Editing advice

[MiniDiva]

Hi guys & girls

I've been lurking on this forum for a little while, and I have to say it's an ace place for inspiration and information, so thanks for that for starters!! I got my first DSLR in January, since then have bought 2 lenses and now can't stop thinking about photography wherever I go!

I thought I'd start a post as I am looking for any advice on post production editing. I'm not looking to do anything very advanced (for now) but I just want to make tweaks to make my photos pop and make them more vibrant, and I guess develop my own 'look' in time.

I have PS elements 9 and am finding my way around it a little, learning what can be done and how, but the things is I'm just struggling to compute what I need to do to my photos to make them better, I kind of look at them and draw a blank. I am sure it will come with time, but are there any basic thought processes to follow??

At the moment I am just processing the photos in canon digital photo professional to tweak the contrast/saturation/brightness/crop etc which is quite easy, but then I have this amazing tool that I don't know when to use to make things even better. Silly huh!

Anyway, here are a couple of piccies taken recently that I would appreciate any advice on what you would do to improve them (either in PSE or by re-taking, or just leave alone). Any other critique welcome.

I am possibly trying to learn too much too quickly, or have high expectations of myself, so a dose of patience might also help!!


big cheese by MiniDiva, on Flickr


playing with the boat trailer by MiniDiva, on Flickr


beech by MiniDiva, on Flickr


DPP_0218 by MiniDiva, on Flickr


DPP_02132 by MiniDiva, on Flickr

Thanks peeps

[andy-xr]

I think you've hit a nice balance in your PP so far. Depending on how far you want to go with it, I'd look at setting black, white and grey points using curves layers, or levels if your version of PS doesnt have curves (I can never remember whats in or out on Elements)

One to look at at some point would be sharpening for resized images, although it's something I dont always do a lot of people swear by it

Nice photos

[MiniDiva]

Thanks Andy, I'll have a tinker. There is some curves stuff in pse that I looked at briefly, adjustment via different sliders rather than being able to drag the curves around.
Layers are the biggest mystery for me at the moment. I am usually pretty good at picking stuff up, but layers baffle me and make me feel a bit thick! I'll get there eventually but the logic hasn't sunk in yet, but it will I'm sure!!

[mcflurry]

MiniDiva said:

Layers are the biggest mystery for me at the moment. I am usually pretty good at picking stuff up, but layers baffle me and make me feel a bit thick! I'll get there eventually but the logic hasn't sunk in yet, but it will I'm sure!!

Imagine each layer is like tracing / clear paper.
You can do stuff on each piece of paper, then put them all together at the end to get your image

It's masks that get me

[andy-xr]

mcflurry said:

It's masks that get me

Quick mask and inverted layer masks are part and parcel of anything I do at the moment! They're really cool when you want to be selective in what you're changing rather than having a global approach - adjustment layers especially with curves. Although they can move the histogram around a lot if you're brutal. Best bet is to have a play, check out different blending modes as well, dont just leave it on normal

Edited by andy-xr on Wednesday 27th April 01:13