You fix that (more than less) with a little gaussian blur and a little of unsharp mask.
I will do one more thing. I will post you here the tomorrow image without edits and explain a little of what i done there.
(click to view the images bigger!)
On the top: here is the original merged panorama.
On the bottom: the final result.
Main processes:
SKY EDIT
• Duplicate layer and turn it to B&W.
• Mask the buildings to edit the sky only. I need it much darker and stronger.
• sharpen and contrast the Black & White sky a lot.
• Duplicate this layer, try it with overlay and another above with multiply. This will bring up the subtle tones in the clouds. I am aiming a really dramatic look.
• I created another layer above them all and chose a blue and painted the sky blue, setting the layer to Color (this will give an uniform blueish tone to the sky, which was too grey by now).
• The sky edit turned up a little too extreme and ended up with a little grain, if you look close. But i like the result anyway.
BUILDINGS EDIT
• duplicate the original layer and turn it B&W.
• Mask the sky area. You need only to edit the buildings...
• I used Shadow/Highlights to bring more light to it. It was too underexposed.
• Contrast the B&W, sharpen and set it to overlay (this will emphasize the white tones and make the image pop-up).
• A little saturation and it's done.
@gabrielklee Thank you, thank you, thank you for that. I've always seen those sky edits, but never knew how to do it. I really appreciate your instructions and before and after. This one post adds a lot to this thread.
I signed up for a night safari and it is coming up on feb 7th. We'll be shooting night view of Dallas skyline. I don't know if I can do this with night shots but I'll definitely give it a try, atleast the panoramic thing. I don't normally do landscapes, it will be interesting and different.
For me the first step is selecting my top photos. In aperture I quickly go through my recent shots and rate them from 0 to 5 stars. This makes sure I don't waste my time messing with mediocre photos.
Once they have the rating I try to keep my post-production minimal. I often adjust the white- and black-point and might boost the vibrancy a bit for the most part. If there is a photo with amazing potential but taken with less-than-ideal settings then I'll dive in with dodge and burn, color correction, curves adjustments and the like, but I keep those as last resorts.
@chrisdebruyn Regarding selecting cream of the crop, I've read a tip on the Internet which really changed my photography, not the actual photography but the way I put myself out there as a photographer. The tip is to be really selective of what you show others. Take 100 pictures and show 1. I know it's a little too much geared to the amateurs because pros might nail it in a couple pictures, but the point is don't dilute the experience to the viewer. For example, don't publish different angles of your kid in the same setting. Just pick one even if it seems hard. I used to be one of those posting different angles of the same thing on Facebook because all pictures look good to me; now I really pick one and edit it to look it's best. Now my photography seemed to have improved overnight just by not publishing my mediocre pictures.
I know it has nothing to do with editing but I thought this might help someone else like it helped me. I think you have this process down and i agree that should be your first step.
@gabrielklee I recently got canon 5d and started shooting in raw. So, I'll definitely shoot the night scene in raw. Any other tips I should follow when shooting to achieve that panoramic effect later in editing. Ofcourse, I guess shoot all the pictures from the same height so the horizons match. Thanks for your help again.
@sdpace agree Photomerge is amazing. 2 images cropped no layers, minimal Photoshop in regards to tones/saturation. Have to say seems that I do very little to my images after reading this page :)
@regiehiguit do you use photoshop? i too am an admirer of Ariel's work, and have done a lot of experimenting to get the colors that I adore in a lot of his pieces. Mostly I just play with layers - texture and color overlays - as well as increasing the offset of a photograph....the increased offset will give you a foggy kind of dreaminess. :)
@flagged gorgeous gorgeous. I shot a sunset the other night and didn't have photomerge in mind. dangit!!
@ikamera sure - I use photoshop, and offset is an exposure option under Image->Adjustments->Exposure. You can control exposure, gamma, and offset here. The offset option controls the shadows and mid-tones without much affecting the highlights. I usually start with an increase when i use it, but it's fun to play around with using the other sliders as well to make your image completely different.
