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[Cdammen]

Lightroom is fun to in and I love using filters, but rarely do I use ones that really fuck with the colors.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Capture NX gives far better colours than Photoshop.

Ah so it's good eh? Do they offer it standalone?

 

[captive]

...

smh @ all the people that thinks that photo manipulation = increasing the contrast all the way up. The lack of sense and class when editing photos around here is stunning.

(There are some photos that look pretty good, though)

how bout instead of coming off as a cocky snob you provide constructive criticism to those pictures you don't think are edited well.

Also its real easy to be a critic who denigrates others work. Its a lot different when your presenting your own work.

 

[East Lake]

You guys might be on to something... some quick and dirty first attempts:

Before:
http://i32.tinypic.com/fkboco.jpg

After:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_yqresQkyOj4/TEq7Wo1y9nI/AAAAAAAACJE/_jB-amt1v6M/s912/DSCF0166.JPG


Before:
http://i26.tinypic.com/2jb3ut.jpg

After:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_yqresQkyOj4/TEq7YkyoE3I/AAAAAAAACJQ/1DqBA0JkAjg/s1024/DSCF0168.JPG


Before:
http://i32.tinypic.com/15o8jmp.jpg

After:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_yqresQkyOj4/TEq7aUZhXVI/AAAAAAAACJk/4j7bqu1B1g4/s912/DSCF0170.JPG

I wanted to get some good sunrise pics this morning but I was blocked by a bunch of trees. So I figured I give it the best shot I could in Picasa and see how it came out. I'm content with the results. <3 I usually do prefer the real thing, but sometimes a camera just doesn't capture what you're seeing.

First two benefited, the last seems like overkill to me. Too bright and saturated, looking for more dramatic, natural lighting to begin with would help more than anything. Be careful to watch the detail when you're editing too, it's easy for a contrast adjustment to crush the dark areas, might be beneficial sometimes but it also might hurt the image.

What I did:

* Find a photo (if it's been post-processed like mine, even better!)
* Copy layer
* Set copied layer to Overlay and leave at 100% just because.
* Merge both layers

* Copy layer
* Change curves on copied layer (red channel up, blue channel down)

* Create new layer in black and set it to Soft Light
* Add lens flares somewhere randomly
* Merge the three layers
* Give it some sharpen more even if it breaks the image (more)
* Change curves so the shadows are blue and hip
* Add cool watermark

How is that for some photo post processing!
Man I'm so cool.

The watermark is the most critical for sure, everybody gonna steal that image!

 

[ThatObviousUser]

First two benefited, the last seems like overkill to me. Too bright and saturated, looking for more dramatic, natural lighting to begin with would help more than anything. Be careful to watch the detail when you're editing too, it's easy for a contrast adjustment to crush the dark areas, might be beneficial sometimes but it also might hurt the image.

I did go crazy on the last one, just to mess around and see what I can do. It was probably a bit much to add a glow effect.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[East Lake]

I did go crazy on the last one, just to mess around and see what I can do. It was probably a bit much to add a glow effect.

Thanks for the tips!

No prob, I'm just speaking from a general perspective for the photo too, from that experimentation you're probably more experienced with the details of post-processing than I am. :lol

 

[BlueTsunami]

People are gonna process a photo how they process it. Honestly, the color changes, saturation, contrast and whatnot, I don't find it bad. What I find bad is adding objects to a photo (not text but buildings, animals and flaring), thats pretty tacky and it just becomes graphic design. I personally err on the side of punchy and contrasty but keeping it natural looking (liberties are taken with Black and White though). Sometimes subtle is good, sometimes not.

 

[East Lake]

People are gonna process a photo how they process it. Honestly, the color changes, saturation, contrast and whatnot, I don't find it bad. What I find bad is adding objects to a photo (not text but buildings, animals and flaring), thats pretty tacky and it just becomes graphic design. I personally err on the side of punchy and contrasty but keeping it natural looking (liberties are taken with Black and White though). Sometimes subtle is good, sometimes not.

