Post Editing a Photo

[cptkid]

The lady asked for "What are everyone's thought on editing photos?" and I provided mine. My thoughts were not meant to be demeaning to her or to anyone else here in any way whatsoever. She also asked " What are some of your biggest no no's while editing and what are some of your goto techniques?" and I again provided mine. I stand by everything I wrote in an effort to answer her questions including this suggestion:

"My suggestion to you is this. Take a few extra seconds, if possible, to get the best photo possible. Then your time spent on editing shouldn't be much at all. If you find yourself spending a lot of time editing then you were probably doing something wrong when you snapped the photo or else you're trying to achieve some sort of artsy effect."

As for your inappropriate anal photography comment, I leave that to the more skilled photographers such as yourself. In any event the only person I see here demeaning anyone is you attempting to demean me.

Artsy effect?

Heres my workflow for a standard beauty shot.

Import
Lens corrections
White balance
Frequency Seperation
Skin Clean
Curves
Levels
Colour Balance
Dodge & Burn
Tone mix
Sharpen
Export

That is my standard workflow. Not for an artsy effect, for a nice looking beauty headshot. This could take anywhere from 20minutes to 2 hours.

Virtually all of the above could not be completed in camera.

 

[grafxman]

The lady asked for "What are everyone's thought on editing photos?" and I provided mine. My thoughts were not meant to be demeaning to her or to anyone else here in any way whatsoever. She also asked " What are some of your biggest no no's while editing and what are some of your goto techniques?" and I again provided mine. I stand by everything I wrote in an effort to answer her questions including this suggestion:

"My suggestion to you is this. Take a few extra seconds, if possible, to get the best photo possible. Then your time spent on editing shouldn't be much at all. If you find yourself spending a lot of time editing then you were probably doing something wrong when you snapped the photo or else you're trying to achieve some sort of artsy effect."

As for your inappropriate anal photography comment, I leave that to the more skilled photographers such as yourself. In any event the only person I see here demeaning anyone is you attempting to demean me.

Artsy effect?

Heres my workflow for a standard beauty shot.

Import
Lens corrections
White balance
Frequency Seperation
Skin Clean
Curves
Levels
Colour Balance
Dodge & Burn
Tone mix
Sharpen
Export

That is my standard workflow. Not for an artsy effect, for a nice looking beauty headshot. This could take anywhere from 20minutes to 2 hours.

Virtually all of the above could not be completed in camera.

Thanks for sharing the info. I'm sure the OP finds it quite interesting as do I. I'm also certain she's more interested in what you do to a photo than the little bit that I do. It seems to me that what you do is similar to what a makeup artist does. You're just doing it on your computer. That seems somewhat artistic to me. When I'm photographing gators and rattlesnakes being artistic, which I'm not and never will be, is the farthest thought from my mind.

Something just occurred to me. Perhaps we have a problem with a definition of "artsy". Here's what I was thinking:

"Used to describe someone who likes and actively indulges in art" "Being artistic" However I see there is also a negative connotation which I was unaware of and which I certainly did not intend. I'm sorry if anyone misunderstood or took offense.

 

[paigew]

I try to get everything right in camera; especially when I am shooting a session. If I do a good job taking the photo my processing time is pretty minimal. Sure there are times when I do extensive edits but these times are more for personal work/reasons. Maybe I just want to play! I love editing...almost more than taking the photos

 

[runnah]

[My workflow.

We have similar work flow for "glamour" shots. I don't WB in the program as I've dialed in the proper WB beforehand

Lens Correction
Sharpen
Vibrence
Saturation
Clarity (+/- depending on subject)
Minor Levels tweaks
Open in PS
Remove zits
Soften and mask (depending on subject)
Dodge/Burn
Crop
Export

 

[crystle]

No, I'm not enjoying it. What I'll spend the most time on are photos for my mother. She is into doing plays and has the expectations of plastic surgery whenever I take any photos of her. Generally the better I know the people in the photo the longer I spend on the photos. I'll inch a slider back and forward for 15-20 minutes at a time per photo. I guess I'll have to condition myself and start taking photos and not allow myself to edit at all, forcing me to be more selective when pressing down the shutter. This will probably help with the shear volume of photos I take. I bury myself with hundreds of photos trying to get good shots; presumably a rookie mistake. But hey I'm new I expect myself to suck lol

 

[Braineack]

Sometimes I feel like I rely way to much on post editing my pictures. What are everyone's thought on editing photos? Does it make you more lazy? How much is too much? What are some of your biggest no no's while editing and what are some of your goto techniques? And do you ever find yourself trying to save a not so great picture with edits? Penny for your thoughts.

Typically I just adjust white balance, levels, and vibrance/saturation. At most I'll crop or remove imperfections that distract...



Then sometimes I like to go from boring:



To not so boring:

 

[cptkid]

[My workflow.