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what kind of software you using? i'm digging your project!
I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS5. I know I am not scratching the surface of it. Gaussian blur is definitely the most overused item. I know great things can be done with dodge and burn, haven't tried it yet. Recently, learned about diffuse ( I think it was from you), don't know what smart filter is and how to smart sharpen. Thanks for the reply and the compliment on my project, it means a lot.
for example two pics, same day, same subject
first one: Auto tone & color applied to the skin (skin was a bit to red for my liking due to the lighting of the eye) + name added, otherwise SOOC
Second one: Edits:
Iris selected, layer via Copy, edges softened with soft brush eraser, blending mode "Multiply" 100%, Hue & saturation adjusted.
Background levels and saturation adjusted to liking. Vibrance tuned up, High Key curves applied
Iris; mid-tones and shadows with burn-tool at 15 - 35%, Highlights with dodge tool at 25%
Top transparent layer with white painted across Iris, Overlay blending mode at 25% Opacity
The white layer "trick" on the second one I like do in pics were the eyes need a bit "something extra" Like HERE and HERE Blending mode can differ with the pic... That is just experimenting ;-)
• Duplicate Layer > High Pass > Overlay (for sharpening).
• Lately i've been doing this to emphazise skies and textures: duplicate layer > turn the new layer into B&W > Adjust contrast at will > Overlay (with 50% opacity). Usually together with High Pass.
• Also some Shadow/Highlights too.
I F.king love Gaussian blur
I add duplicate layer, gaussian blur the shiz out of it, then overlay the original pic and use eraser set at different strangths to rub through, that way you get some sweet dof effects, and smudge out the rubbish bits of your pic, and flatten layer - whoop - Electric-picture-results. cool.
And I SO FRICKIN LOVE pixlr
@sdpace Thanks. Do you do this mainly for landscapes. Is there a use for this in regular everyday pictures like portraits? Maybe it's a temporary substitute for wide angle lens?
@chewyteeth Love Gaussian blur too. But haven't used overlay though. I usually erase with an eraser to bring out important details. Will try this. Love that picture. What tone did you use there? Thanks.
Question for everyone: there seems to be lot of different ways to do something in photoshop. For example, shadow/highlights and brightness/contrast.
Levels/curves/brightness/contrast. Is there a particular method suited to particular type of photograph? Do you prefer one over another, why?
I saw shadow/highlights used by a professional real estate photographer to bring out details in a room like knock-knacks in a cupboard for example. It made sense because brightness would have brightened the whole picture including the shadows. Any other differences/examples on when to use what?
I don't think there's much difference between levels/curves/brightness & contrast...
I prefer levels and brightness & contrast because i get lost playing with the parabola graphic in curves.
I many times use curves to edit specific colors in a picture: for instance when you need a series of pictures to look one exactly like the other. Like a laboratory or spa photo, when you need the wall and sheets perfectly white.
(to do that you pick a color with eyedropper tool, save the number and enter the number in the inpu option in Curves menu. Then enter the number it should be in output option.)
But you can also do that in levels (click the white eyedropper in levels menu) and click in the brightest area of your photo. It adjust that color to white (and the entire pic goes with it).
I usually try a freaking load of things before setting down. What i always do is edit with layers and layer modes, to preserve the originals. Duplicate, overlay, set a different exposure. Duplicate, multiply or color burn... and so on.
1. make a black and white gradient map.
2. set it to either hard light or overlay (depending on how saturated you want certain colors).
3. regulate opacity to not overdo it.
it really depends on the lighting of your original photo though.
I realize now that editing should only help the picture by 5 to 10% especially in factors like exposure and composition where the camera should do the heavy lifting. That means don't move the slider way to the right for exposure and brightness in raw and don't crop a picture taken with 50mm to look like a macro.
Having said that, I only understand this phenomenon and still working to get better at it.
@axel Thank you. I'll try this in the evening. @grecican I think so too. I feel like im already improved compared to this afternoon just by reading the replies. Pretty sure i'll be loads better when I try them.