I find some processing bad, not that I'm against it altogether or an authority on what is and isn't good looking. I wouldn't say it bothers me but there's some looks that I would never even consider duplicating because I legitimately think they look awful. I don't like when it's egregious and when people take what would normally be a nice or decent image (imo) and go ape with the settings when some smaller adjustments would have suited it just fine. I'm not even concerned with a natural style although that's cool too, just look at some of the heavy HDRs on flickr, stuff like that.

I agree with the adding objects to an image thing, I feel like that's when the image ceases to be a photograph. Sure many would get all huffy over that statement but a lot of them seem to be in a no man's land where they can't even establish a boundary and only challenge people who do.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

People are gonna process a photo how they process it. Honestly, the color changes, saturation, contrast and whatnot, I don't find it bad. What I find bad is adding objects to a photo (not text but buildings, animals and flaring), thats pretty tacky and it just becomes graphic design. I personally err on the side of punchy and contrasty but keeping it natural looking (liberties are taken with Black and White though). Sometimes subtle is good, sometimes not.

Each photo is it's own beast. You gotta try your best to bring out its full potential, even if that means not touching it up at all (or very little.)

 

[rSpooky]

Here is a question..
to avoid correcting wrongly due to bad monitor settings.. what is the best tweaking tool out there to make sure that what I see on my monitor is correct?

 

[Dali]

how bout instead of coming off as a cocky snob you provide constructive criticism to those pictures you don't think are edited well.

Also its real easy to be a critic who denigrates others work. Its a lot different when your presenting your own work.

It's funny too because he's a part of art-Gaf. You'd think after so many people offer useful crits or bite their tongues on his piss poor attempts at modeling, he'd be inclined to be a bit more humble in any art-related thread.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Two more:

I barely touched the saturation and even still that might have been a bit much... ah well...

Probably could have increased brightness a little here, too. I do like how the colors are vivid and overflowing.

 

[sneaky77]

I feel like that second one is a little too red, but thats just me. Have you tried adjusting some of the contrast and brightness and saturation in the camera settings? You can get a lot of improvement in the colors that way.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I feel like that second one is a little too red, but thats just me. Have you tried adjusting some of the contrast and brightness and saturation in the camera settings? You can get a lot of improvement in the colors that way.

Can't say that I have. Mostly just dipping my toes into this kind of stuff right now, I'm sure I'll get much deeper soon.

 

[Pepto]

Ah so it's good eh? Do they offer it standalone?

Yeah, but I wouldn't bother with it if you are not shooting raw on a Nikon.

Here's the website where you can download the demo: http://www.capturenx.com/en/index.html.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Yeah, but I wouldn't bother with it if you are not shooting raw on a Nikon.

Here's the website where you can download the demo: http://www.capturenx.com/en/index.html.

Ooh, thanks. I'll at least give it a shot.

One thing I like about Picasa is all the changes are in the program itself, the original images remain unaltered.

 

[Mechanical Snowman]

It's funny too because he's a part of art-Gaf. You'd think after so many people offer useful crits or bite their tongues on his piss poor attempts at modeling, he'd be inclined to be a bit more humble in any art-related thread.

Piss poor? Wasn't that the guy who modelled Dudebro from scratch? Not denying his comments were assholish though.

I could do with some general tips, specifically on post processing sky scenes and landscapes. I think my attempt below looks a bit over-processed. I was going for subtlety at first, but I got carried away with the blue and orange contrast.

Before:

After:

 

[Alucrid]

Does anyone know how to replicate this kind of post processing?

Oh, before:

After:

 

[Xun]

Does anyone know how to replicate this kind of post processing?

Oh, before:

After:

It's a really easy thing to do.

Speaking of the bottom shot, just change the black to blue, and the white to a yellow.

I would get more technical, but I'm somewhat intoxicated.

 

[RefigeKru]

to

Like usual I overdid it, but meh, I like it more than the original.

Lots of selective coloring, adjust exposure+offset, throw some grain on that bitch. Voila.

 

[vitaminwateryum]

Was doing some post on a few shots and remembered this thread, thought I'd post a few in here.