Beginner Seeking Advice on How to Improve Photos Using Photoshop Elements

[Brownbear]

Wow! Thank you. It is wonderful to know that it only took five minutes; that makes editing doable. I will look for topaz adjust in elements.

[Brownbear]

Thank you.

[Geoff F]

Don't get carried away with editing, Christina, and overdo it. Your second edit still looks natural to me but it is so easy to go too far and end up with an idealised scene which has little connection with reality.

With regard to cropping. I usually do most of my crops during Raw editing but when a final crop is required I often find that working in precise measurements can be confusing. And I need a calculator beside me.

Find the current size then work out the ratio in actual measurements and enter those sizes into the crop specifications may be necessary for some options like resizing a photo for printing on specific paper sizes, including allowing for an all round equal border, etc.

But for general use I tend to use the rectangular selection tool, enter the required ratio in the size options, select fixed ratio option first, then simply draw out a selection to the required crop size. Move the selection around to find the best position. Then go to Image Menu and Crop.

Everything is done automatically and you end up with the largest possible image at the new ratio.

But that is for CS5; your software may work slightly differently.

[Loose Canon]

Unless you put (i.e. bought and installed) Topaz Adjust in Elements, Christina, you will not find it.

It is an outside software manufacturer plug-in for Elements. There may be a stand-alone version as well, I'm not sure.

If you are interested in it, just google it. I would guess they have a trial version you could test drive.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Geoff and Loose Canon. Appreciated, as always...

[victor]

Christina,

Topaz Adjust and other packages are available from www.topazlabs.com. 30 day trials are offered. Discounts codes are available from stuckincustoms.com and other sites.

The same applies to Nik software.

Regards

David

[conkerwood]

Hi I spend about six months of the year, out once a week photographing breaching humpbacks on the gold coast, Australia. The ones you have captured look dark underneath so I presume they are northern humpbacks. For your first capture these are pretty impressive so you should be delighted but a couple of thoughts. There are a number of problems with capturing breaching whales.The first is motion blur from the boat, the rapid movement of the camera into position (you only have a second or two to frame the shot) and the movement of the whale itself. So obviously the camera must be set at high speed, at least 1200 or better 1500. This is fine if the whale is a reasonable distance away but sometimes they breach very close (less than 50 metres) and depth of field becomes a problem as they are such huge creatures. So I always wind the ISO up even in good light to give me more flexibility. I know I can already hear peoplesay that winding up the ISO is going to create noise but with the background movement of the sea, the splash and the breath haze, the noise rarely intrudes.The other major problem, which you have a little of, is blowout around splash and water reflections. Thats why I always underexpose by at least two thirds of a stop and often more on a bright day. Why am I saying all of this when yours is a pp question. Well even though I am really into Photoshop and spend hours working on individual photos I have found that pics of breaching whales can so often be ruined by over processing, particularly oversharpening in trying to compensate for motion blur and to overcome the mist and haze from the splash and the exhaled breath. So I would recommend that the sort of processing that you have mentioned at the beginning is as much as is needed if the pic is good to start with. I am a huge fan of Topaz Adjust but never use it with whales as It tends to render the black shine of the whales body in strange colours and give a falseness that I don't believe works. As for the background and making things prettier for more impact my answer is no don't. If after a little tweeking a picture of a breaching whale doesn't have impact then the picture wasn't up to scratch in the first place. Get the whale in perfect focus and the rest is easy. That said the perfect focus bit is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges I know of. Still I wish my first shots were half as good as yours. I have attached a pic I took last season to hopefully illustrate what I am saying. Minimal processing, lifted the colours slightly, particularly the barnacles around the chin, small amount of sharpening and enhanced the shadows on the underside.

Good luck

[Brownbear]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the wonderful (and detailed advice)... Next season I will try a higher iso and faster shutter speed! Now just to have the patience to wait that long.

WOW! What a gorgeous shot! I hope to post one of my own next season.

Thank you everyone. I have learned a lot!

Christina

[Brownbear]

Just to show everyone I'm still trying... The parrotlets are either too blurry or dark but improving...









And hopefully you can see how beautiful these endangered birds are and the reason I keep trying to get a good shot!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Christina,

Well done, while I can suggest ways to improve some of these in PP, they are never-the-less each worth showing in their own right.

I do like the first with the slow shutter speed and pan.

If I remember correctly, you have Elements(?) - I wonder if you can (working on a copy of the image) find out hpw to clone out the bright road in the first, or the wires in the second? The second will be easier as the area to be cloned is smaller, so I'd start there.

The second may be able to be brightened up a bit too.

Cheers,

[rpcrowe]

Hi Christina...

The problem with image #1 is that your shutter speed is too slow to capture the action. Normally, you can pan with a moving object and capture it with a slower shutter speed. You have done this however, each individual bird is moving in its own direction and speed and the wings are flapping vigorously. You simply did not have a fast enough shutter speed to capture that frantic action.

In image #2, the birds blend into the background and the image is also underexposed. Sometimes, depending on the lens you are shooting, you can select a wide aperture (which will also help with a higher shutter sprred) and you can use selective focus to blur the background and keep the subjects sharp. However, this becomes a problem when you are shooting a group of subjects like the birds. You need a fairly wide DOV to keep the flight in focus and it may be difficult to keep the subjects in focus and blur the background. Additionally, some of the basic consumer lenses have f/5.6 as the maximum aperture. With the exception of the great (and quite expensive) Canon 400mm f/5.6L lens, shooting with a lens of an f/5.6 maximum aperture can be problematic. Choosing a less distracting background would be the secret.

In #3, you had the background O.K. and the shuter speed has kept the birds reasonably sharp. However, your lens was just not long enough to provide a decent size image of the subjects.

#4 is a pretty decent shot but, it doesn't look quite sharp. I suspect that you may have cropped the image significantly.

Birds in Flight photography is difficult and often demands expensive equipment.

[rpcrowe]

Hi Christina...

The problem with image #1 is that your shutter speed is too slow to capture the action. Normally, you can pan with a moving object and capture it with a slower shutter speed. You have done this however, each individual bird is moving in its own direction and speed and the wings are flapping vigorously. You simply did not have a fast enough shutter speed to capture that frantic action.

In image #2, the birds blend into the background and the image is also underexposed. Sometimes, depending on the lens you are shooting, you can select a wide aperture (which will also help with a higher shutter sprred) and you can use selective focus to blur the background and keep the subjects sharp. However, this becomes a problem when you are shooting a group of subjects like the birds. You need a fairly wide DOV to keep the flight in focus and it may be difficult to keep the subjects in focus and blur the background. Additionally, some of the basic consumer lenses have f/5.6 as the maximum aperture. With the exception of the great (and quite expensive) Canon 400mm f/5.6L lens, shooting with a lens of an f/5.6 maximum aperture can be problematic. Choosing a less distracting background would be the secret.

In #3, you had the background O.K. and the shuter speed has kept the birds reasonably sharp. However, your lens was just not long enough to provide a decent size image of the subjects.

#4 is a pretty decent shot but, it doesn't look quite sharp. I suspect that you may have cropped the image significantly.

Birds in Flight photography is difficult and often demands expensive equipment.

[Brownbear]

Thank you. yes, I have photoshop elements and I do know how to clone out small things! And brighten things up.

[Brownbear]

Thank you. Very helpful.. The largest aperature I can go to on my lens is 5.6, and I find when I use this I get purple fringing on my birds. Yes, I cropped #4 to get closer.

Good to know. I will keep trying, and with a lot of luck they will fly over my head one day, and of course I will have my camera ready for them!