New to DSLR - Post Processing

[The LoKW]

Hi All, great site with a wealth of knowledge and expertise for those such as myself who are just starting out.

My wife recently gave me my first DSLR for our anniversary (Canon) and I have been shooting to learn the basic on camera controls, familiarize myself with lenses etc.

Next comes the "darkroom". Currently I only have the Canon digital photo professional software but my question for those more experienced:

I am sure there are some standard things you all do to create better images post processing (increase saturation? sharpness?). What are your "standard" go to adjustments that you make for better overall images and typically how far do you go? I know a lot is subjective but any guidance is appreciated so I can form a point of departure.

Thanks much in advance for any help you may be able to provide!

[inkista]

Curve adjustments is my big one. Suggest you read this article on Curves and Levels. For me, just as I only buy cameras that do RAW and have a full Manual mode on them, I typically only look at post-processing software that does curves.

[jamesev]

Originally Posted by The LoKW

Hi All, great site with a wealth of knowledge and expertise for those such as myself who are just starting out.

My wife recently gave me my first DSLR for our anniversary (Canon) and I have been shooting to learn the basic on camera controls, familiarize myself with lenses etc.

Next comes the "darkroom". Currently I only have the Canon digital photo professional software but my question for those more experienced:

I am sure there are some standard things you all do to create better images post processing (increase saturation? sharpness?). What are your "standard" go to adjustments that you make for better overall images and typically how far do you go? I know a lot is subjective but any guidance is appreciated so I can form a point of departure.

Thanks much in advance for any help you may be able to provide!

Learn how to use your stuff first. Get to grips with Exposure, the advantages of shutter speed. Understand what your eye "sees" vs what the camera "sees". Look at composition techniques. The PP will only enhance, it wont do all the rest.

But if you do PP get your self a work flow

[RichardTaylor]

For me it is:

Shoot RAW.
In Lightroom (for individaual pics)

Some steps may not be needed.
(1) Crop
(2) Apply a (DPP style) preset (like camera faithful or landscape) with no sharpening.
(3) White balance
(4) Levels.
(5) tweak the saturation.

for the family stuff which we view on the TV, I will export the pic as a jpg, resized and sharpened for the TV.

If it is going to be published it will be exported as a 16 bit photoshop file for further tweaking in Photoshop and sharpening.
.

[3bayjunkie]

The more you do in camera the more time you will have to spend with family and friends. That is a general rule in photography. I would start out by keeping your white balance on the cloudy setting at all times except where you must deal with tunsten and florecent lighting indoors with no natural light.

Another quick tip I can give is to not shoot in harsh mid day light. if you can, always find open shade and place the sunlight behind your subject or to the right or left in a sunset or sunrise situation. Lighting is key to getting good color in your photos.

[RichardTaylor]

"Keeping your white balance on the cloudy setting at all times" will give you an unnatural warm cast to photographs shot in sunshine on cloudless days.
Not good when shooting people (bride?) in white dresses etc.

[Jonbar18]

The big ones are saturation and curves. Sometimes an image will need more work, and I`ll go into hue, white balance, crop, clone, clarity, noise reduction, sharpening, etc. But I try to stay away from images that need all that work, unless I know it`ll be worth it.

[3bayjunkie]

Originally Posted by RichardTaylor

"Keeping your white balance on the cloudy setting at all times" will give you an unnatural warm cast to photographs shot in sunshine on cloudless days.
Not good when shooting people (bride?) in white dresses etc.

The warmer tones in cloudy white balance are mostly appealing. however if you go into photoshop you can change your white balance in post if you have an unwanted color pallete.