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TimmyMitch Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #1 · Help Please Hi my first post on here of one of my photos. Have read and looked and more so been amazed by the photos you all take. I visited the zoo not too long ago and was hoping to use one of these two photo on a canvas to hang on my wall. I have no experience in photo editing and was wondering if i could get some help please. Feb 05, 2012 at 06:25 AM

sbeme Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #2 · Help Please Welcome, Timmy. Sounds like you are just getting warmed up with the wonderful world of digital photography Zoos are fun places to shoot. And you seemed to have been able to get upclose and personal. Both images need some post-processing work to finish them. Here are two quick reworks, done in Lightroom. In looking back at them, not sure the color temp/white balance is accurate. In both I adjusted exposure, black and white points (spreading the tones across the entire range), provided additional sharpening and a bump in mid-tone contrast, aka "Clarity". This also adds to perceived sharpness. I did some work to reduce the brightest areas where they distracted, a bit of crop, and a slight vignette to keep the eye centered on the prime subject. Not happy with what I did on the brightest hairs along the edge of the paw. Someone else will no doubt provide a better fix. Are you learning post-processing? Do you have a specific program? Let me know what you think and keep having fun. Scott Feb 05, 2012 at 02:15 PM

TimmyMitch Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #3 · Help Please Thanks for the reply scott. I have got a copy of photoshop cs2 from a mate of a mate. I have just ordered a book by Scott Kelby called The Photoshop CS2 book for digital photographers so i will start and have a read and play at the same time. Must say not much of an idea when it comes to post processing. Any other stuff you or anyone else reckons is worth reading im all ears Feb 06, 2012 at 01:33 AM

sbeme Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #4 · Help Please Sounds like a good starting point. The question is whether you want to invest in another (newer) program. I'd say, no need to rush. Scott Feb 06, 2012 at 03:38 AM

RustyBug Online • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #5 · Help Please CS2 will be more than fine to get you started. Just try to stick with the fundamentals and the workflow. It's easy to go exploring into the zillion ways you can do things with Photoshop ... only to confuse yourself somewhat along the way and then having to backtrack/undo some poor habits. If you develop good command of your fundamentals ... the bells & whistles of new programs aren't nearly as compellling. I've been running on CS3 for a couple years now, and despite getting the 'upgrade itch' now & then ... it has been very good to learn on ... CS2 should serve you just fine for now. This forum has been a great place for me to both learn & practice ... I've come a long way in the last year or so, not that I'm near as good as others, but it definitely improves with practice and study ... and a little help from your FM friends. Welcome to FM. FM Rocks !!! Feb 06, 2012 at 05:44 AM

TimmyMitch Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #6 · Help Please thanks for the welcome. i reckon cs2 will see my skill level out for a while. I Would like to get into marco stuff but not sure what sort of lens to go for. i have a basic canon camera Feb 06, 2012 at 09:47 AM

sbeme Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #7 · Help Please Which camera? What is your budget? What subjects do you hope to shoot with a macro lens? Do you have a sturdy tripod? Scott Feb 06, 2012 at 09:57 AM

TimmyMitch Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #8 · Help Please i got a 400d and a 500d a 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens anything, bees, spiders im easy yep i have a good tripod budget would be around 1k Feb 06, 2012 at 10:43 AM

sbeme Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #9 · Help Please Canon 100 Macro, $600 USD Sigma 105 Macro I havent tried the Canon 100 Macro IS but its a lot more money, supposedly similar IQ, you have it covered for portraits with your zoom, and you will probably use the tripod anyhow for true macro. Scott Feb 06, 2012 at 01:59 PM

