here are a few, slightly older shots of my car that i would like to get everyone else's opinion on what to improve, change, etc...

before:


after:



before:


after:



before:


after:



thanks!

 

The images look good, but the last one is a tad on the contrasty side for my tastes The saturation looks a little overdone as well. On the last shot you could even pop a little flash on the shaded side for a more balanced exposure, but that's a personal taste thing. It's a good trick to have in your tool bag though.

Sweet car.

 

Here is something I did using Lightroom:

before


after


I know it's a boring picture, but any cc is appreciated on pp.

 

this is a great thread guys. i have one question for you sixsixfour, what did you use for PP your photos? your photos looks lot sharper and detailed after PP. If you use CS2, what feature(s) you use? i am a novice photographer and although i managed to get my hands on a PS CS2, i found it very difficult to use/understand. I admit I have not spend much time with it yet..

 

i use a combination of curves, contrast and saturation. I play around with them until I get the desired "feel" I have on all of my photos. it involves a lot of trial and error, and it took me a long time to find my style and actually stick to it.

my advice would be to find out what aspect of your photo do you want to stand out most. with that in mind, start playing around with the settings in CS2 until you *like what you see*. that *thing* is going to be your style. all you then do is refine it each time you shoot and your pictures will have a certain look to them that only you can do

good luck

 

I just started playing w/ CS2 a while ago. I think my pictures come out a little fake looking, but I kind of like that for landscapes. I'm curious how they look on other monitors because i know mine isn't calibrated at all, and all I have is my 12" laptop.
here's just a few examples
before

after


This next one i know looks too fake for my taste, but I didn't like the original picture at all. I forget why I even bothered to try and salvage it. Also I think now that I look at it, it could've used a bit of a cropping, but I dunno, I'm still learning.
before

after


I want to try out HDR, but I think I would need a tripod first

 

Well, I tried LightRoom out. Even though I have only used it once, I really like it. So like always C&C welcome. If you don't think it's good, tell me why. I need the help.

Before


After

 

^^ I like what you did with that shot. The WB correction went really well, you got some good contrast going, and you ended up with a nice, unconventional, and informal portrait.

 

Yeah after looking at it for a while I do think it might be too bright. I looked a the color of the MDX in the garage and it's alittle darker. I will see if I can tweak it a little more.


I really like your style. The only thing I see might be a problem with these pics are with the areas that are blown out, especially the last two pics. The front bumper is a tad too bright. I also agree that the last one might be over saturated. Still they are very pleasing to look at. To me atleast.


I like what you did with the photo. It might be alittle too dark but it makes the photo much more interesting than the before shot. I think you did a good job bringing out the details. I really like what you did. Whether or not it's the right thing to do, I don't know. My eye is not quite experienced. I probably would have done the same.


Both photos look pretty good on my monitor. It's calibrated but I wouldn't be able to tell you if it is properly calibrated. I really like the first photo. I think it was done very well. The last one looks almost like it's HDR and on the fake side. Still I like it.


I agree srika. It looks like you processed it very well. I don't see how it could be any better without doing some retouching (like whitening the teeth and eyes). It looks great.

Anyway, I just want to say that I made some comments on here where everything is based on my own perception. I am not one bit the most experienced at post processing (hence why I started the thread). I hope people who are more experienced can come here and point out anything that I might have said that might mislead anyone. One thing I would want is to give out the wrong accessment on someone's work. We are all looking to improve our work. I don't want to say something to make them go backwards. So please if I say something wrong, point it out.

 

just threw this together real quick to give ppl an idea. Took about 1 min. Just a matter of taste in color and sharpness:

original:


Lightroom:

 

 

 

 

 

nice post processing rimz. Is that using HDR and multi exposure shots?

 

no, each post-processed pic was made from one image (the before pic)...

i used photomatix pro then finished it up with photoshop...

and thanks...

 

Interesting stuff Rimz. I particularly like the 2nd and last conversions

 

Looks AMAZING dude.

 

your pic of the front quarter shot is timeless

 

haha...thanks man...i'm still amazed how well that one came out...i think i've abused posting those pics around as much as i can...need to get some new ones this spring/summer...

