Photograph Enhancement

[POP]

As a complete buffoon in most things of a technical nature,I would be most interested in the sequence of events in downloading from the camera ,into say Adobe photoshop to alter or enhance one of the images.For example once you have displayed the photograph,do you unsharpen mask then move onto auto colour etc and so on.My interest in this is having reached the stage mentioned,I look and think what is the correct way to get the best from the image.I hope that you can understand my poor phrasing of the question and will not find it too stupid a question to answer.

POP

[NoSpringChicken]

Hi POP
I'm surprised you haven't had any answers to your post yet. I think everyone's out photographing birds. Here's a couple of suggestions but I think everybody has different ways of working.

First of all, if you haven't already done so, I would make a copy of the image and work on that instead of the original. That way if things go wrong you can scrap the copy and try again.

I would start by opening Levels and looking at the Histogram (the black triangular graph). If the left and right sliders don't coincide with the edges of the Histogram try dragging them in until they are just inline. That should increase the contrast and dynamic range of the image. You could then try moving the centre slider right or left as this will alter the midtones. See what looks right for you.

You could then try slightly increasing the Saturation in Hue and Saturation if necessary to perk up the colour and you could then try changing the Contrast and Brightness (be careful here as too much can bleach the whites.) It's really a case of fiddling round to get the image as you like it, remembering what the original subject looked like.

When you have finished you can reduce the file size as required and then apply Unsharp Mask as the final adjustment.

These are a few of my suggestions but I am sure other people will disagree and suggest their own way of going about it.;)

Ron

[POP]

Hi POP
I'm surprised you haven't had any answers to your post yet. I think everyone's out photographing birds. Here's a couple of suggestions but I think everybody has different ways of working.

First of all, if you haven't already done so, I would make a copy of the image and work on that instead of the original. That way if things go wrong you can scrap the copy and try again.

I would start by opening Levels and looking at the Histogram (the black triangular graph). If the left and right sliders don't coincide with the edges of the Histogram try dragging them in until they are just inline. That should increase the contrast and dynamic range of the image. You could then try moving the centre slider right or left as this will alter the midtones. See what looks right for you.

You could then try slightly increasing the Saturation in Hue and Saturation if necessary to perk up the colour and you could then try changing the Contrast and Brightness (be careful here as too much can bleach the whites.) It's really a case of fiddling round to get the image as you like it, remembering what the original subject looked like.

When you have finished you can reduce the file size as required and then apply Unsharp Mask as the final adjustment.

These are a few of my suggestions but I am sure other people will disagree and suggest their own way of going about it.;)

Ron

Ron many thanks for your helpful comments.

POP

[Mono]

Assuming you have Photoshop then get this book!

http://www.photoshopforphotographers.com/

[POP]

Assuming you have Photoshop then get this book!

http://www.photoshopforphotographers.com/

Mono thank you for your reply,but at £30 approx for the book it would be not quite on my wish list.I confess my original question was to pick the brains of the many experts that we have on this forum,and to use a little of their knowledge in improving my somewhat inadequate attempts at photograph.

POP

[GYRob]

i go with what nospringchicken says but would add the shadow/highlight tool too but again care must be used.
Rob.

[Mickymouse]

Only thing I think might be worth mentioning is to crop your image as the first step, the reason being that the other things take a bit of time which would be wasted on areas that you will later bin.

Mick

[hollis_f]

Mono thank you for your reply,but at £30 approx for the book it would be not quite on my wish list.

What about £15? Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adobe-Photoshop-CS3-Photographers-Professional/dp/0240520289/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197446405&sr=8-1) have this book at half price!

[POP]

What about £15? Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adobe-Photoshop-CS3-Photographers-Professional/dp/0240520289/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197446405&sr=8-1) have this book at half price!

Thank you all,and Hollis thank you for attention to my financial needs.

POP

[James]

I've just got a copy of this book (the older one for adobe photoshop v7.
It's a great book but it would be a mistake to think it's easy reading or understanding for a thicko like me. Not a beginners guide. There must be a market for such a book in plain English like "Idiots guide to understanding..."

James

[Robin Edwards]

Pop,

The difficulty is that the method and scale of changes you may want to make will be dependent on the original image. Having said this, for JPG images from the camera, this is the basic workflow I started with which I found worked for me :-

Upload and rename target file as a copy of the original
Use crop to recompose the image, perhaps placing the bird off centre to create a better view as well as to reduce the bits your'e not really interested in.
Try not to crop too much as image quality will obviously reduce as you reduce the number of pixels.
Use the slider to move the histogram white/grey/black to meet you preferences using Image/Adjustments/levels
Enhance colour rendition using Saturation slider, again to suit your eye.
I then try some Unsharp mask - not too much but enough to enhance your image.
I will use image/resize for printing or uploading
Then save as a JPG. If for the web I will save at mid-range quality otherwise I will save at maximum. Often I will save multiple copies if I want to do both.

This workflow is very basic but is somewhere to start in my opinion.

Consider using NeatImage if your resulting image suffers from grainy noise. It can make a huge difference.

