Post Processing newbie

[Ruffy]

Hi everyone,

I was asked to take some pictures at a motorcycle event (Supermoto) at the weekend, I used to race myself but due to injury and work, I had to give it up.

Now I have taken a whole load of pictures and being new to photography and not having a clue where to start in Post Processing, I am stumped as to what to do with the pictures apart from cropping them.

What differance can P&P really make ?

Below is a picture from the weekends racing, if someone would like to have a play and show me what could be gained by learning P&P then I would be most gratfull, I dont want to spend the money and time learning something that I may not need unless it will make a huge differance.



Many thanks

[jeeperman]

I gave it a quick go with only two small adjustments. W/B correction and a bit of sharpening. I believe it would have been even better if I were working with the Raw file but you can get an idea at least. PP is not only worth learning and doing but to a great degree, needed.

[MiniChris]

Taking liberties (and I didn't do much other than set your black and white points and sharpen), I think you will see this new image is sharper, has better detail in the shadows, has brighter and more vivid blacks and the colors snap a bit more. Post Production does what the camera cannot, especially when you consider your line of capturing bikes at high speeds.

[dogald]

PP can make a lot of difference, but it depends what you want...you might try something simple like picasa, or with gimp...free but quite a bit to learn, or Photo shop essentials.

I did a few minutes with your picture, using SNS HDR and then lightroom. It may not be what you want, and I am sure others can give you lots more interpretations. Also I find it fun. (I am an amateur, this is a pastime for me)

[jiro]

How's this Paul for an edit? All adjustments and effects done using Photoshop.

Click the image to see the bigger picture.

[PaulMiller]

And another version...

[Bill Yeung]

Amazing Jiro, may be some day I can do this to my daughter's figure skating. you want to try my daughter's skating photo?
welcome.

Bill

[jiro]

Amazing Jiro, may be some day I can do this to my daughter's figure skating. you want to try my daughter's skating photo?
welcome.

Bill

I'm just playing around, Bill. I'm a biker myself (used too before the back problem) that is why I already have a fair good idea on how I want to edit Paul's work. If you can send a higher resolution file of your daughter's image I would definitely want to try out something with it. Thanks for the nice comment, Sir.

[amolsan]

Now this is CREATIVE !! How? Tell me How?

Amol

[ANSORB]

Hi everyone,

I was asked to take some pictures at a motorcycle event (Supermoto) at the weekend, I used to race myself but due to injury and work, I had to give it up.

Now I have taken a whole load of pictures and being new to photography and not having a clue where to start in Post Processing, I am stumped as to what to do with the pictures apart from cropping them.

What differance can P&P really make ?

Below is a picture from the weekends racing, if someone would like to have a play and show me what could be gained by learning P&P then I would be most gratfull, I dont want to spend the money and time learning something that I may not need unless it will make a huge differance.



Many thanks

Here is one more conventional post process but Jiro's is more fun. Lots of things you can do with PP.

[Ruffy]

Well I have to say....I am sold.

Jiro, your work never ceases to amaze me, you have edited 2 photo's of mine and on both times you have hit the nail on the head.
You said all was done in Photoshop, which one ? how long did it take you ? I am guessing its years of experience, right ?

Now I am thinking of getting Photoshop Elements 9 ? currently using Serif PhotoPlus x 4 as its free !
Do I do an online course or some sort of collage course ? Does anyone rate any online courses for a Novice ??

[Donald]

Do I do an online course or some sort of collage course ? Does anyone rate any online courses for a Novice ??

Paul

Willie will tell you what package he used for this. The Adobe suite of products takes you right from fairly basic (but still enough for 90% of people), right up to the most advanced software that provides you with tools to do everything you could ever imagine + a lot more.

Obviously, cost increases at the same time.

There are literally thousands of learning resources out there for Adobe products. I'm not an Adobe user, but I get the clear impression that a lot of people consider Scott Kelby's online training resources as amongst the best there is. I'm not sure if the training just focuses on the top-end Photoshop, or whether it also covers the more basic 'Elements' software.

There's a monthly or annual subscription to pay. But I know Colin, for one, argues that it is one of the best investments you could make.

[Ruffy]

Thanks for that advice Donald.

Regards

[jiro]

Well I have to say....I am sold.

Jiro, your work never ceases to amaze me, you have edited 2 photo's of mine and on both times you have hit the nail on the head.
You said all was done in Photoshop, which one ? how long did it take you ? I am guessing its years of experience, right ?

Now I am thinking of getting Photoshop Elements 9 ? currently using Serif PhotoPlus x 4 as its free !
Do I do an online course or some sort of collage course ? Does anyone rate any online courses for a Novice ??

Hello, Paul. this is the actual photoshop commands and operations that I used to do the edit on your work. Nice shot, by the way.

1. This is your original image with white balance and color saturation adjustment and some cloning done in it. I also cropped it a little bit.



1A. Before proceeding to any of the adjustments, you have to extract the biker from the image using the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL. Just follow along the edges of the biker as close as you can and then hit CTRL+J. This will extract the biker and put it on a new layer.



Set this aside as we will use this layer later.

2. Copy the original layer into a new layer and then invert this layer to create a negative type of image.



3. Apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on the inverted image and colorize it to look red with the following parameters: Hue = 0, Saturation = 81, Lightness = 0 and use the color RED to colorize it.



4. Merged all these layers into one. This will now be your new working background layer.

5. Apply a Radial Blur effect on the new background layer (the color red one) using the Radial Blur command.



6. Now, go back to your extracted biker layer and copy it to a new layer. Enlarge this copied biker by about 35% and put it on top of the red background layer.



Since this is an effect to the biker image, set it to opacity of 44% as this is going to be behind the actual biker image.

7. Now, bring back the actual biker layer and put it on top of all these layers.

CLICK THIS IMAGE TO SEE THE BIGGER IMAGE:


This will be the final effect. Adjust the brightness / contrast to saturate the colors more and have the grungy effect for added punch.

Time to do it all?... less than 20 minutes. It took me 27 minutes all in all because I used the 7 minutes to set up my concept and vision on how I want to do the edit.

This kind of effect can be done on any Photoshop version from Version 7 up to CS5. I don't have any formal training on Photoshop, Self-taught if I may say. Going to a school to learn all this stuff is easier because they have a curriculum. Any online course would be great. I just don't have the money to go through this. LOL! Kelby training is definitely a good investment for you in learning post-processing using any Adobe products. Hope this helps, Paul.

[Ruffy]

WOW !!!
Was not expecting that sort of info, that was like a lesson all on its own, it takes me 20 mins to turn the computer on

Jiro, thank you so much, you have been a great help, now off to download PSE9 and have a play with what you have taught me....Nobody delete this thread

[jiro]

...Jiro, thank you so much, you have been a great help, now off to download PSE9 and have a play with what you have taught me....Nobody delete this thread

[Bill Yeung]

Hail Jiro!!!
willing to share, willing to open up so that other can being motivated and learn.....
thanks
this attachment is better to work with?
thousand of thanks

[jiro]

Hail Jiro!!!
willing to share, willing to open up so that other can being motivated and learn.....
thanks
this attachment is better to work with?
thousand of thanks

The file is still too small, Bill but I'll give it a try. Off I go first to the postal office to mail some materials to some friends.

[Crovean]

wow !!!
It takes me 20 mins to turn the computer on:d

lol, so that makes it 40 minutes for you Ruffy hehehehe

Nice vision Jiro! So creative!

[Reprolurch]

Hello! I am also a new one in this forum. Can you please tell me why you prefer the lasso tool insted of the path tool?
Thanks in advance!