Obtaining a ''sparkle'' in my photos

[thegman]

Hi, I need some help, well a lot, I have looked at a lot photos on CiC and they all seem to have a ''sparkle / sheen to them. No matter what I try my captures seem to appear flat and bland. Any ideas would be great.

[DanK]

Gerry,

Lots of things go into 'sparkle', e.g., contrast, clarity or local contrast, sharpening, etc. To get useful answers, post a few images for people to respond to.

Dan

[FrankMi]

Hi, I need some help, well a lot, I have looked at a lot photos on CiC and they all seem to have a ''sparkle / sheen to them. No matter what I try my captures seem to appear flat and bland. Any ideas would be great.

Hi Gerry, perhaps you could post a link to one or more of the images at CiC that you are referring to and the photographer of that image could provide you with the detailed information that you seek.

[Manfred M]

Gerry - I find a lot of the "pop" in images comes from having the black and white points adjusted properly. In too many images, the blacks are grey and so are the whites. Get the blacks looking black and the whites looking white (assuming that these are found in the image) and you'll find that this goes a long way to getting a "sparkle", as you put it.

[thegman]

Manfred, thanks for the advice, I've attached a couple of my shots from yesterday, they just don't 'pop' the way I thought. My PP knowledge is very limited as I've just started with photography. Any more advice would be great.

#1.

#2.

[Polar01]

Gerry what would also help it to know what software are you using to do your post production with. This would help us to better explain to steps needed.

Cheers: Allan

[Shadowman]

Subject matter, color, and lighting (especially time of day) play a big part in getting that pop.

[thegman]

Hi Allan, I have Photoshop CC , but I haven't really done any PP, I'm slowly reading through books just now to get some basic steps first. Not sure what PP software is best for beginner, I just asked friends what the recommend. I also have Canon DPP.

[Manfred M]

I have Photoshop CC .

If you have this software, you have picked what most people would consider the "gold standard" for post-processing. That being said, it does have a fairly long learning curve. If you are just starting out, I would suggest you look at Photoshop Lightroom (it's part of the package), as Lightroom's Develop Module will probably give you what you are looking for at this stage of your learning curve.

The Lightroom Develop Module and Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) are basically the same tool, wrapped in a different user interface, so learning it is a good first step into full-blown Photoshop. As an aside, I am a Photoshop CC user and personally prefer ACR to Lightroom. There are lots of online (paid and free) videos on these software packages.

Canon DPP is not a package I am familiar with, but I understand it is quite rudimentary when compared to the other tools at your disposal.

[Barclay Manor]

Here is a copy of one of your photos, I just used the PS overlay function in "layers" at 55% opacity.

[thegman]

Thanks David, that is one of the things my photos are lacking, I sort of jumped in at the deep end, new to photography and new to photoshop, so more time needed researching ''layers'' etc.

[Geoff F]

I've had a quick go at the second image, Gerry.

Firstly a similar edit to David but I used an adjustment layer in Soft Light mode at 40% then a fraction of highlight boost with Curves using the Luminosity blend mode. But in each case I have masked out the sky to keep it dark.



And alternative edit using Local Contrast Enhancement.

I used Unsharp Mask at 30% and 40 pixels but because I didn't want to over process the sea I first created a Duplicate Layer and used the LCE on that layer. Then added a Reveal All Mask which I edited, by painting over with an opacity reducing brush, so the enhancement strength was slightly reduced over the sea.

And finally another slight highlight boost with Curves.



I use layers, masks and layer blend changes a lot with my editing; but are you familiar with this sort of thing?

There are a lot of other options which could be used. But if you start off with a rather dull looking scene it becomes more difficult to give it a bit of zip. That is why some days are much better than others for photography.

[Manfred M]

Okay - my turn (a bit over the top)...

[thegman]

Thanks Geoff, I think I need to do some more work on understanding PP with photoshop, no doubt I'll return to this post later

[Geoff F]

Regarding the use of Layers and Masks etc. Have a read of what is in the CinC Tutorials to get a basic grounding in the subject, then have a look at this site. But it does go into some fairly advanced details rather quickly.

http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/l...1/layers-1.htm

Also this item about selections and masks

http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/s...lections-1.htm

It may appear difficult and complicated at first but you should soon grasp the basics.

[thegman]

Thank you Manfred, time for me to get some practice in PP

[Barclay Manor]

Gerry,

You are welcome. One question for you; what format do you shoot in?, As in jpeg, raw, etc.

[thegman]

David, I only shoot in raw now, I started with raw and jpeg , just to compare, but now only use raw then try to adjust to what I think it looked like

[Black Pearl]

Had to have a go - my take is to crop a little to make more of the structures, change the fomat to suit and give it a bit of mono treatment.

[Black Pearl]

One other thing if you'd have moved a fraction to the left you would have got all three circular holes complete without cutting into the furthest one.