Did you edit?!

[bribrius]

[
you dont seem like you know much about pp either but you probably know more about pp than i do i think, i will probably ask you. lol.

i could put up mine, but really it is limited mostly to moving a slider a notch for adding contrast or something not very eventful or informative. .

Heh - see the end of the post I was still writing when you posted this.

No I don't know nearly as much as most people here, which is why I consider myself a beginner at post processing. This is why things like "masks" and "layers" are still mysteries to me, and so ANY information or examples that offer more clues to it will be helpful me, and perhaps others like me.

i played around with it in gimp, honestly though i don't have the patience for it and didn't enjoy it. if there was something i REALLY wanted to create and needed it i would be more apt to learn and put forth more effort toward it. But from my brief time with it i just really don't have the patience or attitude for it. i fukn hate it to be quite blunt i don't even take it seriously.
As i start to plateau though, or at least move into other things than just shooting a camera i am going to have to make myself learn some. I will do it kicking and screaming probably but at some point i will need to.

 

[Scatterbrained]

[
you dont seem like you know much about pp either but you probably know more about pp than i do i think, i will probably ask you. lol.

i could put up mine, but really it is limited mostly to moving a slider a notch for adding contrast or something not very eventful or informative. .

Heh - see the end of the post I was still writing when you posted this.

No I don't know nearly as much as most people here, which is why I consider myself a beginner at post processing. This is why things like "masks" and "layers" are still mysteries to me, and so ANY information or examples that offer more clues to it will be helpful me, and perhaps others like me.

Go to YouTube and search for Phlearn. You'll learn an awful lot in a relatively short period of time. Or you could go to AdobeTv and watch their videos that start from the novice/beginner level and go up from there.

 

[limr]

i played around with it in gimp, honestly though i don't have the patience for it and didn't enjoy it. if there was something i REALLY wanted to create and needed it i would be more apt to learn and put forth more effort toward it. But from my brief time with it i just really don't have the patience or attitude for it. i fukn hate it to be quite blunt i don't even take it seriously.
As i start to plateau though, or at least move into other things than just shooting a camera i am going to have to make myself learn some. I will do it kicking and screaming probably but at some point i will need to.

I don't like it either. The very thought of 20 steps of PP and taking an hour on a single picture makes me break out in hives.

But I recognize the utility in becoming more adept at certain kinds of adjustments, and so I force myself to learn more.

geez limr, just sign up for him to be your mentor and use Skype. Don't like the way he works find someone else.
you can carry over the debate there and maybe brush up on that pp it seems you want to learn.

I don't like Skype.

 

[limr]

Go to YouTube and search for Phlearn. You'll learn an awful lot in a relatively short period of time. Or you could go to AdobeTv and watch their videos that start from the novice/beginner level and go up from there.

Thanks for the suggestion. Is there something comparable for Corel? I don't have Photoshop. The official tutorials from Corel are the ones that were teaching people to push the tone mapping slider all the way up and use masking for selective color

Edit: Actually, those Phlearn tutorials might be useful anyway. They can help show me what's possible and some of the principles behind these tools, and then I can poke around and figure out how to execute them in Corel.

 

[KenC]

The very thought of 20 steps of PP and taking an hour on a single picture makes me break out in hives.

If I felt I had to do this on every image I'd break out too. I don't know how it is for others, but most often I make a couple of adjustments in Canon DPP or ACR during the raw conversion (usually 5 minutes) and a few basic ones in PS (often no more than 15 mjnutes), for example some selective darkening or lightening (just as I would have burned and dodged more often than not in the darkroom) and maybe a little cloning to remove specks (like with spotting dye). This is an average, and there are some I work on for only five minutes, and there are some I might spend an hour+ messing with, but I did that sometimes in the darkroom, as I'm sure a lot of people do or did.

In the beginning I found it useful to think about what I would do in the darkroom and then figure out how to translate that to PS, but now I don't think about the darkroom anymore at all - it's kind of like the process of learning a new language.