We have similar work flow for "glamour" shots. I don't WB in the program as I've dialed in the proper WB beforehand

Lens Correction
Sharpen
Vibrence
Saturation
Clarity (+/- depending on subject)
Minor Levels tweaks
Open in PS
Remove zits
Soften and mask (depending on subject)
Dodge/Burn
Crop
Export

Yup that is pretty similar.

Can I ask why you sharpen that early?

I sharpen after I have fully processed.

 

[runnah]

[My workflow.

We have similar work flow for "glamour" shots. I don't WB in the program as I've dialed in the proper WB beforehand

Lens Correction
Sharpen
Vibrence
Saturation
Clarity (+/- depending on subject)
Minor Levels tweaks
Open in PS
Remove zits
Soften and mask (depending on subject)
Dodge/Burn
Crop
Export

Yup that is pretty similar.

Can I ask why you sharpen that early?

I sharpen after I have fully processed.

No particular reason.

 

[cptkid]

We have similar work flow for "glamour" shots. I don't WB in the program as I've dialed in the proper WB beforehand

Lens Correction
Sharpen
Vibrence
Saturation
Clarity (+/- depending on subject)
Minor Levels tweaks
Open in PS
Remove zits
Soften and mask (depending on subject)
Dodge/Burn
Crop
Export

Yup that is pretty similar.

Can I ask why you sharpen that early?

I sharpen after I have fully processed.

No particular reason.

Fair enough. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

[The_Traveler]

There is a reason to denoise and then sharpen early - images get 'blurred' intentionally as part of the de-mosaicing so that initial itty-bitty sharpening is to bring it back to zero.
Often done in raw converter but I would rather look for noise and remove it first.

To the OP.
Try making your initial corrections and then letting it set for a while.
Looking at something and trying to make it perfect sometimes results in over-working as the corrections become ignored.

I looked at your Flickr stream and, almost without exception, the portraits look way over-saturated and unnatural to me.
I don't know what the real skin color is but it can't be that bright orange.
(It looks like the whites of the eyes have been edited a lot so I didn't try to use those to get back to a natural color.)

Perhaps you could start including a color-checker or grey card in your test shots and use that to color balance but you need to grab hold of that issue.

Lew

 

[crystle]

There is a reason to denoise and then sharpen early - images get 'blurred' intentionally as part of the de-mosaicing so that initial itty-bitty sharpening is to bring it back to zero.
Often done in raw converter but I would rather look for noise and remove it first.

To the OP.
Try making your initial corrections and then letting it set for a while.
Looking at something and trying to make it perfect sometimes results in over-working as the corrections become ignored.

I looked at your Flickr stream and, almost without exception, the portraits look way over-saturated and unnatural to me.
I don't know what the real skin color is but it can't be that bright orange.
(It looks like the whites of the eyes have been edited a lot so I didn't try to use those to get back to a natural color.)

Perhaps you could start including a color-checker or grey card in your test shots and use that to color balance but you need to grab hold of that issue.

Lew

I've gotten to the point to where I do this so much that when I see the more natural tones I've convinced myself that its dull. I've crippled myself. Aaaaaah now I have to work twice as hard to break the habits.

 

[12sndsgood]

Couple things. If your just doing this for fun then just enjoy it, If your want to go into business then effective and quick processing is important. When I was first starting out with editing I would spent a lot more time editing, and then as I progressed I realised I was spending too much time doubting myself. if your spending 20 minutes going back and forth on a slider your issues is more along the lines of you doubting yoruself then the slider itself. make an adjustment and move on. I have also found out when I was starting out that I would overdo sliders a lot. I have learned to move a slider out and then back it off just a bit. try to make as little changes as nessicary to get the job done. Alot of times i'll adjust, and then come back the next day and see if I still like them. getting a good workflow as well helps out. doing the same routine from photo to photo cuts down time. as well as if your using lightroom syncing your photos so you spend 15 minutes on one photo. sync all your other photos to that one. and then spend a minute on each photo making small adjustments.

When I adjust a slider, i'll take it, slide it up to the end and then bring it back and stop where I feel it's right and then move on. I personaly don't get worrreid about the diffrence between the slider at 27% or 29% youlle go nuts doing that and not get anything done.


as far as feeling that it's dull if you don't do to much, it also probably means your photo looks more natural and it will probalby look dull to all the over processed photos out there that smooth the skin so much you cant tell facial features anymore.

 

[Gavjenks]

I've gotten to the point to where I do this so much that when I see the more natural tones I've convinced myself that its dull. I've crippled myself. Aaaaaah now I have to work twice as hard to break the habits.

Just use the eyedropper tool to objectively tell you how close your values are. You can look up "standard" values for different colors of skin tones online as a ballpark.

 

[kathyt]

I don't like to sit still. I hate editing. I would rather do as much as I can in camera so I can drink more wine instead of editing. Did I mention that I hate editing?

 

[runnah]

I've gotten to the point to where I do this so much that when I see the more natural tones I've convinced myself that its dull. I've crippled myself. Aaaaaah now I have to work twice as hard to break the habits.

I am willing to be your editing addiction sponsor. I recently weaned a fellow photographer off of crazy HDRing.