My Road to learning Photoshop

[bluesbrother]

Dear People,
I have started my road to get some idea on the subject of Photoshop. Trying to get to know the interface and it's tool. Inspired by this forum, i like to document my journey.
So as a real newbie i have some pictures here beneath. They are from a weekend in the (dutch) country and i have made some verry touristy shots. Yes clogs, a windmill etc. I leave you with the before and after and like your comments. I have played arround with the Graduate filter in ACR. Tints and color. I have trouble seeing what a picture needs. I can see it is flat, or grey, or not warm enough. But what then to do? So i play arround and not being happy with the end result.

So how to see on what to do, what tool to use (so many ways leed to rome?).

Thanks.
Bluesbrother/Aldo


Original:


Me trying making it a postcard:


Original: (By the way it is not a fisheye lens, it is the way the road cornerd. Corner, well you know.



My creativity:



Original:


I know i left some romance in here, somewhere:


If you want to adjust them yourself, and i know you do, then here are some better quality pictures.

I am really wondering what do you see?
What do you miss in the pictures (lighter, darker warmer colours etc)?
What steps you take, what tools you use?

And also i found this the other day.
And i found it here.

[dragonaxe]

Fantastic idea for a thread Aldo!!! I'm in exactly the same situation as you
Everyone's images on here look amazing! but I just can't seem to recreate the same with mine. Even after reading magazines and watching Youtube videos, Photoshop (I've got CS2) still feels light black magic to me

[Colin Southern]

Hi Aldo,

Just as an example, here's how I would process the windmill shot ...

[dragonaxe]

What did you do to it, Colin? (and how do you get a frame around it!!? that looks so cool

[carregwen]

Aldo

You have posted quite a lot here, and although post-processing is very important so too is getting details right in the camera, especially composition. If you want this to be a learning opportunity it might be better to do the following.

1. Take a local shot that you can repeat often - perhaps near your house
2. Shoot it in RAW
3. Post the image as a JPEG but don't bother at this stage processing it.
4. Get feed-back on the composition from members here. Following suggestions, go back and reshoot it if necessary
5. When we have a good composition we can move on to discuss the processing. If you can post the RAW to a downloading site so we can edit it, we can tell you what we have done to get the end result.

Just a suggestion - up to you.

[bluesbrother]

Fantastic idea for a thread Aldo!!! I'm in exactly the same situation as you
Everyone's images on here look amazing! but I just can't seem to recreate the same with mine. Even after reading magazines and watching Youtube videos, Photoshop (I've got CS2) still feels light black magic to me

Same here. You are welcome to join me.

What did you do to it, Colin? (and how do you get a frame around it!!? that looks so cool

Yes indeed. We know you are a grandmaster Colin, only share youre wisdom Obi One Kenobi
(I'am in IT, so this was going to happen sooner or later, i mean the Star Wars quote.)

[bluesbrother]

I was to quick with my reply earlier.

Aldo
You have posted quite a lot here, and although post-processing is very important so too is getting details right in the camera, especially composition.
If you want this to be a learning opportunity it might be better to do the following.

1. Take a local shot that you can repeat often - perhaps near your house
2. Shoot it in RAW
3. Post the image as a JPEG but don't bother at this stage processing it.
4. Get feed-back on the composition from members here, following suggestions.
5. Go back and reshoot it if necessary
6. When we have a good composition we can move on to discuss the processing. If you can post the RAW to a downloading site so we can edit it, we can tell you what we have done to get the end result.

Just a suggestion - up to you.

Yes, i do. I'll get back to this. Great Idea. Hope to get to it, this weekend.
On the other hand, what i lack in photoshop skills, i think i have an eye for the composition.
And I will get the RAW image.

[bluesbrother]

What did you do to it, Colin? (and how do you get a frame around it!!? that looks so cool

Lookie here

I tried it myself:

[Colin Southern]

Lookie here

Basically that's how I do it. I've got it setup as a 1 button action, but one has to have an image of a certain resolution for it to work properly - and some of the shots posted here can be a bit small, so then I just to it by hand. But generally it just involves using canvas size (relative) and edit strokes.

[Colin Southern]

Fantastic idea for a thread Aldo!!! I'm in exactly the same situation as you
Everyone's images on here look amazing! but I just can't seem to recreate the same with mine. Even after reading magazines and watching Youtube videos, Photoshop (I've got CS2) still feels light black magic to me

Hi Gareth,

It can feel that way, but in reality (as I see it anyway), photography is all about choices (and their consequences) ... as you gain knowledge and experience you'll start making better decisions at every step (from composition, to capture, to processing, to presentation). We can help, but unfortunately there's no substitute for practice and experience. The good news is that everybody started somewhere ... and everybody improves. It just takes effort.

Just take things one step at a time - post images - let us help - rinse and repeat!

[bluesbrother]

I have a different aproach on learning. Wendy told me also to try learning one thing and then an other. I am more of a sponge and will soak op everything i can get my hands on. I will drop 40% of what i see/hear and feel. But 60% will stick. So i wan't as much information as i can. I learn in a somewhat chaotic way.

[revi]

Hi Aldo.

I think what they are trying to prevent is getting a habit to correct things in PS that should have been done correctly while taking the shot (something I'm more than occasionally guilty of myself); thus the advice to get the capture right first before attacking PS.

Exemples:
- framing the shot corerctly so as to prevent cropping as much as possible: cropping drops a lot of the pixels you paid good money for on the floor => potential loss of quality
- correcting exposition in PS: not possible for over exposure, noise increases fast when under exposing
- level horizons (my big problem, most of my shots need a correction...)
- white balance etc. are a bit less important to get right 'in-camera' but I find that starting from a correct setting makes the processing faster and more agreable

Anyway, unlearning bad habits is a lot slower than learning correct ones...

Sterkte

Remco

[bluesbrother]

Hi Aldo.

I think what they are trying to prevent is getting a habit to correct things in PS that should have been done correctly while taking the shot (something I'm more than occasionally guilty of myself); thus the advice to get the capture right first before attacking PS.

Exemples:
- framing the shot corerctly so as to prevent cropping as much as possible: cropping drops a lot of the pixels you paid good money for on the floor => potential loss of quality
- correcting exposition in PS: not possible for over exposure, noise increases fast when under exposing
- level horizons (my big problem, most of my shots need a correction...)
- white balance etc. are a bit less important to get right 'in-camera' but I find that starting from a correct setting makes the processing faster and more agreable
Anyway, unlearning bad habits is a lot slower than learning correct ones...
Sterkte
Remco

You're absolutly right. I need to get off the automatic setting on my camera and learn how to configure the right appeture, iso, white balance etc.
Framing i think i can do relativily okay. The rest i need to learn.
Also i think the stuff you come across in PS, maybe can help you making better shots outside.

Also my problem is, that i need to make my shots in a little time frame (my son 3 years does not have a lot of patience, and can not hold a position verry long). I don't have a lot of time then to configure my camera.

I have a lot of trouble getting my head arround time this stuff
I get the theory of it. Only to use it in real life is a B.

Moet goedkomen.

Aldo

[ScoutR]

Hi Aldo: good idea what you are doing here. I will give this a shot. I do hope you give Rob’s method a try though, as the experts here will be able to help you much easier if there is more control in your experiments.

I do understand the need to do things your own way though, so I will consider this as a PP only experiment, but with all of these shots I think there is a lot that could have been done In Camera to improve the shot, which in turn would have made PP easier and more effective

Another thing to keep in mind, is whether or not you shoot RAW files. If you do, then if things get serious, the experts will more than likely want to work on the original RAW version, as working on a jpg in Post Processing is difficult and does not always give the best results. Here is a link to an excellent thread on Workflow, which I am finding out the hard way is a very important thing to consider.

Tips on PS Editing For a Beginner

I’ve chosen the second shot to work on. I downloaded the large version and here are some observations.
1. The original that I downloaded is Very dark, much darker than the original that you posted, so I’m not sure what is going on there.
2. There are blown highlights in the clouds and a lot of the blacks in the shadows are beyond recovery
3. The shot needs to be straightened

Here is your original that I have resized for comparison purposes.


Here it is with some basic adjustments in Lightroom which is similar to ACR


1. Straighten
2. Lightroom indicated blown highlights in the clouds and the blacks in the trees on the right and left were beyond recovery. The settings I ended up with to try and compensate were:
Brightness: +33
Fill Light +34
Highlight Recovery +75 Edit: Changed this to read Highlight Recovery
TONE CURVE ADJUSTMENT:
Lighten Shadows +35
Lighten Darks +18
Darken Highlights -5

Please note that these settings are for reference only. I am not sure how they will convert to your version of ACR, but you can see where the pluses and minuses have been applied.

Also, I am not saying that this is what you would want the final version to look like. I notice in all your reworks you seem to have adjusted white balance (or something) to give a more yellow tone. That might be your personal preference and that is your choice. I have left the colours as shot.

My next step with this shot would be to take it into the Elements Editor, for sharpening and to add a border. However, if this was my shot, I am not sure I would go that far, as I would not be happy with the composition. There is no main subject, and the eye is drawn all over the place (The windmill in the centre and the people and road going off to the sides). But this thread is for Post Processing so; I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned that.

I will take this into Elements and see if I can do anything else with it. I’ll post when I have done.

Remember, I am not one of the experts here, and am in fact learning along with you, so please understand that when you look at my attempt.

Mod’s, If I have given any bad advice here, please don’t be afraid to correct me. I really don’t want to lead anyone off in the wrong direction.

Wendy

[ScoutR]

Here is my final result after taking it into the Elements Editor (simialar to PS editor)



Main adjustments from the Menu: (these might not be quite the same as in PS but they should be similar enough that you can find the same thing in PS)

Enhance - Brightness and Shadows - adjust sliders to your liking, I had Lighten Shadows at 13%: Darken Highlights at 8% and Midtone Contrast at 5%

Enhance - Adjust Colour - Adjust Hue and Saturation - Select Green - Adjusted Hue to get it a bit more yellow looking

Resize to 580 px wide
Apply Output sharpening: Read more about sharpening here:
When/How to Best Sharpen a Digital Photograph
Apply my border
Rename and Save

Your results and preferences will of course be different. You may or may not like what I have done, and that is OK. Just trying to give you some ideas. The final result is up to you, and so much of this is very subjective.

Wendy

[bluesbrother]

Wendy what a great job you did !! Thanks a bunch. I have read it, but need to study your work more.
I will try to redo your steps and post the result here. If i can redo it, i can deviate from it.
Again Great job ! is much appreciated.

Aldo

[ScoutR]

No problem Aldo. It's good practise for me.
Please NOTE i made an error in writing the settings for the Lightroom adjustments in the first post
Highlights +75 should read Highlight Recovery +75. I've changed it in the post now.

Wendy