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Old 17-09-2012, 04:20 PM   #1
smurfy
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photoshop tips.

soo starting to get the hang of taking decent photos.. now its just adding the finshing touch to it on photoshop.. which i suck at.
i know its alot of playing around and learning that wayy but..
photoshop cs5
does anyone have any hints or tips they would like to share with editing photos?

generaly speakingg on car photography..
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Old 17-09-2012, 04:29 PM   #2
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Are you using Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom?

I dont know much about PS (I suck at it too ) but do know my way around LR, which I think is better if all you're doing is using it for photos, and playing around with the sliders is fun

Some of the PS peeps will enter their input soon
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Old 17-09-2012, 04:42 PM   #3
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adobe photoshop CS5 ahha sorry forgot to add thatt aha..

do you have to pay for lightroom or can just download it?

yeahh ive noticedd phill and ben edited there photos nicely..
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Old 17-09-2012, 04:54 PM   #4
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there is a trial you can get for both Photoshop CS6 (much improved over CS5) and Lightroom 4.1

but for novices, I recommend Photoshop Elements... version 11 is due out later this year
I'm not sure if there is a trial of PSE or not

the regular Photoshop (what you are trying to use) is geared for graphics professionals, and has a high learning curve... but it is also the most powerful out of the 3, and also the most expensive... but it is not designed for smooth workflow like Lightroom is, it is intended more for image morphing and creation


ultimately, as you go along, you'll find how time consuming post processing photos are... you'll then understand the important of taking pics properly so that you either don't have to do anything, or do very little... this is every incentive for novices to improve their photography skills

there's always room for improvement in any photo of course, that's why serious photographers take pics using the raw format, that way all the image sensor data is saved and can be used later to make massive adjustments, in any image editing tool that supports your camera's raw file format
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Old 17-09-2012, 04:56 PM   #5
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Photoshop is massive to learn. I myself have about 80% of my degree done and still have no idea what I'm doing haha. I use layer masks, youtube that shiz, but for basic, shoot in RAW (Thats on your camera) your photo's will instantly improve.

What i do is i import in Bridge and open it in "CameraRAW" which will just open automatically in photoshop if its a raw photo. From that you can adjust your brightness, contrast, vibrance etc without losing all the properties like a JPG photo. So that means you can go back to the start if you fark up. JPG's just re-write over the top, which of course means loss of quality and lack of going back. Raw doesn't do this. Hence the bigger file size.

When in raw just play with the sliders and go to what ever looks good. I normally just up the brightness and contrast, change the vibrancy if needed and up the sharpness. Then i go crazy with layer masks. But the main raw part is the editing done.

If you want to know more specific things just ask me.

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Old 17-09-2012, 05:21 PM   #6
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usually the brightness and contrasts are fine, it's the exposure level that needs a little tweaking as well as shadows/highlights
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Old 17-09-2012, 05:52 PM   #7
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I use Photoshop for a living, so some of these may not apply to what you're doing

A few things:
- Subtlety of color is good - don't go crazy with that HDR ****. It looks crap and take away from the subject.
- A little extra saturation to boost the colors can be a good thing, but not to the point where you lose detail and shading of the color.
- Blacks don't have to be black if it makes the image to contrasted.
- Masking layers is a good thing, and it means the whole image is still there, just hidden.
- Layers are your friend - better to work from a copy and have the original in the same file if you stuff it up, just drag a new copy and start again.
- Learn the key command shortcuts - they save a lot of time.
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Old 17-09-2012, 07:14 PM   #8
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There are also other photo editing programs available, paint.net is very easy to use and The GIMP is an excellent photo editing program but like Photoshop is very complicated.
Both of these programs are free you can get great results from them.
I have been playing with photoshop lately. Way too complicated and I have no clue on how to use 75% of the program.
I just open the raw image and adjust the sliders to the way I like it then save as a JPEG.
BTW I found the Canon raw editing software easier to use and it gave similar results.
I am also colour blind so if some of my photos look weird thats why.
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Old 17-09-2012, 07:24 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben View Post
shoot in RAW (Thats on your camera) your photo's will instantly improve..
do you use landscape raw or just the standard raw?
deff gonna need a bigger memory card now ahhahaha...

