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Share your techniques & tips.
mickymazda1 
says:
Does anyone have any pix they have taken utilizing a nifty little technique or trick they've used? Come on, you all must have. It can be related to lighting, composition, exposure, focus, post-processing. Anything you've done to make the image 'pop' that you're rather pleased with and would like to share.
Post your images here with an explanation of what you did (in the case of post-processing include before and after images) and share the wealth!
Posted at 2:53AM, 24 October 2007 PDT ( permalink )
mickymazda1 says:
I'll go first ...
This is the original shot of my son, Russ - taken with my wife's Olympus P&S.
This is the image which I'm very fond of after some extensive processing.
The original was very flat - using the built-in flash and I thought it needed a bit of work to make the subject 'stand out' a bit more. (I've been told that the final image has a bad colour cast - but I'm quite severely colour-blind, so I can't see it)
First, I thought the background was a bit distracting. P&S cameras have a tendency to extremely wide DOF and this is the case here. In Photoshop I made a duplicate layer and gave it some gaussian blur. I then used a soft eraser to erase Russ and bring the sharpness back. I also darkened the BG somewhat. I masked Russ's eyes and boosted the blue colour and I also played with the curves to enhance and falsify the highlights on his shirt and at the side of his face. I flattened the image and made a duplicate of the new bg layer and set the blending mode to multiply, then cut a well feathered circular section out of the centre of the new layer to create a vignette effect.
I then flattened again, created a duplicate layer and blurred it and again cut out a soft vignette from the centre. These 2 steps give shaded and blurred edges to the image and help focus the eye onto the centre part of the pic. Finally I cropped it to a skewed angle, which suits the subject who is an 'out there' kinda guy.
Sounds like a lot of work, but really only took 10 minutes or so and rescued (I think) an otherwise dull, flat image.
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )
julie_h says:
It does sound like a lot of work! But I like how you were able to emphasize your son and soften the background so the final image appears less cluttered. The angle works nicely, too!
It's great to see the before and after examples....you can really compare the original and the processed photo to see how all of the effects combined to make, IMO, a much more interesting image!
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )
julie_h says:
Bumping this thread in case there is interest in keeping it going!
Feel free to share your tips and techniques here!
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fl.yimg.com%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fimages%2Fbuddyicon.jpg)
Diminishing Smile [deleted] says:
One thing I try occasionally is zooming whilst taking the picture....it doesn't work often, but when it does I think it can make a pretty effective shot... I know the same thing can be done with processing, but I'm not clever enough for that yet...
Originally posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )
Diminishing Smile edited this topic 4 months ago.
julie_h says:
Ooooh, that's a fun one, Mike! I haven't done one of those in awhile. You can zoom in or out for different effects. Here's a bad shot, but an example of how not zooming smoothly can create stops in the blur:
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )
Deb Snelson says:
I'd love to know how to create a flower with a reflection in water below it. I think they might be called "flood".
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )
julie_h says:
Bumping this thread....
I'm sure someone here has some tips on this, Deb. I'd be interested to hear some ideas, too!
Posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )
blogrodent says:
Here's a very recent example of some post-processing I did:
I was a little bored one night so I thought I'd return to an old photo that I'd passed over now that I have a little more experience at post-processing stuff. I found a picture of some old shoes that I took when I first got my digicam. So, I thought that'd be a great candidate.
I played around with this image for probably half an hour and didn't take notes, but at one point I did accidentally lose the image and had to start over, so I was able to replicate my work fairly quickly. As I remember it:
• Duplicate the background layer (I always leave the original image untouched as a reference point)
• Smooth and "de-noise" the image using various tools such as "digical camera noise removal", "edge preserving smooth" and "noise ninja" (plugin). I use Corel's Paint Shop Pro, in case you don't recognize those terms.
• Duplicate the smoothed layer and leave the original alone (I treat the basic smoothed layer as a second reference image in case I want to start over).
• Play with local contrast enhancement (unsharp mask set at 50 pixels width with about 30 for strength) and PSP's "Clarify" command until I'm happy with the contrast.
• Play with the histogram until I have the highlights blown out a bit and the shadows blocked up
• Duplicate the layer, reverse the colors to a negative image, run the "soft focus" command to further diffuse the dark areas of the image. Convert it back to a positive image. Play with the opacity until I like what I see and merge the active layer down.
• Duplicate the layer. Run Red Paw Media's RPM Beautifier plugin (free plugin) on a new layer (There are other plugins that do similar things - you're basically increasing the hue, diffusing the highlights and increasing the contrast all at once). Play with the opacity until I like what I see, merge the layers down.
• Play with the HSL until it's where I want it.
• Duplicate layers again and run PSP's "Sepia Tone" command. Play with the opacity until I like what I see, merge down. (I do this to warm the image without killing all the saturation.)
• Add noise to taste
• Add border. Add slight vignetting.
• Et Voilà !
Please feel free to comment.
Originally posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )
blogrodent edited this topic 3 months ago.
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