Hello all! Its been a couple of years since I posted my original TUTORIAL. Some slight modifications have been added since then and I thought I'd share a fairly detailed tutorial to help those out who are having any trouble with post processing. I hope this helps you get the most of your files. I've always believed in giving back to the forum that's given me so much. Many will find these steps old, others might find them brand new! Some will disagree with the logic in a step or two, and to them I happily ask input for a better step in that place. I'm no Photoshop guru, I've only put this together from contributions from all the wonderful people who have given me a nugget of information here and there!
I found more and more people using Lightroom when I try to help them out. So I started this one using Lightroom to initially process my RAW file. The steps here work with Adobe Camera Raw as well if you don't have Lightroom.
3. Let's say you've over exposed your subject. This is probably what it looks like. Ouch... As you can see from the histogram, the right arrow is lit telling you you've got color values above 255 (Blown) http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8475833670_1b4b1661d7_h.jpg
5. Let's start with the overexposed version. Working on the underexposed is just a matter of using the BLACKS slider instead of the EXPOSURE or HIGHLIGHTS slider. If your photograph is only slightly overexposed then the HIGHLIGHTS slider should be sufficient to recover the details in the whites. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8474745645_e995bf4f63_h.jpg
9. All manner of crazy colors happen at this step if you hold the ALT (Command for MAC) button! What you want when working with underexposed areas now is to use your BLACKS slider and move to the right, causing the whole image to go white. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8102/8474746273_ffd7f424ac_h.jpg
12. Let go of the ALT (Command in MAC) and POOF! The image should be looking pretty good now. Here I play with the clarity, vibrance, color, white balance, contrast, saturation, all to my personal taste. Don't go crazy here, a little goes a long way. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8517/8474746423_70109db272_h.jpg
13. This section is an aside. As I was not in the most favorable position when I took this photo (sun to my right) it created a shadow to the left of the bird. The whole warm feeling of the photograph IMHO is ruined by the touch of blue in the shaded area of the bird. Many won't see this, or even care, or even like it, but for me, it drives me crazy. So... http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8389/8475834878_345d5c5a9f_h.jpg
24. I don't enter my photos in many contests, so I choose to remove and and clone and alter parts in my images that I find distracting. The ones I have that I have entered in contests (and have never won) I don't do this step to. If you have the means, get the latest Photoshop, the spot healing tool is super easy to use. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8367/8475835650_c8830898d0_h.jpg
26. The next few steps are entirely withing Neat Image, again you can use any noise removal plug-in at this level. Just run it with care not to wipe out the fine details in your subject! If you do, you can use a mask layer to reintroduce the detail back onto your subject. Those steps can be found in my OLD tutorial again HERE
30. For the sharpening step to follow, I make sure I'm working with what everyone else is seeing. I cannot emphasize enough that you must have a color calibrated monitor of the highest resolution you can afford especially if you are eye balling all of this! http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8094/8475836020_307afbfd7a_h.jpg
31. In my old tutorial, I used a global sharpening at this step using Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. This I learned would often create halos if over used. The following steps I've learned makes for a better way to sharpen without halos. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8475836076_91e23db927_h.jpg
33. Now we are ready to sharpen the Lightness area only. Again if there are any Photoshop gurus out there that can explain why this step was necessary please enlighten us! I'm curious as to the logic. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8511/8475836168_e4648f54d8_h.jpg
36. No need for this step if you are not friends with Chad (72chevelle454), then you probably don't have this action he created. Please PM him if you would like to know more about it! Its a tool he calls Chad Action which lets you see blown whites (shaded in red) and underexposed darks (shaded in blue). I run the action at this step just as a check to make sure I'm on the right path. All I cared about is the whites, the darks didn't matter to me in this particular photograph. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8511/8474748283_bf9bc3b16e_h.jpg
For those who are interested, I've taken the liberty of turning this whole thing into a PDF for a download below. I hope you find it useful. Thanks again for being patient and reading through yet another huge post from me!
Also I've recently been asked by a magazine, what I do to get the photographs I do. So I wrote a little article about it and it was published in a far away land. (seriously) I am including this link for a download as well just for my FM friends!
