New with a DSLR

Shooter_Mutter · Aug 28, 2008

Hey everyone! I just got a DSLR for my birthday yesterday, and finally had time to play around with it some. This is my first SLR, and so i'm still learning all the basics of getting it to do what I want it to do. Thought I would toss up some pics I did yesterday/today. Please let me know what you think! (I know on some of the photos they are a bit bright...the photos I originally shot were too plain.. I wanted to make it pop). I'm shooting with a Canon XSI.

A few of our neighbors up the street:

Sunflower basking in the sun

A few of one of my many dogs

Overread · Aug 28, 2008

I like those early shots - the first works well.
Though I have to say I am not a fan of your popadding

a little too much popadding - care to post and original of one of those?

And welcome to TPF

Shooter_Mutter · Aug 28, 2008

Overread said:
I like those early shots - the first works well.
Though I have to say I am not a fan of your popadding a little too much popadding - care to post and original of one of those?

And welcome to TPF

Here's an original of the 4th. Everytime I played with it.. I couldn't get it to do what I liked. I call that one the Devil On The Rise.. The cow looks so evil on the red ground.

Overread · Aug 28, 2008

hmm two questions - firstly what are you editing with (program) and secondly mind if I upload an edit?

Shooter_Mutter · Aug 28, 2008

Overread said:
hmm two questions - firstly what are you editing with (program) and secondly mind if I upload an edit?

I'm using photoshop CS2 (waiting on new comp to get CS3).. and second.. you going to make me look like a tard? :lol:

Overread · Aug 28, 2008

nope (I ain't got a picture of you to do that to

)
tis all safe

Shooter_Mutter · Aug 28, 2008

Overread said:
nope (I ain't got a picture of you to do that to )
tis all safe

Alright alright.. hit me.. I will admit this isn't my best editing work :-/ i'm a graphic designer who's still learning the odds and ends of photography and editing photos in certain situations.

Overread · Aug 28, 2008

Well I took your original shot and performed what I normally do for photos - levels (auto), saturation, brightness and contrast. I also go and reduce noise (strength 10, preserve details 95%) and sharpen the end result with the unsharpen mask (radius 0.8, value dependent on shot, threshold 2)

here is what I did:
Auto levels - this adjusted the shot a lot, but did suck out the reddyness to it - I switched levels to the red selection as opposed to RGB. Now if you look at the red histogram and sliders you can see that there is a long fine line out to the right with a small spike up at the end - move the far right slider along to where the histogram starts to build up more to increase the reddyness.
Stage 2 was a saturation boost - I don't tend to go past +12 on saturation as beyond that the shot starts to look artifical.
Stage 3 was contrast - +8 for this. You can also adjust brightness is you choose to.
I also recomend reading up and learning about curves - I know this only vaguely and yet you can get some very good results with curve manipulation.

Remember this is how I would edit the shot -- your own editing might look very different as you seek a different end effect.
edit - although this shot looks fine even when I go as far as +30 on saturation

Shooter_Mutter · Aug 28, 2008

Overread said:
Well I took your original shot and performed what I normally do for photos - levels (auto), saturation, brightness and contrast. I also go and reduce noise (strength 10, preserve details 95%) and sharpen the end result with the unsharpen mask (radius 0.8, value dependent on shot, threshold 2)

here is what I did:
Auto levels - this adjusted the shot a lot, but did suck out the reddyness to it - I switched levels to the red selection as opposed to RGB. Now if you look at the red histogram and sliders you can see that there is a long fine line out to the right with a small spike up at the end - move the far right slider along to where the histogram starts to build up more to increase the reddyness.
Stage 2 was a saturation boost - I don't tend to go past +12 on saturation as beyond that the shot starts to look artifical.
Stage 3 was contrast - +8 for this. You can also adjust brightness is you choose to.
I also recomend reading up and learning about curves - I know this only vaguely and yet you can get some very good results with curve manipulation.

Remember this is how I would edit the shot -- your own editing might look very different as you seek a different end effect.
edit - although this shot looks fine even when I go as far as +30 on saturation

I do alot of adjusting the curves, then a bit of shadow/highlight, and some contrasting.. I do a bit of adjusting with unsharpen mask.

Overread · Aug 28, 2008

ahh then its your style of editing

like I said I liked your first shot, but felt the others a little over the top - but then if its your aim its your aim

Shooter_Mutter · Aug 28, 2008

Overread said:
ahh then its your style of editing
like I said I liked your first shot, but felt the others a little over the top - but then if its your aim its your aim

It's playing LOL.. I didn't care for the shot much.. so I thought maybe playing with some editing would make it more appealing to me lol