Project 52 by Trina

[Trina]

My plan for the last half of the year is to improve my post processing (I have a massive amount of photo's to work on) and learn more about the things that my camera can do.

[Trina]

Here are two shots that I photomerged, the before is SOOC and the after has the landscape style applied. I have been working on using the styles set in the camera, but was really surprised at the difference and how much the photo popped after the style was applied. This photo was taken before I even was aware there were styles in my camera. There was also some basic tweaking some recovery for the snow and fill for the tree's.... One other thing that kind of bothers me is the cut in half cloud, should I crop under it? or leave it alone? Seems like if I crop under it the sky would be to shallow. CC welcome.

Before

[Trina]

After


I haven't figured out how to add more then one picture to a post.... This is Crater Lake in Oregon U.S. Not very far from my home.

[FrankMi]

Hi Trina! It is worthwhile to experiment with the various camera settings to see how each style affects a particular image. Over time, you'll get a good feel for which styles you prefer with specific scenes.

Eventually, you'll transition from using the camera's styles to applying the same kind of changes in post processing which will give you the ability to take an image an apply any style you like after the fact. By then you'll have a good idea what is possible and what you prefer to see in your finished image. All of these steps will help you to envision the final image as you compose the composition before shooting.

I wouldn't worry about the cloud as it doesn't have a negative impact to the image and by changing the cropping it might not work as well for this image. Having said that, it certainly doesn't hurt to experiment with the cropping to see what you like best. For me, this is a good rendition of Crater Lake and Wizard Island.

[RustBeltRaw]

I think your camera's landscape post-processing setting over-saturated the second image. Nothing insane, but it looks conspicuously edited, especially near the left edge. Beyond that, there's a definite decrease in light level and saturation from left to right - probably from a slight haze over and around the lake. Not much one can do about that except watch out for it and know it's going to be a problem, but it's possible to apply post-processing tools in gradients (using duplicate layers) to counter the haze.

[Trina]

Thank you Frank and Lex for your responses and thoughts... I decided not to crop out any of the sky.. would make to much water and not enough sky... I did hit the hills with a burn tool, as well as wizard island. I think it pretty much took the haze away.... the water really was that blue that day... here is the redo

[FrankMi]

I can vouch for the deep blue saturation of the water color. The lake is crystal clear and about 2,000' deep so it really reflects the blue very intensely. This is one of the few lakes in the world that have no inlet and no outlet. Being that it is the caldera of a volcano with a 2,000' high rim all around, it gets water from precipitation only and looses it to evaporation only.

[kdoc856]

Hi, Trina

You mentioned you'd like to focus on PP, and I see you use PSE 10. I have used PSE in successive upgraded versions since PSE 5, and I very much agree it's worth keeping in your repertoire for layers and pixel work. I was fortunate enough to be encouraged to explore Lightroom several months ago, and I can't urge you enough to try out LR4. Made by Adobe as is PSE, it works seemlessly with it, is incredibly easy to use, and will accelerate your pp'ing skills faster than you could imagine. I also highly recommend George Jardine's Lr4 video tutorials in "The Develop Module"- by far the most complete and instantly helpful tutorials I've ever seen.

Good luck,

Kevin

[Trina]

Thank you Kevin, I have been researching LR this last week or so.. and I think I will be buying it soon..... I really like PSE I started with 8 and use 10 now... I used it mostly for digital scrapbooking (gotta do something with all these pictures Im taking:>) I will also look into the book you sugest.

[Trina]

This week I explored sharpening. I got to reading a older post about sharpening and how to do it.. along with the appropriate tutorials...... is it ok or over sharpened? One thing I noticed with the sharpening, is that the different colors in the trees stand out more.
I will also be working on setting the white balance in my camera more... because the biggest changes to these photo's were changing the white balance in PSE4. I also did a light crop on the first second Theilson picture.
Mt. Theilson SOOC raw

Fixed


Diamond lake SOOC raw

fixed

I finally figured out how to post more then one photo in a post

[Geoff F]

'I finally figured out how to post more then one photo in a post'

Yes, it took me a while and some questions before I discovered how to use the Tinypics upload option to post more than one photo.

Those scenes all work well.

Have you tried selective sharpening yet? Create a duplicate layer, sharpen it and add a mask, then edit the mask to just apply sharpening to part of a photo. I find it useful for avoiding over sharpening areas as well as selectively applying the sharpen.

Useful for water, etc, where too much sharpening can look odd.

And another option with using a layer is that you can set the blend mode to Luminosity which sometimes helps when normal sharpening appears a little harsh.

[Trina]

Hi Geoff, Thank you, for your comment and tips. Selective sharpening? Nope I have not even attempted that... sounds interesting though... I am a bit confused by the masks.. I guess perhaps that is the next thing I need to learn about;>

[Geoff F]

I assume you have already read all the CinC tutorials.

In which case, have a go at this http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/s...lections-1.htm

But he does go into quite a bit of detail. Read all five parts. Try taking it in easy stages.

[Trina]

This week I am putting up a photo I took just this morning... I wish I had taken one more shot in the series to the left and that I had been outside 5-10 minutes earlier. I took 4 shots and photomerged them... from the raw file..but am having a hard time with the PP part... do you do your adjusting in raw then save as a Jpeg? Wouldn't you lose quality that way? Do you save as a tiff? What is the best way to save and PP after the photomerge has taken place.... or do you do it before you merge them? What I am pleased with is that the sun rays came thru rather nicely.
CC welcome.

[Geoff F]

I think we need a bit more information on your software and your exact current processing methods.

Are we talking about 4 individual shots of exactly the same scene taken with a tripod so there is no, or very little, movement between shots. Or 4 different 'exposures' from the same Raw file?

Merged into one image at the same size or are you talking about creating a panorama merge?

If 4 individual shots at different exposures for a merge, were they auto bracketed, which would make them possible to auto HDR process, or 4 separate shots which you are now attempting to merge?

If totally separate shots, but with perfect alignment, I convert the Raw files with roughly the same settings and save as Tiff or the software native format. Alternatively, if possible, open all 4 into the Raw converter and process the most average shot. Then select the other images and use the Synchronise command to auto process all images the same.

This is the best method if you do a crop at this stage. Otherwise leave cropping until later.

Save these conversions in a holding folder.

Then I import all images into my editing software as layers. This can be done automatically with some software using the Scripts option. The layers need to be auto aligned; which may be done during the auto importing process, otherwise make sure they are are actual layers. May be necessary to create layer from background image.

After auto aligning, the layers can be auto blended or 'hand blended' using parts of each layer by adding a mask and editing that to just show the best bits from each layer. Hand blending of more than two layers can be a bit tricky but some professionals (and good amateurs) think this is the best way and creates a softer more natural looking final blend.

Finally, if the auto alignment has had to push some layers around to create the alignment you may need to do a slight 'tidying up' crop.

And returning to the best format after Raw conversion. I agree with not using Jpeg for this. But some software will not auto align or auto blend Tiff. Alternatively, if you have a problem with Tiff, you may find that the software native format works best here.

I have actually switched from converting to Tiff to using the Adobe format of psd because there is a sizeable space saving with this compared with Tiff. And psd has become an almost universal format now. But some other software may have unique formats which cannot be exported for other uses without changing to a universal format.

Hope this helps a little. This process is usually easier than it sounds but you do need a clear head.

And more information about exactly what you are doing may result in more specific information.