What do you use editing software for?

[cfaulds]

I love that effect! You see it in a lot of photos. Looks great

 

[Mulewings~]

Mulewings: That is incredible! Im amazed at the sky! How do you do that!?!

DogGoneGood: I really like how you have brought the background to life, and especially how you edited the dog on the greyscale image

O||||||O : I have no idea what that is, but the second image looks so much better with the more vibrants colours

rvaphotographer: I really like how you hvae showed me/us 2 different edited images of the same image - gives me/us more ideas - i especially like the last one

Hikin Mike: My FAVOURITE! WOW. That is seriously incredible. I am now reading on how to use layer masks on photoshop CS3 extended .... I want to do that!!!!! Im amazed! That has blown me away - the final image looks incredible! Great job!


Thanks for everyone who posted their images and gave me/everyone examples. This has really helped me to see what i can use editing programs for, and how i can make my images look better

Wow...I have to agree after browsing through the photos...this is a great thread and wonderful job showing how to edit.

I actually used a method of 'faking' HDR for that. I also then used the 'sliders' to adjust the R/B/G values to pop the sky.

I must agree that there are some excellent examples of editing here. If one were to look closely at the sky I edited,...it would have some graininess to it. [so I am not totally happy with it]

Also I used an old pocket P&S camera to 'shoot' the sky and road while I was getting the mail.

Great discussion.

 

[HikinMike]

Gaerek & cfaulds - Thanks! It's not hard at all. I would say 75% of the time I use 2 different exposures and use the Gradient Tool to basically make a GND. Sometimes I'll refine that using a soft-edged brush with a 10-25% opacity on selected spots.

I was hesitant on posting the originals, mainly because I had to start Photoshop and upload the images (I was lazy). I hope that seeing these images, what you can do with a pre-planned idea and a little time. :mrgreen:

 

[Photo Lady]

beautiful work you do... totally impressed with your art... magnificient ..!

 

[Josh66]

O||||||O : I have no idea what that is, but the second image looks so much better with the more vibrants colours

Thanks. It's actually a guitar (Fender Stratocaster).

 

[cfaulds]

Gaerek & cfaulds - Thanks! It's not hard at all. I would say 75% of the time I use 2 different exposures and use the Gradient Tool to basically make a GND. Sometimes I'll refine that using a soft-edged brush with a 10-25% opacity on selected spots.

I was hesitant on posting the originals, mainly because I had to start Photoshop and upload the images (I was lazy). I hope that seeing these images, what you can do with a pre-planned idea and a little time. :mrgreen:

Thank you for telling me an idea of what you did! Puts me in the right direction to learn more

Well thank god you did. Im amazed at how you have put them together! The best thing about it is that when i look at it, it relaxes my eyes because of the soft colours - sounds 'gay' i know, but it really does! Im in awe.

 

[HikinMike]

Thank you for telling me an idea of what you did! Puts me in the right direction to learn more

Well thank god you did. Im amazed at how you have put them together! The best thing about it is that when i look at it, it relaxes my eyes because of the soft colours - sounds 'gay' i know, but it really does! Im in awe.

I went ahead and posted what I did to each image. The pink shows the transparent on that layer.

Top image (_IMG_9701):

Middle Image (_IMG_9702):

Bottom image (_IMG_9704):

Here's a screen print of the layers in CS2

 

[Mulewings~]

Thank you for that. It was very helpful HikinMike...

 

[cfaulds]

Yes thank you very much! So helpful indeed

A bit off topic but it says you posted those messages at 4:30am! Im guessing thats the time here in England.

 

[Pugs]

I do things a bit differently. Most of my landscape photographs are at least two separate exposures, hand-blended using Layer Masks in CS2.
...

Very nice.

That's what HDR should look like, not something out of Alice in Wonderland.

Amen! To that!

For me, I tend to use post-processing to compensate for the color/tonal flatness, softness, etc... that you always have with any RAW format image. Of course, I also correct for my errors like leveling, cropping, exposure, etc...

Before:

After:

 

[cfaulds]

i realise that the most common editing is making the subject stand out more and making the photo have more vibrant colours. Thanks for all the examples!

 

[cfaulds]

I was just about to post my examples with my first photos.

I was intending to upload them to Flickr, however my edited photo is over 10mb - its 13.5mb. How can i compress the photo? i dont care if i lose a little quality as its just an example...

Thanks

 

[Pugs]

i realise that the most common editing is making the subject stand out more and making the photo have more vibrant colours. Thanks for all the examples!

Like I said, if you shoot RAW, you're going to have to do some post-processing. Every RAW image will be flat in terms of color range and tonal range; they will all be a little soft even if the focus was dead on; they will all need a little white balance tweaking. Basically, they will all need some saturation, some contrast, some sharpening, some levels/curves adjustment, etc...

If you're going to shoot seriously, I recommend shooting in RAW. If you're going to shoot in RAW, I recommend learning these basic post-processing techniques. This is the same as learning basic darkroom techniques, if you were going to be serious about photography back in the days of film.

I was just about to post my examples with my first photos.

I was intending to upload them to Flickr, however my edited photo is over 10mb - its 13.5mb. How can i compress the photo? i dont care if i lose a little quality as its just an example...

Thanks

I use VSO Image Resizer (it's free and easy) and it'll throw a little watermark down automagically for you.

Otherwise, you can simply change the resolution and/or image size in Photoshop or whatever editing software you use and save a lower-res copy.

 

[cfaulds]

what size should i make it? Its currently 4752x1368

 

[Pugs]

I go 800 on the long edge at 72ppi.