gonna give the cannon one a go phill! for being colour blind i love how your photos turn out ahah..


thanks for the help everyone deff will take in your pointers and give it ago.
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Old 17-09-2012, 07:39 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupewrecht View Post
I use Photoshop for a living, so some of these may not apply to what you're doing

A few things:
- Subtlety of color is good - don't go crazy with that HDR ****. It looks crap and take away from the subject.
- A little extra saturation to boost the colors can be a good thing, but not to the point where you lose detail and shading of the color.
- Blacks don't have to be black if it makes the image to contrasted.
- Masking layers is a good thing, and it means the whole image is still there, just hidden.
- Layers are your friend - better to work from a copy and have the original in the same file if you stuff it up, just drag a new copy and start again.
- Learn the key command shortcuts - they save a lot of time.
layering is NOT possible with Lightroom. To do advanced masking as well as layering, all work in Lightroom must be exported into Photoshop to complete the task then (automatically) reimported to Lightroom to "develop" them.

layering is however possible in PSE as it is very much a traditional graphics editor, unlike Lightroom which was tailored made for photographers who can't be bothered learning the intricacies of computer graphics work... it does have many user friendly features though, which is why I recommend it to novices (as it is also cheap)... but there's still a learning curve of course

the no frills, cut dry functions and features of Photoshop though is great for people who know what they do and are used to doing this work... they can get this stuff done quickly, but can have a hard time getting used to Lightroom which has a very different interface and very different manipulation tools

agreed on HDR... it looks rubbish... I refuse to do this as it is no longer photography in spirit, in its purest form... I like natural looks!
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Old 17-09-2012, 07:41 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smurfy View Post
do you use landscape raw or just the standard raw?
deff gonna need a bigger memory card now ahhahaha...

gonna give the cannon one a go phill! for being colour blind i love how your photos turn out ahah..


thanks for the help everyone deff will take in your pointers and give it ago.
that doesn't matter... the camera will still save to the same file format
any of those catch all words from consumer grade cameras "landscape", "portrait", "party", "night", etc are just preset settings on the camera to allow people to take pics in those settings and do OK with it

I never bothered with them... tried them, didn't like the results, and I ended up learning to do things the hard way and was very happy with the results
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Old 17-09-2012, 07:46 PM   #12
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I recommend this very cheap, very good book:
http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself...7878619&sr=8-1

My mum just got it as she will be taking Photoshop Elements classes at the local community college (one of the cheap classes available for retirees )... it is the required book for this class... I gave it a good look... lots of screenshots, very detailed, very good step by steps... well worth it!
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Old 17-09-2012, 08:04 PM   #13
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some tweaking of shadows and contrasts can fix things that the camera's light metering can't really do unless you used manual mode or played around with the EV settings a lot... on holidays, you just sometimes don't want to bother


sometimes, polarisation filters can't do a bloody thing when you are shooting through thick double pane window glass... so lots of masking, clone stamp tool, and cropping can salvage a pic


if a pic is beyond hope because you only have a crap slow lens, don't toss it in the bin! convert it to black & white!


if it looks washed out in colour no matter what tweaking you do... convert it to black and white!


and finally, if your camera's lens fails to capture what you intended, lots of masking, tools, and 3rd party plugins will help!



these were all shot with JPEG as I didn't have another SD card with me... it was a lot harder to fix them than with RAWs I now normally shoot
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Old 17-09-2012, 08:56 PM   #14
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Whoa information overload. I just use normal Raw. As said, they're just presets that do **** all.

