Amature Photographer; Post Processing, how much?

[Andreas - 16th Ave]

Hey guys,
I am fairly new to the photography, or I bought my first DSLR camera a couple of months ago and started right away to learn more and more about how the camera works and things as far as exposure - I think I shot in 'auto mode' for like a week and then I jumped right into the AV and TV and full manual modes - which I would recommend to any new photographer since it really get's you thinking!

Alright well let's get back on track .. There's a ton of beautiful pictures out there and even the ones on DPS are amazing - and sometimes I just really wonder how much editing and retouching there has been done to the images? .. And when I say that I don't mean things like cropping and such, but more like .. well I am really into landscape photography (and really want to get started on photographing people too) and things like the colors of the sky and reflection of water and curves and levels and such .. like .. sometimes I just wonder how much is done to the images, because some of them seem too 'perfect' (in a very positive way) to be just taken with a camera - by the way, I love HDR!

I was wondering if you could come up with some of your own examples, like add a picture to your post and maybe help out a fellow photographer by briefly explaining what you did to your picture or something like that. - It would really mean a lot and help me move on with my passion.

I have absolutely NO experience whatsoever when it comes to post processing, but would really love to get started on that, but sometimes it just seems overwhelming and I don't know where to start - do you have any suggestions? Should I do it on my own (find free tutorials etc online + books) or should I pay for a course or class? And most of all where to start?

If any of this seems a little confusing feel free to just ask and I will do my best to explain what I mean.

[RichardTaylor]

My post processing pretty much follows the same steps for a lot of my pics weather they be landscapes or not.
I always shoot RAW and do preliminary PPing in Lightroom.

(1) Crop
(2) Apply a Lightroom preset (examples are camera faithful, landscape etc). This will get the clarity, vibrance & saturation ("Presence") in the ball park.
(3) Adjust the white balance as need be.
(4) Whilst keeping an eye on the histogram I will adjust the exposure, usually just a tweak, (Mainly white point, black point and recovering any blown highlights if needed)
(5) Tweak the saturation and luminance of any individual colours if need be.

For pics that will be individually published I then save the image as PSD file for noise reduction (if need be) and sharpening (and possibly some selective adjustment.

For large quantities of images, web based proofs, (like an event) will just use lightroom export dialogue for sharpening, image size, and quality

(1) This one would not have needed much adjusting beyond what I have described above. (the blue sky has been darkened to to give a more more contrast with the puffy clouds. It was a fairly straight forward exposure and didn't need much tweaking.


(2) The basics of this would have been the same but a lot more PPing (some of it selective) done in Photoshop to give it that "gritty" industrial feel. Plug in filters can make life very easy (Topaz Adjust was used for this one)


Hope this helps.

[BigFuzzy]

Not a landscaper, but I shoot people a lot so I thought I'd show you a couple of diff photos I've taken, one with lots of PP (post processing) and two with very little.

As for what I do with all my images in Lightroom3, I always sharpen a bit, and almost always boost the Clarity (good for contrast) and Vibrance (good for colors without affecting skin tones) settings.. sometimes extremely little. I also always ensure WB and exposure is dead on though I don't always have to correct (more due to luck )

These first portraits I did very little PP work.
I dulled the colors a bit. Boosted Clarity, sharpened a bit and and added a bit of vignetting. This was shot with no flash, all natural light and a simple 100e 50mm 1.8 lens on my 5d.


This one I did almost exactly the same as above except for two things; i used my 430ex flash shot through a large white umbrella and I shifted the colors more to a Cross Processing thing. Otherwise, very little PP work done that shouldn't be done with ALL images (imho).


This last one, though technically "a lot" of pp was done, it's very simple actually.
I did all the basic corrections as above. Shot with my 50mm lens and natural hallway light which means I corrected the WB in LightRoom. I shot the 7 frames (on manual to ensure equal exposure and WB) separately moving the camera (and my body) downward while tilting the camera right to left until the very last shot I was laying on the ground with the camera resting on the ground. I then did all the basic corrections listed above to ensure all the frames are the same then "export as layers" from Lightroom into Photoshop where I lined up the layers until the woman was properly aligned.