I'll tell you what instantly changed my life for the better. Layer Masks. If you don't know how to do them, it's sooo worth it to learn. You can use them for anything and everything. I do!!
Quick How To: (Eh, say you want to blur your background, but not your foreground)
Duplicate layer (Command +J)
Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur, then just turn it up to your liking. Press OK.
Now hold the ALT key, then press Add a Mask, at the bottom of the layer panel. (It's a gray square with a white circle). So that makes a Black Box in layer 1, and it will appear as if the effect is gone.
Now press B for brush. Press D to set your brush color to white. Then paint just your background with the brush..
You're painting the effect on with the brush.
Thanks for chiming in because I am sure your reply will change a lot of other people's editing lives who might not know about layer masks.
Other ways I use layer masks:
If one person in the group blinked their eyes, or if you want to merge two pictures with best of each. I'm sure you can do this also with PS automatically but layer masks give me more control especially if things are not lined up properly.
Also, in this example,
I sharpened the picture to max to sharpen the eye which made the face all blotchy, then layer masked everything except eye to the regular skin texture. You can also copy eye to a different layer and sharpen it. As I said before, there seems to be multiple ways to do everything in PS.
Keep them coming guys.
that's pixlr magic dude, www.pixlr-o-matic.com (I think)
If I remember right its like the third or fourth colour setting, can't remember the name though.
I think my explanations were a little confusing. Ask if you have some doubt.
Also, watch the photo histogram. You know it is degraded when the histogram show a lot of failures (for instance lots of straight lines in the graph). You fix that (more than less) with a little gaussian blur and a little of unsharp mask.
I will do one more thing. I will post you here the tomorrow image without edits and explain a little of what i done there.
(click to view the images bigger!)
On the top: here is the original merged panorama.
On the bottom: the final result.
Main processes:
SKY EDIT
• Duplicate layer and turn it to B&W.
• Mask the buildings to edit the sky only. I need it much darker and stronger.
• sharpen and contrast the Black & White sky a lot.
• Duplicate this layer, try it with overlay and another above with multiply. This will bring up the subtle tones in the clouds. I am aiming a really dramatic look.
• I created another layer above them all and chose a blue and painted the sky blue, setting the layer to Color (this will give an uniform blueish tone to the sky, which was too grey by now).
• The sky edit turned up a little too extreme and ended up with a little grain, if you look close. But i like the result anyway.
BUILDINGS EDIT
• duplicate the original layer and turn it B&W.
• Mask the sky area. You need only to edit the buildings...
• I used Shadow/Highlights to bring more light to it. It was too underexposed.
• Contrast the B&W, sharpen and set it to overlay (this will emphasize the white tones and make the image pop-up).
• A little saturation and it's done.
I signed up for a night safari and it is coming up on feb 7th. We'll be shooting night view of Dallas skyline. I don't know if I can do this with night shots but I'll definitely give it a try, atleast the panoramic thing. I don't normally do landscapes, it will be interesting and different.
For me the first step is selecting my top photos. In aperture I quickly go through my recent shots and rate them from 0 to 5 stars. This makes sure I don't waste my time messing with mediocre photos.
Once they have the rating I try to keep my post-production minimal. I often adjust the white- and black-point and might boost the vibrancy a bit for the most part. If there is a photo with amazing potential but taken with less-than-ideal settings then I'll dive in with dodge and burn, color correction, curves adjustments and the like, but I keep those as last resorts.
Best,
CDB
I know it has nothing to do with editing but I thought this might help someone else like it helped me. I think you have this process down and i agree that should be your first step.
@gabrielklee I recently got canon 5d and started shooting in raw. So, I'll definitely shoot the night scene in raw. Any other tips I should follow when shooting to achieve that panoramic effect later in editing. Ofcourse, I guess shoot all the pictures from the same height so the horizons match. Thanks for your help again.
and also the techniques of Ariel Magyawe @arielmagyawejr
@flagged gorgeous gorgeous. I shot a sunset the other night and didn't have photomerge in mind. dangit!!
(larger version here.)