Intro guide to post-processing

[Jay.Yang]

Hi all,

As a total newbie to photography, I always thought that how a picture turns out depends mostly at the time you are shooting it. However, now I realize that post-processing is just as important as nailing the right exposure for the shots. But I am clueless of how to get into post-processing. Is there a basic guide to introductory post-processing that I can read up? And what software should I have? I only have Photoshop CS (not CS3 or CS4). The only post-processing I can do is to load my picture into Photoshop and make auto-level and auto-colour. To my surprise, some of the pictures already looks much much better (I post an example below). If I know all the tools available...

Thanks a bunch,
Jay

p.s. First attached picture is BEFORE auto-level and auto-colour. Second attached picture is AFTER.

[jabber]

Hi, Jay--well, post-processing is not as important as nailing the shot itself, but it's pretty important. My recommendation, after five years of fiddling with various pieces of software: get Lightroom and buy a month's subscription to Lynda.com where you can learn the program online in a very helpful and thorough way. Good luck.

[ocular]

It's been a while since I've used photoshop cs uhhh I think u go to new layer> and there a bunch of options that u can use like photo filters ect ra.

Here's a picture incase you don't know where the layers are..



^^ You drag ur layer down to little folder icon next to the garbage can. You're left with a duplicate of your original copy (if you don't like the result u can delete) , now you can go to new>layer> I think there are adjustments here ( I can't remember :wall-an ).

Anyway You can also add a curve adjustment, best to shape it like an S if you can but make very small adjustments until your happy with the result.

[F8&Bthere]

I agree with Jabber, for the most part. I love using Lightroom, because it can organize and do most basic image improvement/adjustment chores, and makes batch processing easy. But it is kinda pricey, so if you wanted to try a program that is free, can convert RAW files, and perform some basic adjustments and editing, you might look into Raw Therapee. Not sure what O/S you are using and if it is compatible...
I suppose you can keep using Photoshop too, since you already have it. But for me, I find it overkill for most of my work, unless I have something very specific I need to do that LR can't.

[Jay.Yang]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm using mac OSX. I check out the price for Lightroom and it's indeed quite pricey (>$300). Lucky one of my friend has a copy of Apple Aperture, so I guess this is where I am going to start. I hope Aperture is not too bad in comparison to Lightroom.

[F8&Bthere]

Aperture is very comparable to Lightroom in many regards from what I read so enjoy!

[daveRen]

I have been using PS6 and now CS2 for Mac for a long time and would suggest you try a few things with your CS before moving on. Photoshop can do lots of good stuff, it can seem a bit complicated, but it is possible to work on the surface until you want to delve deep.

My most used actions are (through the IMAGE pulldown)
Levels - try moving the end sliders toward the middle and adjust "exposure" using the middle one. You can also do some neat color balance tweeking by finding a grey-point.
Shadow-Highlight - I subtlety increase shadow brightness and decrease highlight brightness by moving both sliders slightly off the left end.
Brightness/Contrast - works similar to moving sliders in Levels - I sometimes do a slight change after doing a Shadow-Highlight to get some contrast back.
Hue-Saturation - I subtlety increase the master saturation on some shots - you can also pick separate colors.
I never like to push these light settings as the image starts to look fake (unless you like that look.)

For sharpening, (through the FILTERS pulldown) I use "Unsharp Mask" and keep all the levels low except the %, e.g. 190%, radius=0.3, threshold=1. I sharpen on the full size image before resizing (lots of folks say do it after.) I would be careful with sharpening though (you can overdo it) - it depends on where your camera sharpening level is set. Some say keep the sharpening level low in your camera and tweek it to your liking in PS. I don't touch sharpening with my point-shoot Nikon shots but I do with my Olympus DSLR.

You are right though, the good information has to be in the image to start with. Your example shot is difficult to expose (probably all in shadow) resulting in not much brightness variation. So in post-processing there is only so much you can do - for example the white water is pretty well the same tone as the rocks around it. Below is my attempt at some improvement using only "Shadow-Highlight" and "Brightness / Contrast". I am sure others could do something better or perhaps it is better working from a RAW file.

I got a lot out of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Nature-Photographers-Workshop-Book/dp/0782144276
Photoshop for Nature Photographers
They do a great job of stepping through it step-by-step and there are lots of screen-shots and colour examples as you go.

Hope this helps, ............. Dave