I some fantastic pictures here and some of them just have much better color, more even tones, and just plain crisp compared to what I get out of my camera. So what are the typical steps you put most pictures through before posting? I mostly use Gimp, but I don't even know what tweaks I want to make, much less know how to make them. So could you give examples of your typical workflows on pictures? I'm not necessarily looking for step by step guides, but what methods are you using and the general idea behind the edits?
For me, i open it up in photoshop and just play around with the levels, curves and sometimes vibrance.. and if i'm looking for a specific effect then most of the time ill upload it to picnik (so much faster and easier than working in photoshop, atleast i think so) :]
@mallocarray I put them all in a folder labelled after the event, make a folder called edits then go through them in the image viewer, opening all the ones I want to edit or keep in photoshop until there are maybe thirty open (I'd open them all but need more RAM).
Each image I look at I decide on levels or curves first for the light, if they need it, that's just sort of an instant one, I'll play with the exposure and contrast with curves, along with the colour.
Crop if needed and kill any blemishes, apply any effects I reckon needed then have a final look, make any changes and save to edits.
When there aren't blemishes to deal with it generally takes me about ten to forty seconds an image to adjust.
I do ALL of my photo edits in photoshop. Though, I'm normally just adjusting levels and sometimes putting sharp/color masks on them. Typically, contrast and sharpness are good, but it's all about what you want out of your pictures. Just play around and see what you like! =) Photoshop is also great for selective color edits and things of that nature. Text goes on in photoshop (text from dafont.com) and any other effects are in photoshop as well. I just don't usually add effects. ^_^ Hope that helps!
quite a tricky question to answer as most of my editing is dictated by the shot that I take there is no single set of steps that I follow some shots look good straight out of camera if they dont look quite right maybe I will play around with highlights shadows contrast and clarity probably tweek the curves, some I convert to sepia , black and white or 2 tone and then there are those that turn into works of art by themselves with various masking, overlaying, dodge and burn, bluring sharpening and a whole list of other stuff. I use a mixture of gimp and paintshop pro photo x2 (there are loads of gimp tutorials on youtube that may give you a few ideas.)
I am a huge fan of Picnik. I always resize, sharpen, and tweak colors or exposure. Then, depending on the mood of the picture, I will often cross process or use the Orton process. I go in spells with selective color too. I also keep edits separate from SOOC shots, so I can edit the same pic different ways from the original.
Rarely so I spend more than 2-3 minutes on a photo, you learn what processes produce what results quickly, and what setting (outdoor, indoor, action, etc.) they work best on.
I don't have a standard PP workflow that is applied to all images. Instead, I shoot in raw, import via Lightroom, and have a basic preset applied to all imported images. This is usually just a touch of sharpening, lens correction, and slight curve adjustment. From there I'll usually see if the image needs a crop or leveling adjustment, tweak the white balance, and then then see if it needs any other adjustments like additional sharpening, more clarity/vibrance, saturation, a curve adjustment, etc.
Some images won't need hardly anything at all, while others could really benefit from some processing. I also have about 25 develop presets that I may quickly run through to see if any of those give me a suitable starting point and tweak after that.
This is all just a long way to say that other than some very minimal initial adjustment on import (the stuff your camera would do if you are shooting in JPG anyway) each image gets its own special treatment if needed.
i usually open a photo, then level (auto) then i usually adjust the tones, and vibrance .... and sometimes, manipulating it.... ♥ (my project, my own style) ....
All my shooting and processing is done through the iPhone ... I usually spend some chunk of the evening going back through the images I've shot for the day (and I've noticed I tend to shoot *at least* 5 frames, with varying focus or framing, of each same subject), then bring the compositions and images I like best into the post-processing apps and try to achieve the mood I feel is most illustrative of my 'vision' for that shot. I send the ones I like most to my email, archive them on my computer (in a year_month dated folder), then upload The One for the day here.
Since one of my is goals for this project is to keep all work quick and dirty, so to speak, I have to keep myself on task with the post-processing and avoid working with EVERY frame I've shot.
It's VERY different from working with Photoshop - in iPhone apps, I can't crop, can't sharpen, can't use any clean-up processing, and I am making myself rely only on available light and composition at the moment of the original shot + light leak/color effects to adjust curves and colors. It's a huge challenge to me!
I shoot everything in RAW + JPEG, then open it up in Bridge...Photoshop CS5. I only work with the RAW images. I give each one a rating, then open them up in RAW and tweak the color balance and exposure if needed, convert them to a JPEG file, and do a batch rename with a new number sequence.