Also, i disagree with whoever said HDR is crap. That's exactly what 90% of my images are. Except, i dont do it with different exposures. I use pseudo hdr. IMO it looks mint.

Non pseudo.

Mazda SP20 by Photographs_by_Ben, on Flickr

Pseudo. Clearly the same image. However, sun was too harsh so it still remains some white. But its clearly more defined.

Mazda SP20- Re-edit by Photographs_by_Ben, on Flickr
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Old 18-09-2012, 09:26 AM   #15
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What Rupe and The Man said is spot on. When it comes to PS, tutorials are your friend, get into sites like deviant art for tips and tutes. The main way to learn is just use the program. And I agree with the guys, heavy overuse of HDR is not cool.
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Old 18-09-2012, 10:02 AM   #16
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I've got about 19 booklets from my first year of uni (Studying B. of Visual Arts/ Major Printmedia/Photomedia) Covering alot of Photoshop and RAW, if anyone wants them?



Theyre pretty good, written up by Nick Greenwich who was my teacher. Industry pro
http://www.theloop.com.au/ngreenwich/resume
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Old 18-09-2012, 11:06 AM   #17
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run it through a high speed scanner, convert to PDF.... everyone wins
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Old 18-09-2012, 11:07 AM   #18
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Never thought of that lol
When i get into uni tomorrow, ill do it and upload it.
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Old 18-09-2012, 11:23 AM   #19
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Quote:
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Whoa information overload. I just use normal Raw. As said, they're just presets that do **** all.

Also, i disagree with whoever said HDR is crap. That's exactly what 90% of my images are. Except, i dont do it with different exposures. I use pseudo hdr. IMO it looks mint.

Non pseudo.

Mazda SP20 by Photographs_by_Ben, on Flickr

Pseudo. Clearly the same image. However, sun was too harsh so it still remains some white. But its clearly more defined.

Mazda SP20- Re-edit by Photographs_by_Ben, on Flickr
that's not really HDR... these results can be achieved with a combination of ND filter, under exposure (half a step to full step), shooting in raw, and fine tuning shadows/highlights, and further adjustments through masking

I can get the same results without HDR using those techniques

as shot, there wasn't much you could've really done to make it look much better... the highlights are blown out in the sky... there's no data to use to bring back any details, which is why ND filters and under exposure comes to play

the issue at hand is, the camera's light meter doesn't know what to do with such great contrast between your black car and bright background... so it tries to do what it thinks is best, over expose it.... that pic is over exposed mate... looking at it in high res, I can see that... are you using Active D-Lighting/Highlight Tone Priority? Disabling it could help. Using matrix metering instead of spot metering could also help if you're not.

Do you mind posting the EXIF data of the original pic so that I could see for sure what went wrong? Not trying to criticise, just trying to help!
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Old 18-09-2012, 12:45 PM   #20
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Well it is a pseudo HDR, i suggest you do some research on Pseudo HDR. HDR and Pseudo are VERY different things. This was not taken at all using the traditional HDR methods. All done at the back end and in photoshop. Which is what the question was initially.

Dont take this the wrong way Ed, but your attitude towards helping comes across to me as "My way or the highway". The image cant be fixed, im aware of what went wrong. That's what happens when you point it directly at the sun with no filters. I'm a BIG user of ND filter photography, but for a 10 minute shoot of my car i felt it wasn't needed. I'm happy with the pictures, and they sure are a lot better than Joe blow's digi camera.

Here's the meta for this one anyways.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benny_b...29332814/meta/

If we really want to see proper use of Pseudo, this is a better example. This was created from ONE image then edited using many many layer masks set at different exposures and settings. Thus a Pseudo HDR is born.


Star trails by Photographs_by_Ben, on Flickr

But i feel that this is all way beyond Jess and getting off topic... I spoke to her last night via Facebook and gave her some tips on how i do things. She can either take that or leave it. But i feel that this doesnt need to turn into a war on how we do things. You find what works for you.
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