Actually, yes I did. I read your other one when it was originally posted. Most of the steps are the same as mine except the noise reduction steps (I use the blur filter in CS4) and how you crop the image. My cropping is done in CS4.....I might try your steps this weekend when it's raining.
I like the simplicity of your processing steps though....less is more. I know PS won't save a bad image but I would love to see one of your bad ones (if that exists ) turned into something presentable.
PS....I don't feel so bad about how much of an image I crop away to get my final results after seeing this one.
Edit: Oh, and my sharpening steps are different as well. I sharpen the print then just resize a copy of the print for the web and no sharpening is done to the smaller file.
Duane N wrote:
Actually, yes I did. I read your other one when it was originally posted. Most of the steps are the same as mine except the noise reduction steps (I use the blur filter in CS4) and how you crop the image. My cropping is done in CS4.....I might try your steps this weekend when it's raining.
I like the simplicity of your processing steps though....less is more. I know PS won't save a bad image but I would love to see one of your bad ones (if that exists ) turned into something presentable.
HAHA!!! I've got tons of $hitty photos man. Here's one, its a 105% crop, yes 105%, that I never intended to post, but I used the same steps here to get the most out of it. The action was just too far away. I just loved seeing the Coot leg in the air The only thing is I had to do the sharpening step twice for this photo. Its still quite poor, but fun to see.
Duane N wrote:
Actually, yes I did. I read your other one when it was originally posted. Most of the steps are the same as mine except the noise reduction steps (I use the blur filter in CS4) and how you crop the image. My cropping is done in CS4.....I might try your steps this weekend when it's raining.
I like the simplicity of your processing steps though....less is more. I know PS won't save a bad image but I would love to see one of your bad ones (if that exists ) turned into something presentable.
PS....I don't feel so bad about how much of an image I crop away to get my final results after seeing this one.
Edit: Oh, and my sharpening steps are different as well. I sharpen the print then just resize a copy of the print for the web and no sharpening is done to the smaller file. ...Show more →
Ahhhh... I find the sharpening at the posting size is key to a fine tuned final posting product, now that I've been shown this new sharpening step.
Looking at your amazing work, I had a feeling your workflow was similar to mine. It is almost a carbon copy of mine. I love post work. I'm still running CS4, but I do have LR4... and I use Neat Image as well! I don't really do that intermediate Detail step in LR4.. something I haven't thought of. My White-Black point tweaking is just about the same as yours. In some images, I do like to use a global "Vibrance" adjustment upward (but only slightly!)..otherwise I will do selective saturation and/or curves in Photoshop. I love layers. I do a lot of work in layers including removing crappy distracting elements just like you. In some special images, I have to do quite a bit of work to remove elements I don't wish to have in the final piece, but 80% of my images...it only takes me about 10 minutes or so to complete the entire workflow on an image I feel worthy of sharing on Facebook or FM.
Thanks for putting this together, Conrad. If you have enough energy, I would love to see an analogous field guide. The "Tips on improving..." pdf is also terrific (and popular; there were 5 others looking at it when I clicked).
Looking at your amazing work, I had a feeling your workflow was similar to mine. It is almost a carbon copy of mine. I love post work. I'm still running CS4, but I do have LR4... and I use Neat Image as well! I don't really do that intermediate Detail step in LR4.. something I haven't thought of. My White-Black point tweaking is just about the same as yours. In some images, I do like to use a global "Vibrance" adjustment upward (but only slightly!)..otherwise I will do selective saturation and/or curves in Photoshop. I love layers. I do a lot of work in layers including removing crappy distracting elements just like you. In some special images, I have to do quite a bit of work to remove elements I don't wish to have in the final piece, but 80% of my images...it only takes me about 10 minutes or so to complete the entire workflow on an image I feel worthy of sharing on Facebook or FM.
Plinian wrote:
Thanks for putting this together, Conrad. If you have enough energy, I would love to see an analogous field guide. The "Tips on improving..." pdf is also terrific (and popular; there were 5 others looking at it when I clicked).
Greg
Haha!! Oh man I hope get a copy before they run out
The MASKING slider, from what I understand, is used to remove noise. Read on.
