Hi Colyn, ok im ready to be taught post processing. I have picked 5 pictures that i think has its own set of challenges. All are in their unaltered state. Im happy to work with any of them. If these are not ok then i can find something else. I am using Adobe Photoshop CS3 Premium.

Hi Wayne

Photoshop is a story on its own!

One thing that I always do, is to check the exposure levels - go to Image-Adjustments-Levels and then you will get a histogram. One needs to make sure that the histogram fill the whole x-axis. Move the sliders and you will see how that changes the exposure.

Secondly, you might want to sharpen a bit- Filters-Sharpen-Unsharp mask. I use Amount 200; Radius- start at 1, but usually go lower (tick and untick the preview box until you're happy) and Threshold 0.

I found the best way to learn PS, and Im very new, is to download tutorials from Youtube. I have heaps of them and can put it on a DVD and send it to you if you want. Just send me details. The written tutorials are sometimes a bit hard to follow.

Albie

Hope I haven"t stated the obvious!

Post removed- I edited an image, but overcorrected. Will post again

I am not too crappy with Photoshop. I use it at work on and off to do webite graphics but i dont know how to correct photos and that type of thing. I mainly do website layouts, headers, buttons / menus and that type of thing.


Abie please feel free to mail me. im wayne @ netready .co .za Just remove all the spaces.

Original Shot ....

Played around with this pic a bit.

before - too much shadow around the face.


after - playing around with contrast, colouring etc.

another one. old picture. lol

Can you guys please explain what tools you use to get those results?

Wayne the only things I played around with was the coloring and contrast.
On the ' old pic' I just faded it a bit. The first pic I lightened the boys face and changed the coloring a bit because it came out too orange.
oh and added frames.


I played around with your koi too.
Guess this is not always a good idea, because it makes the koi look better than what it is... don't want to give anyone ideas here.

I am all for adjusting lighting ,contrast and sharpening the colours on a photo to let the subject stand out better but i dont want to "fix" things on a photo and make them really look better than they are.

The way the menware (lighting head pattern) looks on the shiro utsuri now is "fake" according to me. What i mean with post precessing is how to just adjust the lighting and contrast on the photo and not to actually "photoshop" or "fix" the photo.

Looking at the pics of my boy above that colyn altered for me. I like the 2nd photo but the 3rd one looks artificial and i dont like it.

The photo of the goromo above. Thats the koi with brown/black colour. That photo feels like it needs some lighiting fixing.The whole color spectrum on that photo feels to blueish.

I hope im explaining myself good enough so that you guys can gather what i want to learn todo.

ha haha yes. I was just playing around, and 'drew' in the menware.

I prefer to concentrate on picture taking skills rather than adjusting. was just playing around.

Yes sometimes you need to adjust lighting etc. To adjust the 'blueish' look, you need to put some of the 'opposite' colour in. In this instance yellow. Just play around with the color balance.

edited to add.
I am NO expert, but really try and take the best possible picture I can, because at the end of the day you want to try and capture the subject as close to real life as possible, and I find if there is too much editing necessary I tend to lose the original quality of the pic.
But thats just me, as I said I am no expert.

Quote :

I prefer to concentrate on picture taking skills rather than adjusting

I agree with you there stumble.

I still need to learn more about white balancing and the lighting settings on my camera. There are some setings called dynamic lighting and dynamic high lighting...not sure what that is.

Stumble the last two shots of the kid looks quite washed out