 

[limr]

I've gotten pretty good at cloning, since that's the most used tool I need (dust spots on film scans). I can do basic adjustments on the entire image - contrast, color levels, white balance - and am getting better at the burn and dodge tools. But I also have had pictures that needed some darkening or lightening, for example, but only in parts of the photo, and larger parts than could be effectively dealt with using burning or dodging. I knew there was a way to do this, but I couldn't really figure out what my options were. I played with a few things and tried layers - read directions and watched some videos - but I didn't really know if I was on the right track or not.

 

[KenC]

Does Corel have adjustment layers and layer masks? If so, it would not be difficult to explain the process (at least the one I use) or there may be good tutorials.

 

[limr]

Does Corel have adjustment layers and layer masks? If so, it would not be difficult to explain the process (at least the one I use) or there may be good tutorials.

Yup, it does. I've got the next-to-latest version (Pro X5, I think it's called). I know it's a very capable program. I think I might watch a few of those Phlearn tutorials and then search for more Corel-specific ones.

I understand the concept of layers, but there's just something about their use or execution that I am missing.

 

[Buckster]

I want to know what KIND of edits are being done. Not the specifics, necessarily, but general stuff. I'm just nosy. And I feel like the way to learn is to emulate and then create your own style once you learn from other people.

Here's one example, and I have another in mind that I might post:

Not long ago, I had a session to shoot a 2 year old girl on her birthday. As a 2 year old, she was not camera / photographer-cooperative. She couldn't be coaxed into standing "here" on her own or looking up or smiling or any of that stuff, and her mom wasn't able to help with that much either. So it becomes a session where I'm just trying like crazy to get her attention and get her happy long enough to get something useful. I snap about 30 shots and move on to her and her brother as a subject, per the client's order for portraits of her daughter, of her son and daughter together, and of the three of them.

Reviewing those 30 shots later, I choose this one because it has the best expression:

This is straight from the camera and into Lightroom, no sliders moved at all.

As you can see, I'm shooting with a white seamless background here. The way I work is to usually shoot with a white, gray or black background which makes it easier to mask them out in post processing, then drop in digital backgrounds to suit later in post. The clients are often involved in choosing those digital backgrounds, either directly, or by giving me a general idea of what they'd like. In this particular case, the client was not involved in choosing.

In any case, I bring it into Lightroom, where I straighten to the bridge deck, and crop. I made no other adjustments to this one in Lightroom. I export it as a 16 bit TIF, and bring it into Photoshop for final editing. Here's the image as brought into Photoshop:

In Photoshop, I clean the dirt from her face using clone, heal and brush tools, remove the slight bags under her eyes with those same tools, enhance her skin color and tone to give her a nice glow with adjustment layers, and brighten the iris of her eyes a bit.

Next, I mask her and the play set out of the white background so that I can drop in a more appropriate background, which I choose from a large library of backgrounds I've either shot or bought over the years. The background I bring in isn't quite the color or brightness I want, in order to best match the subject, so I change it accordingly. I also blurred it somewhat to throw it further behind her.

With the new background in place, I notice that the curl of hair on her left shoulder (our right) is still a fairly bright white from the white background and lighting I used, so it now looks out of place. To correct it, I use some matching color to make it appear to see through to her shirt and background, then recreate the hair itself with a brush shaped like a hair. It's not perfect, but if you're not looking for it, it'll pass.

Satisfied to this point, I adjust color, saturation and contrast overall. Then I add a bit of vignette to draw just a bit more attention to my subject, and I'm essentially completed with the editing.

Throughout this editing process, I use lots of layers and lots of masks to keep full control over my editing processes.

From there, I'll make each print size I need, 8x10, 5x7 and wallets, per the client's order, and sharpen each according to that sizes needs.

I also make a version for web display, which gets a giant watermark over it to keep the client from grabbing it without paying. It joins any other completed images from a session in a proof set on a web page for the client to choose from, so that they can order various sizes of prints and other assorted merchandise. Here it is without that watermark, as the completed image:

That was a relatively 'simple' edit for me, but far more than I would want to type about with each image I post on a forum somewhere. Others are far more involved.