 

I had lost my Stofen diffuser... so I fired this shot, and it only lit up her arm and hand. I was like because it looked like the shot had come out nice, except for being poorly lit. Anyways I was pretty happy with how much I was able to recover.

Original shot/after PP:



btw got another diffuser a few days ago.

 

im guessing her arm got blown out so you had to crop it out?

anyways thats cuhhraaazzzzzzzzyyy...!

 

had to brush it out.. because cropping woulda cut part of her boob and that's just . I tried a selection of everything except the lit portion but that didn't look right because brightening a dark area in PP does not give the same effect as a flash.

 

although i heard that it is better to underexpose than overexpose because if you overexpose there really isnt much you can do the save it.

i wish i had mad crazy PP skills like you.

 

yeah I don't know how you're "supposed" to do it but I *TOTALLY* prefer under vs. over. Sometimes I'll get an over shot and I just can't get it to look natural, at least as easily as I can get an under.

And the PP on the above shot wasn't too tricky - use curves to lighten from the middle without blowing out highlights, then run NR. Repeat this again about 2-3 times, and then I got the above shot - minus the brushing etc. Curves is AMAZING - you can use it to fix lighting in pretty much any shot. I could have run color correction on the shot but I chose not to - I thought it looked more natural without it.

 

oops... I was wrong... I hadn't even tried color correction...



goes to show, PP is a job that is never done. :P

 

Spectacular female.

 

I took some images from a Winter trip and started fooling around with Matt Kloskowski's "Surreal Edgy Look" Lightroom presets. These presets are definitely not for every image in your LR catalog. For some though, these presets can take completely meh frames and make them pretty exciting. At least I think so.

1024 versions available at the Flickr set if you're interested.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billiam...7604788976867/

 

One more with the "Surreal Edgy Look" preset. I think it ended up with a great abstract painterly quality to it so I decided to post the 1024 version.

 

pretty cool man!

 

Can someone help me with a picture? Im terrible at processing and this is the only picture I have of my grandfather.

He just passed away yesterday (he was 95) and this picture was just taken only a few months ago. So i would like it cleaned up as much as possible and get it printed. I know its blurry but its all i have to work with.

Please dont make fun of how he looks, he was sick in the picture.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2396/...de037262_o.jpg

 

Take a look at this attempt. I just did a crop to eliminate some of the distracting elements, brightened it in levels and sharpened it. Nothing dramatic, but it looks a bit better. Someone else may be able to do more with layers. Let me know if you want me to e-mail the full res version:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2727380...42701/sizes/l/

 

Here is my attempt...
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/2468430429/" title="Sellout's grandpa copy.jpg by wndrlst, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2291/2468430429_7ed657fbf0_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Sellout's grandpa copy.jpg" /></a>




I'm sorry about your grandpa.

 

^^Your skin tones are better. I completely spaced on white balance.

 

Oh wow thanks guys!!

 

If you have a specific print size in mind, the shot can be cropped to that size, 5x7, 8x10, etc. That'll save you from having to chop out even more when you go to print it. Your granddad looked like a nice man.

 

Im looking for a 8x10 print.
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=805803

My grandfather would be proud that I found a good deal.

Unless anyone know of another service that is better than Walgreens.

 

True - mine is currently cropped for 4x6, but it would be a simple matter to recrop & redo the levels, since most of the processing was in Camera Raw.


Thanks. I actually desaturated the greens, oranges, & reds a bit even after changing the white balance. That fluorescent light threw a lot of green on the skin - I couldn't get rid of it completely without making the skin tones look totally unnatural.

 

I took wndrlst's version and just got rid of some more the yellow/green hues going on in the photo.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/86064761@N00/2468669165/" title="2468430429_7ed657fbf0_b_2 by graphicvision1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2221/2468669165_ee410a555a.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="2468430429_7ed657fbf0_b_2" /></a>

I also recropped it so that it's saved at 8"x10" at 100dpi. Here's the link for the full size image:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2221/...cb6f96c9_o.jpg

 

original EXIF:
NIKON D70
JPG
Focal Length 18mm
F/7.1
1/25 sec
don't see the ISO for some reason..