After that, I open the new JPEG folder in Photoshop, do a slight curves and levels adjustment, bump up the contrast, and add a sharpening action to taste. That's pretty much it, unless I'm going for a certain effect. I've found that this route saves me hours in editing!
Someone else above had a really similar work flow to mine.
I save all my photos in a folder, then create a sub folder for edits. I'll sort through my pictures and tag through which ones I want to edit, then open them in photoshop (in series if there's a lot).
For the most part, my editing goes like this:
a) Levels
b) Contrast
c) Hue/Saturation on whatever I want to pop out
d) Curves
I usually just edit photos in PSE 8, but depending on if the picture needs it or not, or depending on what I'm going for, I'll edit for blemishes, remove something I see as a distraction, add blur to DOF, etc. I usually use CS5 for more time intensive stuff like that. Then I just add an "e" to the end of the file name and we're done :)
It's really all about just finding out what works for you
My workflow is very similar to @youthful above.
I do all my editing in Photoshop CS3. The adjustments that I almost use are:
1) Levels - to correct exposure if necessary
2) Curves - to increase/decrease contrast
3) Crop if necessary (and change the PPI to 300)
Sometimes, I'll do a high-pass filter adjustment layer to improve sharpness.
And that's pretty much it.
On portraits, I'll do a lot more work such as fixing skin blemishes, making eyes stand out etc.
a) Skim through photos via the thumbnail view - discard all those that are blurry; rate 1 star if they need cropping or rotation, the rest are 2 stars
b) 1 Star - Crop; rotate then rate 2 star
c) 2 Star - Adjustments to White Balance, Exposure, Recovery, Fill light, Black, Contrast, Vibrance, Saturation, - Levels
If its still looking good - rate it as 3 star
d) 3 star - Vignetting; Recropping (if it needs) Split-Toning and everything else - finish by rating 4 stars
Yeah its a bit tedious but its the only way I can systematically edit quickly without forgetting anything important :)
As part of my 365 project, one of the things I am aiming to achieve is to use my Digital more akin to how I used to shoot with my Film cameras. That is to try get the shot I want taking as few shots as possible. Typically for the 365 I workout what I'm going to shoot before going to make the image. This means that come processing time I'm not working with a huge number of images, the highest number so far is 10 images of 3 different subjects.
I'm shooting RAW+JPG so that if necessary I have more latitude with the RAW files, as I can end up shooting late in the evening I want to have that as a fall back.
I do all my processing using PS5, and I follow this process:
1. Open all the jpgs in PS, this would normally be 3 shots
2. Determine if I can work with the jpgs, if not I'll open the corresponding RAW files in camera raw.
3. After looking at the 3 images, for framing, lighting, focus etc.
4. Select one image to work with
5. Typically the adjustments I would make are (I do as little as possible):
- Blemish removal
- Cropping
- Adjust contrast/tone/colour
- Adjust shadows/highlights
- Occasionally, I'll add a vibrancy layer and/or adjust hue/saturation
6. I always do a file save as, so as to retain the original image
I take my photos in Raw so use lightroom for my editing. All I'm doing really is tweaking the white balance a little and brightening colours that may need it. Some times I use a preset if I fancy something different. I try not tpo crop but sometimes I have to. Most of the time I use that but now and again I want to do something drastic so after saving it to jpeg I open it up in CS5 for more tweaking if needed. I basically don't spend any more that 15 minutes per photo, 5 mins if it's just a minimum tweak needed.
Thank you for all of the response. My workflow right now is to download with Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 and sort through them, giving star ratings to them. 3 stars for photos I want to keep and no stars for trash. Then I go through all of the 3 stars and rank the betters ones with 4, then again through all of the 4s to pick my few 5 stars. Then I edit the 5 stars with Gimp.
I saw several people mentioned editing levels and then curves. I thought at least in the GIMP world that these two were the same setting just different ways of looking at it. What is the idea behind editing with each setting?
Do you use an unsharp mask on every photo or just those that need it?
1.open photo
2.correct or clean up some flaw.. (like for portraits some blemishes or zits)
3.soften
4. high pass (brings out details..a nd i mean details like pores after u soften hahaha )
5 brightness contrast
5. exposure
6.Bnw layer
7.gradient map
i am not a fan of selcting tool... it's a pain in the... you know.. LOL so as much as possible i'd like mine to be well prepared on the shoot date so that i won't do much on post processing... =)
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Each image I look at I decide on levels or curves first for the light, if they need it, that's just sort of an instant one, I'll play with the exposure and contrast with curves, along with the colour.
