How to get these kind of tones?

[astroNikon]

The auto button just adjusts the basic panel right?

there's a couple other Autos around the system such as for Lens Profiling etc, but sooner or later you'll NEED to know how to use the tool to your liking.

It's like your camera. Do you use AUTO all the time on the camera ?

 

[nerwin]

The auto button just adjusts the basic panel right?

there's a couple other Autos around the system such as for Lens Profiling etc, but sooner or later you'll NEED to know how to use the tool to your liking.

It's like your camera. Do you use AUTO all the time on the camera ?

I don't think I ever even turned the dial to the auto mode on my D610...lol.

Curves are your friend. Really the only tool you need for most photos editing. Read up on how to use them and you will be happy you did.

I've been playing with the curves..there is just so many ways to adjust the photo using the curves. I can just individual colors or just RGB. Its a little overwhelming to be honest.

 

[gckless]

Auto almost always washes out my images, but i like to press it, then drop exposure back to 0 and adjust to my likens. How it handles the highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks is pretty good.

I find this is the case as well. Also find that it goes nuts sometimes and just completely washes out the image. Don't know what that's about.

 

[nerwin]

If anyone would like to have fun editing my poorly exposed photo, have fun.

Here's the RAW file. Erwin-120611-5649.NEF

And here is my edit that is actually printed and hung on the wall above my desk right now.

 

[Braineack]

maybe when im home, ill edit it like I would any of my shots.

 

[DScience]

Because it was a jpeg file that I had, the sky is messed up but in general this is what she is doing. View attachment 125223

I wholeheartedly disagree here. Did you even look at the example, or the rest of her Flickr?!?!

A dull gray, heavily vignetted image is NOT what she's doing.

Fo shoooow muuuu man!!!!!

 

[Braineack]

Fo shoooow muuuu man!!!!!

???

I mean what you posted would be like me saying I looked at your 500px link and think you're a really good baby portrait photographer.

 

[Braineack]

this is probably how I would have done it:

 

[nerwin]

this is probably how I would have done it:


View attachment 125264

View attachment 125265

Wow that looks really good, nice and clear. Would you mind sharing what you did?

 

[Braineack]

just this:

 

[nerwin]

Man I suck. I have absolutely no vision when it comes to post processing my images. The only thing I can do is start with a preset that I like that gives me a basis for my edits and just roll with it. I don't know what else to do.

 

[JonA_CT]

Man I suck. I have absolutely no vision when it comes to post processing my images. The only thing I can do is start with a preset that I like that gives me a basis for my edits and just roll with it. I don't know what else to do.

I know you've been at it longer than me, but one of the things that really helped me was figuring out a workflow in LR. I read Scott Kelby's book (I'm sure there are others, and ones that are probably free), and pretty much work through my pictures in the way that he showed me. Once I started doing that, it was easier for me to start playing with individual sliders to see what they do and trying to figure out what I like and what I don't like.

 

[Vtec44]

Man I suck. I have absolutely no vision when it comes to post processing my images.

A good photographer always have an idea of how his images will look at the end. It's also something you can't really teach ... like how to use a camera.

 

[Braineack]

So what I did here first was adjust for distortion. I like vertical lines--that's just me.

Then I simply adjusted the black and white points to where I liked them, then adjusted the shadows to bring the mids to a point I was happy. Without increasing the shadows i thought the fore-area was too dark, but i didnt bring them up so far that there was still a look of difference between areas in shadow and areas in direct light.

By default, i add 10 clarity, 20 vibrancy, and 2 saturation based on my import settings. I bumped the colors just a touch cause I thought it still looked a bit dull.

Then I added warmth to the shot via the WB, pushed the tint to red, and still thought the shot looked too green, so I went in and dropped the green saturation.

lastly bumped up the sharpness ever so slightly.

oh yeah, almost forgot, i did paint an area of the sky with an adjustments brush and dropped the exposure and highlights to bring back up the detail in the one tower, but not too much where the sky turned to gray since it was blown out.


I like bright, vibrant realistic looking images. But I love shadows and contrast as well, so I tend to exaggerate lights and darks depending on the scene. I never use presets. I adjust image-by-image and start from scratch, i've downloaded a bunch of presets and only find them useful when im blindly trying to mimic an artist style -- like matte blacks, or cross-processing, or the "ultimate fighter" look.

 

[nerwin]

So what I did here first was adjust for distortion. I like vertical lines--that's just me.

Then I simply adjusted the black and white points to where I liked them, then adjusted the shadows to bring the mids to a point I was happy. Without increasing the shadows i thought the fore-area was too dark, but i didnt bring them up so far that there was still a look of difference between areas in shadow and areas in direct light.

By default, i add 10 clarity, 20 vibrancy, and 2 saturation based on my import settings. I bumped the colors just a touch cause I thought it still looked a bit dull.

Then I added warmth to the shot via the WB, pushed the tint to red, and still thought the shot looked too green, so I went in and dropped the green saturation.

lastly bumped up the sharpness ever so slightly.

oh yeah, almost forgot, i did paint an area of the sky with an adjustments brush and dropped the exposure and highlights to bring back up the detail in the one tower, but not too much where the sky turned to gray since it was blown out.


I like bright, vibrant realistic looking images. But I love shadows and contrast as well, so I tend to exaggerate lights and darks depending on the scene. I never use presets. I adjust image-by-image and start from scratch, i've downloaded a bunch of presets and only find them useful when im blindly trying to mimic an artist style -- like matte blacks, or cross-processing, or the "ultimate fighter" look.

Do you sync images that are similar or still process them one by one?