So, my question would be how could I simplify that description and still be helpful?

Personally, I wonder if it wouldn't be more productive if those who want to know would just ask for additional information on specific images that interest them, rather than request that everyone start including all that editing information for those who might be interested.

Obviously, not everyone will be willing to provide that info upon request, but it doesn't hurt to ask, and perhaps it sets up a dialogue with that person and others about specifics on how to do a particular technique, or helps direct them to some of the many, MANY tutorials that already exist on the web, and especially on Youtube.

 

[Buckster]

Here's another example of my editing, but this time I'll just show the "as shot" and "as completed" images side by side, and make a few notes.

• The autumn background was chosen by the client.
• The client wished her little girl was smiling in it, so I put a smile on her face with the liquify tool, used on corners of the mouth and eyes.
• I changed the hue, saturation and luminance of the subjects to match the background, which in real life would have reflected a lot of orange onto them, which helps put them "IN" the scene, upping the believability. A little green sampled from the grass at the boy's feet was added to the bottom of the boy's pants for the same reason.
• I used the pen tool, brush, masking and some outright made-up creation of leaves and grass partially covering their feet so that they'd be standing "IN" the background, not just layered on top of it, again upping the believability.
• Based on the brightness of the light further back in the background beyond the tree, and the brightness of the scene coming in from above their heads, I put a bit of diffused shadow on the ground below them and especially in front of them.
• Not terribly noticeable at this size, but a lot of dirt, lint and other such things from head to toe on both subjects was removed, especially from her face and both their shoes.
• A LOT more layers and masks were used for this image, compared to the image I went over in the last post.
• I enjoy editing like this. Sitting here working with the Wacom pen and playing with various techniques while listening to some good tunes is very relaxing and therapeutic to me, rather than a chore. I also get nice feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction as I see my own progress and the clients' positive reactions to the prints when presented.
  
  If anyone has any questions, just ask. I'm always glad to help, if I can.

 

[KenC]

Buckster, I have a feeling that client stories would be much more entertaining that processing details. The client really wanted you to PS a smile? Really?

 

[Buckster]

Buckster, I have a feeling that client stories would be much more entertaining that processing details. The client really wanted you to PS a smile? Really?

Yeah, nothing they ask for surprises me anymore. When she saw the initial proof of it, she said she just wished the daughter was smiling, and I said I'd give it a try in Photoshop if she wanted, then she could have a look and decide if she wanted it on the final print. It's barely any work for me, and it's on it's own layer so if she decided she didn't want it, I'd just shut off that layer. She loved it, so that's what's on the prints. She just ordered more prints of it yesterday, I think for grandparents.

I recently did a complete facelift and dyed all the gray hair out of 10 photos for a lady, at her request, all in Photoshop, and she loves them. She acted like I took 10 or 20 years off her actual life, she was so happy with them.

I guess I'm sort of getting a reputation for the kinds of edits I do for clients, which is fine with me.

 

[bribrius]

nice. There is no denying the quality of the final image is significantly greater through post processing (if done right). The images you just posted give testament to that. Thanks for taking the time and explaining your method.

 

[bribrius]

nope. still cant do it. tried watching another tutorial. I either get side tracked watching tv instead, start dozing or fall to sleep, or cant get my screen to do the same thing as theirs and get ticked off and shut if off. I went through this months back too trying to make myself learn this. Usually I start to wander to other things instead of the tutorial, I have yet to make it past ten minutes into one other than "how to crop your photo". lol


had this great idea of changing all the backgrounds on the baby pics in the other thread.
didn't even make it through the first one fourty minutes later I couldn't get the little space around the baby to look right it carried over the highlight around it. Gave up on that and decided maybe I could blend the background. Stupid little circle with line over it said I couldn't. No freakn idea why. Fet up and out to have a pissed off cigarette shut the damn thing off..

Maybe this isn't for everyone.

I probably should have just paid more attention to the background when I shot it.

 

[Vince.1551]

It needs your finger and thumb cloning out

That's how you know it's completely real and not "shopped."

Joe

Exactly:

Hahaha good one


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk