Quick and dirty post process.

[Lost Canadian]

A guy I work with who is getting into photography was asking me about post process and what I do to my shots to get them so "punchy." I gave him the run down and he was a little surprised as he thought I did more to them. I told him filters do most of my dirty work as far as getting a punchy image. Anyway, that talk about post work got me thinking, we don't talk much about post here on the ExPo, at least not how it's done. So I thought why not start a thread and discuss the various approaches. I'll start, here's what I do.

For me the final image starts in the camera, meaning the settings I select. I am a Nikon shooter and I start by setting my camera to "boring." This means I set my picture control style to "neutral," the contrast -1, and sharpening is set to 0. Any contrast and sharpening is done once the file hits the computer. At present I use Capture NX2 and LR2 for my processing. I prefer using LR for monchrome images, and NX2 for all others.

Below are some examples, with the listed steps I took to get the final image.
Of course it needs to be said you can't make something from nothing, so if you think you can take a junk image and put it through the barrage of post processing filters and techniques in an attempt to make it sing,...well it ain't going happen. All you'll end up with is a manipulated mess. Trust me, been there, done that. Anyway the images.

1) First up, a leaf shot.

To begin, with most of my images I start with the white balance. In most cases I try to get it right in camera, but sometimes it's off a little, in any case it's easy to fix if you've shot RAW. In this case with the image below I had the correct WB so no correction was needed. The next step is geting rid of the colour cast which is inherent in all digi cams. There are a number of ways to do this, but the quickest and easiest for me is to simply set the black point. To do this, I click the double threshold indicator, grab the shadow side of the histogram and move it until I get real black, then I back off until only the first sign of black reveals itself, then I just lay down the black point. Voila, no more colour cast! I think you can do this in photoshop if you're using it. Once the colour cast is removed I click off the double threshold indicator. Usually this is enough, and all that remains is a little sharpening for the web and I convert the file to sRGB. I work on my files in ProPhoto RGB to retain as many colours as is possible, and to ensure the best result on output. Inevitably you will loose tonality in the colour graduations but it's best to start with a full palate. There are a number of steps I use when sharpening an image and each image differs. This is where I pixel peep. For some images I simply bump the midtone contrast up a notch, in lightroom this is the clarity tool, in capture NX it's a curves adjustment. Other times I use the sharpen tool, the key with both tools is to stop moving the slider and back off once the pixels start to "blob up" as I like to put it.

Below are the two images before and after. To review the steps I took to get the "after", I imported, set the black point, tweaked the midtones, converted to sRGB, and exported. That's it.

Before

After

Next up, a morning water shot. This shot followed pretty much the same process, but this time I sharpened at 2% with a setting of 20. 0 threshold. And straightened up the horizon which was a little off.

Before

After

You may be asking what's the difference with these shots, if you look close you'll see it but to be honest it's not much, as it should be IMO unless you're after a certain creative look. Get it right in the camera and you don't need to do much. Of course as I mentioned before in other threads I use filters to help me get it right. Physical filters like these, not digital.

Observe my perfect hand holding technique...LOL..JK! Image shot by my wife.

Next up is about as far as I go usually with digi manip. unless I'm feeling funky of course.:ylsmoke: The before and after,... first this time.

Before

After

For this shot you may have picked up on a few additional things. I followed the same steps I took with the first two, but this time I burned or darked the center sky a little, it was a little bright in the original and was drawing my attention there. I also darkened up the rocks in the lower left. I also bumped the contrast slightly and added a very slight touch of glow to the water. Again not over the top but just enough to give a little oomph to the original.

Your turn. I'd love to hear others steps as I'm always looking to learn a new way to navigate through this digi age. I'm particularly interested in digi B&W conversion as I'm not always getting what I want out of mine.

 

[nwoods]

My work flow is all Photoshop CS2 based. I use Bridge extensively. I typically shoot in RAW, injest everything into the computer using Bridge, and then start culling through my images, ranking them with stars (1 through 5). A typical trail shoot, I take 300 or so images, and cull them down to about 50 or 60.

From here, it depends on what I am doing. I mostly do trail run photos. Most often, people want to see themselves in their rigs, so having a photo of every rig on the same obstacle is perfectly fine, though it grows very weary on me! If I am shooting just to tell the story of the day on the trail, I can be much more selective. I might keep 10 or so images that tell that story. Usually, its a combination. I will try to post one photo of each rig at some point along the trail, and a few scenery shots, or shots that otherwise speak to me.

Once the shots are selected, I play with them in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). I select images that needs some processing, and open them from Bridge into ACR. I typically have to play with Black (reduces glare from harsh mid-day sun), Fill Light (so you can see the undercarriage and suspension), Contrast (because its the desert!), Recovery (knock down blown out highlights), and Sharpening. I like sharpening in Raw because its non-destructive in application, and is smoother somehow than PS's own sharpening filters.

I also crop in ACR, because its non-destructive. I will also apply White Balance correction, though seldom need to. Lately, my shutter has been acting oddly, creating slighly over or under exposed images, so many of my images need exposure adjustment. Canon is willing to repair my camera, but it would be cheaper to buy a new one.

Now that I have my keepers filtered, processed, and ready, I Batch convert them to JPG, and reduce the image size to 1600 pixels wide, and copy all these saved JPG's to a new subfolder called "Web" under the main folder of that day's images. This is all done in one step in Bridge, using the Tools>Photoshop>Image Processor tool. I also have a default Smart Sharpen 50% script that runs on the JPG at the same time, using the same tool in Bridge. It's very convienant.

Now with my 40 or so JPG images in the Web folder, that have been reduced, sharpened, and previously tuned up, I can reorganize them a bit better in Bridge, dragging them into slightly modified sequences that better tell the story. Meaning, perhaps a photo I shot later in the day best tells the story if placed near the beginning. Now that they are sorted how I like them, I run a Batch Rename script in Bridge that allows me rename and renumber them so that they sort in an online gallery.

Then it's a quick upload to SmugMug, where my watermark is placed into the image by Smug, and I have access to all the available image sizes I could want for online use, from 800x600 all the way to the "original" 1600x image size. If I ever need the actual full size image, I still have it, and it's been processed non-destructively, so i can always revert to the out-of-camera image if desired.

Some photos though, need heavy work. Perhaps masking out license plates, removing people, clouds, artifacts, removing dirt blobs from a dusty sensor, etc... For that, i use Photoshop on the Web folder's JPG images before uploading to SmugMug.


Here is an example of an adjusted image neccessatied by my funky shutter mechanicism:
Before:

After:

 

[Lost Canadian]

Ouch, that metering malfunction hurts. Is it a consistent type thing, or is it sporadic? Just wondering if setting some exposure comp could help.

 

[nwoods]

Ouch, that metering malfunction hurts. Is it a consistent type thing, or is it sporadic? Just wondering if setting some exposure comp could help.

Sporadic, sometimes too dark, sometimes too light, rarely spot on, so to speak. Canon said it was the shutter release though. Like the signal's not getting cleanly to it. They said it is common in the 20D's after 100,000 impressions or releases or whatever the right term is. Problem is, my image count is only about 30,000, so its premature for my camera body. Lucky me.

 

[Ryanmb21]

This is a great thread, and thank you posting details of your process. Awhile ago I asked a question somewhat on topic to this thread here. I downloaded the trial version of Aperture and feeling my way through it, I don't really have an opinion yet. I think I'll try lightroom next month and then decide what to end up with. I'll be watching this thread closely.