TimmyMitch Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #10 · Help Please Which one do you reckon first? The other half won't let me buy both she said. I also need a flash I guess. Would that redone photos you did for me be right to send off to be put on canvas? Feb 07, 2012 at 06:56 PM

dmacmillan Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #11 · Help Please TimmyMitch wrote: Would that redone photos you did for me be right to send off to be put on canvas? Is your question can you use the reworked files? No, the have been sized for the web. You need to use a full res file. Do you have the software to make the adjustments on your full res file? Feb 07, 2012 at 07:22 PM

sbeme Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #12 · Help Please Not sure about your question: "which one do you reckon first?" If you are chosing a macro lens, I would lean towards the Canon for resale value. I have had two, both purchased used (about $400-450 USD). No real loss in value if they are well cared for. The Sigma used market may not be quite as solid but the lens is supposed to be excellent. Lighting is a whole 'nother issue for macro. You need tons. Or some flash. Or fancy stuff like a ringflash or two flash sources. Now its getting pricey. If you dont have a flash yet, concentrate on the basics. Maybe a macro lens if you anticipate a lot of shooting macro. Otherwise, play with the 70-200, a great lens. Get a flash. Maybe a used Canon 400 or 500 series. See if you can borrow a macro lens to see what's involved in true macro where you have extremely shallow DOF even with a lot of light and stopped down. Do you have other lenses? If not, many would suggest a 50 mm first, like the Canon 1.8 or, more pricey, better build, the Canon 1.4. I'm not up on it, but you can reverse these lenses for macro work. Finally, if you want to print the reworks, as Doug indicated, you need a large file with the adjustments applied by you (or someone else). Scott Feb 08, 2012 at 12:23 AM

TimmyMitch Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #13 · Help Please I have the software to redo the work but don't think I can get it to look like that. I will have a play and see. I will try and borrow a canon Marco and see what I reckon. I have a 50mm lens also. Love my 70-200 lens. Might but a flash first and see what I can produce with the 70-200 Feb 08, 2012 at 07:13 PM

cgardner Offline • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #14 · Help Please Levels adjustment and adjustment layer selective adjustment of tonal range, darken the background to make the lighter paw contrast more. Selective oversharpening of the fur to enhance the illusion of 3D texture. Warming filter applied to the second one. Feb 08, 2012 at 07:53 PM

sbeme Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #15 · Help Please Nice(r) reworks, Chuck! Scott Feb 08, 2012 at 09:27 PM

cgardner Offline • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #16 · Help Please sbeme wrote: Nice(r) reworks, Chuck! Scott Thanks. I use a Levels check and adjustment to a full tonal range as the starting baseline for any edit. Them by before / after comparison of original / numerically correct tonal range baseline I decide where to got with the the edit. By forcing highlights to click by holding down Alt/Opt and moving the highlight slider left you can see which channels clip first. In neutral objects all should clip at about the same time. In a warm toned object like a Lion you'd expect red to clip first. But in the second original blue clipped first when adjusting highlights indicating the need for the warming filter. After adjusting the end points for rich blacks and specular highlights just at the point of clipping with the left and right slider in levels moving the middle slider back and forth just a few points +/- from the 1.0 midpoint default can really improve the contrast and realism of a shot taken in flat open shade. The AA filter in the camera blurs and dulls the micro-reflections off hair shafts so I use a two-stage sharpening technique for fur: 1) USM 500, .2. 0 followed by Fade USM in luminosity mode: The first part adds very aggressive USM but in a very narrow band at tonal differences. The fade step allows the USM to be scaled back with the opacity slider interactively while viewing the full image on the monitor. I typically scale it back to 50% to 70% for all small images I edit and post on the Internet. 2) To enhance the texture of the fur I dupe the original and over sharpen it to 500, .3, 0 which starts to create a halo effect that in the photo looks like the specular refections the AA filter kills. I then very selectively blend in this oversharpened layer on top of the baseline sharpening in step 1 with a mask to control where it is applied and the opacity slider to control how much of it is applied, typically only applying 20% or so opacity. How much to apply in both steps is a judgement call based on the size of the image, how sharp it was at capture, and the desired final appearance. Feb 09, 2012 at 02:58 PM

Danpbphoto Offline • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #17 · Help Please Kudos to you Charles for taking the time and patience to provide a workflow for your images. Not many would do that. This post and the other one you provided to another FM'er really helps me in my post processing workflow also. Thanks! Dan Feb 09, 2012 at 03:56 PM

TimmyMitch Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #18 · Help Please Thanks so much for the detailed info Charles. I have something to use as a guild while I have a go at the re-work. You all have been so helpful. Now for this 2 week swing at work to finish so I can get back home and have a play Feb 09, 2012 at 05:52 PM

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