studio processing

donkeymusic

donkeymusic

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Name
Carlo
Edit My Images
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hi just looking for some advise on post studio processing.

do you still change curves etc.? how can i make my images stand out?

other than sharpening eyes and smoothing skin close ups or head shots what would you do on mid shots or group shots?

all very random but trying to get some ideas to work with

thanks
 
Show us some :)
 
THe images look over exposed so will be tough to edit. You can't just "turn up till it looks right" - Never use the back of the camera - use a light meter to properly measure the light falling on your subjects.

Some look a bit out of focus too.

To make them pop, get the exposures right (I take it you shot RAW)? If so you should be able to rescue.

THen you can look to add some contrast and saturation to make them pop a bit.

Watch for the spill from the background which is hitting your subjects head in some making one side too bright.
 
Hi,

thanks for your reply.

i used a light meter to set the subject at f8. if its a hilite how would i use a light meter to get the correct setting?

i think they are overexposed due to having two jessops lights mounted low to light the hilite train and also giving the spill of light

i did shoot in raw, could you guide me in changes i could make to rescue them?

thanks for any help offered.
 
donkeymusic said:
Hi,

thanks for your reply.

i used a light meter to set the subject at f8. if its a hilite how would i use a light meter to get the correct setting?

i think they are overexposed due to having two jessops lights mounted low to light the hilite train and also giving the spill of light

i did shoot in raw, could you guide me in changes i could make to rescue them?

thanks for any help offered.
Click to expand...

Hold the meter facing the hilite and set to somewhere between f11 and f16. Check your histogram and you want the pixels just about to clip. Many prefer a lot of clipping - totally blowing the background buit you end up with what you have - a lot of light bouncing back and affecting the exposure on your subject. Keep wrap to a minimum.
 
EOS_JD said:
Hold the meter facing the hilite and set to somewhere between f11 and f16. Check your histogram and you want the pixels just about to clip. Many prefer a lot of clipping - totally blowing the background buit you end up with what you have - a lot of light bouncing back and affecting the exposure on your subject. Keep wrap to a minimum.
Click to expand...

ah i had not been testing the background at all, okay something else for me to try.

although i was doing it wrong, what i did try was reducing the power of the light in the hilite and move this up a step each time, two steps down from what i used with these images, was creating shadows on the lastolite as not enough light was coming from behind.
 
You don't want light coming from behind though! What you need to address is the light placement and height.

With the vinyl floor, it's very difficult to get the floor white straight out of the camera. But very easy to fix.

Here's a couple of mine.

Before
Original4.jpg


After (a 20 second job)
Edit6.jpg
 
EOS_JD said:
You don't want light coming from behind though! What you need to address is the light placement and height.

With the vinyl floor, it's very difficult to get the floor white straight out of the camera. But very easy to fix.

Here's a couple of mine.

Before
Original4.jpg


After (a 20 second job)
Edit6.jpg
Click to expand...

thats the quick fix i was looking for advice on for the time being until i can work on the lights
 
What software are you using?
 
Very simple to do in both :)

In lightroom I use the Auto Mask feature. Go to the adjustment brush and add about 1-2 stops of exposure. With a large soft brush paint over the white floor being careful the centre of the brush stays on the white/grey area. This will only affect that colour/area ot the image and the subject won't be affected.

In Ps yuo can make a magic selection of the greay and white areas, feather it by say 6-8 pixels and in levels press the alt key and move the white triangle left until most of the grey turns white. I like to leave a hint of shadow so the subjects don't look like they are floating in mid air!
 
EOS_JD said:
Very simple to do in both :)

In lightroom I use the Auto Mask feature. Go to the adjustment brush and add about 1-2 stops of exposure. With a large soft brush paint over the white floor being careful the centre of the brush stays on the white/grey area. This will only affect that colour/area ot the image and the subject won't be affected.

In Ps yuo can make a magic selection of the greay and white areas, feather it by say 6-8 pixels and in levels press the alt key and move the white triangle left until most of the grey turns white. I like to leave a hint of shadow so the subjects don't look like they are floating in mid air!
Click to expand...

thanks will have a go of that tomorrow, thanks for you help tonight but off to bed now, cheers
 
No worries :)
 
EOS_JD said:
THe images look over exposed so will be tough to edit. You can't just "turn up till it looks right" - Never use the back of the camera - use a light meter to properly measure the light falling on your subjects.

Some look a bit out of focus too.

To make them pop, get the exposures right (I take it you shot RAW)? If so you should be able to rescue.

THen you can look to add some contrast and saturation to make them pop a bit.

Watch for the spill from the background which is hitting your subjects head in some making one side too bright.
Click to expand...

Looked at this again today, and there wasnt spill from the background, what it was, i had two flashes positioned low level to try and light the train, didnt realise the power at the time, but they were also lighting the subject therefore making it look like there was spill for the background, have tried more today without these flashes.
 
Can you post them :)?
 
EOS_JD said:
Very simple to do in both :)

In lightroom I use the Auto Mask feature. Go to the adjustment brush and add about 1-2 stops of exposure. With a large soft brush paint over the white floor being careful the centre of the brush stays on the white/grey area. This will only affect that colour/area ot the image and the subject won't be affected.

In Ps yuo can make a magic selection of the greay and white areas, feather it by say 6-8 pixels and in levels press the alt key and move the white triangle left until most of the grey turns white. I like to leave a hint of shadow so the subjects don't look like they are floating in mid air!
Click to expand...

just tried this in photoshop, have selected magic wand but cant see option for feather, got tolerance, if i set this 6-8 it doesnt select all the gray background.

What i have just tried is replace colour, and altering the lightness, then i had white background and was able to use a white brucsh to touch up other parts. still dont think its the best method for me though
 
What version? CS4 it's under Select>Modify

Remember to hold the shift key and click in a number of places. Holding shift adds to your selection. Might take a few more clicks to get the selection. Then feather it with a decent sized feather.
 
In lightroom, select the tick box for Auto Mask and then the adjustment brush set to +2.

Now keeping the centre crosshair off the subject just paint over the grey area with a nice large soft brush. the subject will not be affected so long as the crosshair remains on the background.

Takes a few seconds or.....

In Ps, with the select tool , shift click the background until what you require is selected. Select>Mofify>Feather and select say 8-12pixels for a high res image. Now do a levels adjustment layer and move the white (highlight) triangle to the left until your grey background is white with a soft shadow on the floor. If there is any affect on your subject, you can paint white on your mask with a small soft brush to recover what you need.

JD
 
EOS_JD said:
In lightroom, select the tick box for Auto Mask and then the adjustment brush set to +2.

Now keeping the centre crosshair off the subject just paint over the grey area with a nice large soft brush. the subject will not be affected so long as the crosshair remains on the background.

Takes a few seconds or.....

In Ps, with the select tool , shift click the background until what you require is selected. Select>Mofify>Feather and select say 8-12pixels for a high res image. Now do a levels adjustment layer and move the white (highlight) triangle to the left until your grey background is white with a soft shadow on the floor. If there is any affect on your subject, you can paint white on your mask with a small soft brush to recover what you need.

JD
Click to expand...

cheers will have a look at that, thanks
 
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