All in all, i do very very little corrections on my portraits. It's rare that I smooth skin or do any such corrections as i don't like the plasticy "doll" look even though it's very much done in the fashion world. I like to think that I stick to doing the type of corrections you could once do in a darkroom.
I like to think my images, if good, are a result of the work done with the camera and my brain more than any PP work. I find that the more I learn and the more I shoot the less I PP (unless doing something drastic like that last image).
Good luck and welcome to both DPS and photography in general!

[Thunder_o_b]

Opinions on post processing …..Well it is like bellybuttons, everyone has one.

I grew up on film (shot it for forty years) so I work hard to get it right in-camera. That being said, I process all my photos with at least six different programs.

1. iMac iPhoto
2.CS5, and the seven programs in the Topaz bundle.

I believe that you should use as much or as little PP as needed to produce the image that you see in your mind. Outside of forensic photography and copy work, all photography is an illusion anyway.

I don't mean to ramble, but you may run in to those that decry PP and those that say that it can save poor shots. Me, I believe it is the image that counts, and I don't care how I get it, as long as it is the best that I can do to bring from my mind that which I wish to share, and of course sell. Keep in mind that the "masters" of film past did tremendous work in the darkroom to produce their images.

This photo is a rare and extreme case. I generally will not try to salvage a shot that is this far gone. But what I saw in my mind was so pretty that I wanted to save it. It took quite a long time and near every program I had. It also can not be printed larger than 4"x6" before the serious weaknesses start to show. But that was ok, because the magazine that published it did not need an image larger than that.

As to where to go to learn PP skills, this post is a good start. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Taking courses? Maybe. Find out the programs that the people whose photos you admire use. You now know what I use, go to the macro room and see if you like what I have done. In the end it is your vision that counts, and how you realize it is up to you.

iMac iPhoto to start, followed by the Topaz bundle, and CS5.

Un-cropped RAW



Finished photo.

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by Thunder_o_b

Me, I believe it is the image that counts, and I don't care how I get it, as long as it is the best that I can do to bring from my mind that which I wish to share, and of course sell. Keep in mind that the "masters" of film past did tremendous work in the darkroom to produce their images.

Well said and, for lack of better words, holy shit, that's a great rescue job!

[Thunder_o_b]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

Well said and, for lack of better words, holy shit, that's a great rescue job!

Thank you BigFuzzy

I was hesitant to post this shot. But it is a good example of what can be done when needed.

Generally I do fairly well in-camera, and need a minimum of PP for my shots.

[Abhi]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

Well said and, for lack of better words, holy shit, that's a great rescue job!

I second that

[Thunder_o_b]

Originally Posted by Abhi

I second that

Thank you Abhi

[artk]

This is an interesting thread. I wanted to give you an example of what I do for pre and post processing. I shoot a lot of pictures around water and the contrasts can be pretty bad sometime. This image took a lot of planning and post processing. I actually took 5 shots of this scene starting at -2 EV and up to +2 EV in 1 EV increments.

Here is the middle image which is exposed at 0db. No processing just ran it through my raw converter with the camera settings. It is clearly beyond the dynamic range of the camera.




Here is the image after it was processed and tone mapped in Photomatix Pro. This image is still pretty weak and it is nothing like how I remembered the view when I was taking these shots.



Here is the final version of this image and it is very close to what it was like when I was there shooting. I used PS CS5 and 3 topaz filters to create this final image. I used Topaz adjust, Topaz detail, and Topaz Simplify. It took me several tries with different filter settings in each filter to arrive at a version of this image that matched what I had visualized while on site..

[Thunder_o_b]

Originally Posted by artk

This is an interesting thread. I wanted to give you an example of what I do for pre and post processing. I shoot a lot of pictures around water and the contrasts can be pretty bad sometime. This image took a lot of planning and post processing. I actually took 5 shots of this scene starting at -2 EV and up to +2 EV in 1 EV increments.

Here is the middle image which is exposed at 0db. No processing just ran it through my raw converter with the camera settings. It is clearly beyond the dynamic range of the camera.




Here is the image after it was processed and tone mapped in Photomatix Pro. This image is still pretty weak and it is nothing like how I remembered the view when I was taking these shots.



Here is the final version of this image and it is very close to what it was like when I was there shooting. I used PS CS5 and 3 topaz filters to create this final image. I used Topaz adjust, Topaz detail, and Topaz Simplify. It took me several tries with different filter settings in each filter to arrive at a version of this image that matched what I had visualized while on site..

Nice use of Topaz.