I have just borrowed a book called "Photoshop 7 in easy steps" originally priced at £10.99. I haven't used it as yet but it might be worth considering ?
isbn 1-84078-218-8

Regards
Robin

[POP]

Pop,

The difficulty is that the method and scale of changes you may want to make will be dependent on the original image. Having said this, for JPG images from the camera, this is the basic workflow I started with which I found worked for me :-

Upload and rename target file as a copy of the original
Use crop to recompose the image, perhaps placing the bird off centre to create a better view as well as to reduce the bits your'e not really interested in.
Try not to crop too much as image quality will obviously reduce as you reduce the number of pixels.
Use the slider to move the histogram white/grey/black to meet you preferences using Image/Adjustments/levels
Enhance colour rendition using Saturation slider, again to suit your eye.
I then try some Unsharp mask - not too much but enough to enhance your image.
I will use image/resize for printing or uploading
Then save as a JPG. If for the web I will save at mid-range quality otherwise I will save at maximum. Often I will save multiple copies if I want to do both.

This workflow is very basic but is somewhere to start in my opinion.

Consider using NeatImage if your resulting image suffers from grainy noise. It can make a huge difference.

I have just borrowed a book called "Photoshop 7 in easy steps" originally priced at £10.99. I haven't used it as yet but it might be worth considering ?
isbn 1-84078-218-8

Regards
Robin

Robin thank you for your most helpful comments.

POP

[Markulous]

As a first stage, when loading into PS:
Auto Levels
Auto Colour

Will sort most shots! :t:

[postcardcv]

my workflow is very basic (I really need to invest in some better software). I shoot in RAW, so the first step is to open all the image in DPP, I thne go through and delete the shots I don't want. The next step is to tweek the exposure and tone/saturation as needed, and bin off the stuff that should have gone in the first run through. At this stage I rename all of the keepers, I store RAW files of all the images I want to keep. Any images atht I want to use for the web will then be converted to jpg, I then move over to Photoshop Elements (the original one!) At this stage I'll crop (if needed), resize and then apply a bit os USM as needed. Personally I don't use auto levels or auto colour, I don't like the effect this can often have on images, I prefer to make any adjustments manually so I have complete control over how the images look.

[Markulous]

Personally I don't use auto levels or auto colour, I don't like the effect this can often have on images, I prefer to make any adjustments manually so I have complete control over how the images look.

Oh yes, so do I! But I usually try Auto to see effect!
My workflow:
Copy CF using reader
Create thumbnails (ThumbsPlus Pro) for first pass look
Tweak RAW (where most adjustments done - try Auto and then alter!)
Save as TIFF, tweak (and keep for printing)
Resize, sharpen, Save for Web

Copy RAW to external drive

[POP]

Oh yes, so do I! But I usually try Auto to see effect!
My workflow:
Copy CF using reader
Create thumbnails (ThumbsPlus Pro) for first pass look
Tweak RAW (where most adjustments done - try Auto and then alter!)
Save as TIFF, tweak (and keep for printing)
Resize, sharpen, Save for Web

Copy RAW to external drive

Gentlemen I thank you all for your most helpful comments.

POP

[Raptor Reveller]

You certainly need to keep the original image in some form and also be aware that the screen/monitor that is used can give different results on different machines! I edit most of mine on a laptop (which I read somewhere is the worst type of screen to do it on!) and when I veiw them on a seperate system with a moniter the contrasts and colours are definately harder and stronger than on the laptop despite adjusting the settings.

[Boy George]

As a first stage, when loading into PS:
Auto Levels
Auto Colour

Will sort most shots! :t:

I hate to disagree with someone from my own home town (I came to England 30+ years ago to try and sort them out, but they are a difficult lot!) but in my experience "Auto" Levels and Colour gives satisfactory results for very few shots out and often results are hideous. As someone has already said, go with the other manual tools and go with what looks right to you.

Regards

Adrian

[Markulous]

I hate to disagree with someone from my own home town (I came to England 30+ years ago to try and sort them out, but they are a difficult lot!) but in my experience "Auto" Levels and Colour gives satisfactory results for very few shots out and often results are hideous. As someone has already said, go with the other manual tools and go with what looks right to you.


Disagree away, Adrian! Especially as I came to Wales many moons ago to sort them out, but they're a difficult lot! LOL! ;)

Often see shots where the Levels are...... well..... not! Ideally white/black points need to be set as well, but TBH the vast majority would be cured by a simple Auto. Yeah, sometimes it goes wrong (usually where there's an emphasis of an hue - say a sunrise/set). It's like Auto conversion of RAW (I never take anything else!) - mostly works, but I still manually process each shot

[Mono]

The trouble with Auto adjustments is that they don't know what the shot actually looked like, you do. That hard shadow in the foreground might have actually been there and might add to the composition.

[Andrew McCullough]

I suggest this book:





http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-CS3-Nature-Photographers-Workshop/dp/0470119896/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197748876&sr=8-1

[postcardcv]

Often see shots where the Levels are...... well..... not! Ideally white/black points need to be set as well, but TBH the vast majority would be cured by a simple Auto. Yeah, sometimes it goes wrong (usually where there's an emphasis of an hue - say a sunrise/set).

I'd disagree that auto levels usually gets it right, especially for bird shots. As a test I just pulled 15 randmon images of mine take in the last couple of months and auto levelled them, all most all looked wrong and lacked the impact that the manually processed versions had. I don't know about other subjects but I'd not recommend auto levels for bird shots.

[Markulous]

I'd disagree that auto levels usually gets it right, especially for bird shots. As a test I just pulled 15 randmon images of mine take in the last couple of months and auto levelled them, all most all looked wrong and lacked the impact that the manually processed versions had. I don't know about other subjects but I'd not recommend auto levels for bird shots.

Hmm, yeah, can now see what you mean about bird shots! I've just been processing some and I guess they worked out as 50:50 for Auto being close - and they were ones against a varied vegetation. I don't often take birds, mainly doing landscapes, macroes and misc wildlife