Crop if needed and kill any blemishes, apply any effects I reckon needed then have a final look, make any changes and save to edits.
When there aren't blemishes to deal with it generally takes me about ten to forty seconds an image to adjust.
Rarely so I spend more than 2-3 minutes on a photo, you learn what processes produce what results quickly, and what setting (outdoor, indoor, action, etc.) they work best on.
Some images won't need hardly anything at all, while others could really benefit from some processing. I also have about 25 develop presets that I may quickly run through to see if any of those give me a suitable starting point and tweak after that.
This is all just a long way to say that other than some very minimal initial adjustment on import (the stuff your camera would do if you are shooting in JPG anyway) each image gets its own special treatment if needed.
i usually open a photo, then level (auto) then i usually adjust the tones, and vibrance .... and sometimes, manipulating it.... ♥ (my project, my own style) ....
Since one of my is goals for this project is to keep all work quick and dirty, so to speak, I have to keep myself on task with the post-processing and avoid working with EVERY frame I've shot.
It's VERY different from working with Photoshop - in iPhone apps, I can't crop, can't sharpen, can't use any clean-up processing, and I am making myself rely only on available light and composition at the moment of the original shot + light leak/color effects to adjust curves and colors. It's a huge challenge to me!
After that, I open the new JPEG folder in Photoshop, do a slight curves and levels adjustment, bump up the contrast, and add a sharpening action to taste. That's pretty much it, unless I'm going for a certain effect. I've found that this route saves me hours in editing!
I save all my photos in a folder, then create a sub folder for edits. I'll sort through my pictures and tag through which ones I want to edit, then open them in photoshop (in series if there's a lot).
For the most part, my editing goes like this:
a) Levels
b) Contrast
c) Hue/Saturation on whatever I want to pop out
d) Curves
I usually just edit photos in PSE 8, but depending on if the picture needs it or not, or depending on what I'm going for, I'll edit for blemishes, remove something I see as a distraction, add blur to DOF, etc. I usually use CS5 for more time intensive stuff like that. Then I just add an "e" to the end of the file name and we're done :)
It's really all about just finding out what works for you
I do all my editing in Photoshop CS3. The adjustments that I almost use are:
1) Levels - to correct exposure if necessary
2) Curves - to increase/decrease contrast
3) Crop if necessary (and change the PPI to 300)
Sometimes, I'll do a high-pass filter adjustment layer to improve sharpness.
And that's pretty much it.
On portraits, I'll do a lot more work such as fixing skin blemishes, making eyes stand out etc.
a) Skim through photos via the thumbnail view - discard all those that are blurry; rate 1 star if they need cropping or rotation, the rest are 2 stars
b) 1 Star - Crop; rotate then rate 2 star
c) 2 Star - Adjustments to White Balance, Exposure, Recovery, Fill light, Black, Contrast, Vibrance, Saturation, - Levels
If its still looking good - rate it as 3 star
d) 3 star - Vignetting; Recropping (if it needs) Split-Toning and everything else - finish by rating 4 stars
Yeah its a bit tedious but its the only way I can systematically edit quickly without forgetting anything important :)
I'm shooting RAW+JPG so that if necessary I have more latitude with the RAW files, as I can end up shooting late in the evening I want to have that as a fall back.
I do all my processing using PS5, and I follow this process:
1. Open all the jpgs in PS, this would normally be 3 shots
2. Determine if I can work with the jpgs, if not I'll open the corresponding RAW files in camera raw.
3. After looking at the 3 images, for framing, lighting, focus etc.
4. Select one image to work with
5. Typically the adjustments I would make are (I do as little as possible):
- Blemish removal
- Cropping
- Adjust contrast/tone/colour
- Adjust shadows/highlights
- Occasionally, I'll add a vibrancy layer and/or adjust hue/saturation
6. I always do a file save as, so as to retain the original image
1. Bright and contrast
2. Hue and saturation
3. Levels
4. Mix of 1,2 and 3
5. Quick Selection Tools
6. Mix again of 1,2 and 3
7. Filters
That's my 7 Ingredients in Photography so far and little by little now I'm adding some new touch.
Do you use an unsharp mask on every photo or just those that need it?
1.open photo
2.correct or clean up some flaw.. (like for portraits some blemishes or zits)
3.soften
4. high pass (brings out details..a nd i mean details like pores after u soften hahaha )
5 brightness contrast
5. exposure
6.Bnw layer
7.gradient map
=)