Where to start?

The goblin

The goblin

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Name
Marsha
Edit My Images
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Hi, I want to start learning about basic image processing but haven't a clue where to start. I always shoot in both JPEG and Raw but until now have just squirrelled all my raw images away in a file on my pc!

I have Adobe CS5 and can just about do very basic stuff like cropping!

Where do you start?

I would very much appreciate some basic tips on areas where I need to focus on initially, I'm happy to search for tutorials and use the Adobe help once I know where to look!

Thanks in advance.
 
It is difficult to answer this as I don't know what you want to do with your processing - changing colour, cutting things out, retouching etc.

Post and image and say what you would like to do to it to give anyone answering an idea, or alternatively join in the "how would you edit this photo" thread and just experiment with it and post your best version up. I think everyone who has been taking part in this has learnt new skills, the current image is a snow scene which has to be finished by Friday sometime :)
 
Might be useful if you could have a look at lightroom. I've found it a lot easier to cope with that photoshop, at least for the limited post processing I do.

A free 30 days trail is available on Adobe's website.

There is also loads of videos on adobe's site, as well as youtube and kelbytv.com.
 
I guess my initial issue is sharpening images up. I read an article (I think in Practical Photography) that talked about raw images being quite dull until they're tweaked. It made it sound like all raw images need at least some basic editing as a matter of course!

How is the best way to post an image here? Is it best through Flickr and should I post the full size file? Resizing causes me issues too!
 
Cheers for the link, I'll take a look. And at that book too.

So a friend wants me to take some photos of her cakes for a website. Thanks to the DSLR bootcamp I've discovered how to make a white back ground white, although some of my photos still have areas that are grey.

How is the best way to deal with this?

I will post a photo, honest!
 
Here are a few test shots, taken purely for lighting practice!

1.


2.


Now I know these are not cakes, my friends sells cakepops (cakes on a stick) so I wanted to just shoot something stick like to practice! The light was pretty poor today so I couldn't blow the background out completely.
 
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The goblin said:
The light was pretty poor today so I couldn't blow the background out completely.
Click to expand...

The general idea is to have total control over the light- i.e. to use flash, or some other form of controllable lighting. You can't really rely on the sun for shots like these.

The camera will always try and turn a white into a gray, so you have to force the camera to do what it's programmed not to do (not to overexpose), so you dial in +1ev of exposure compensation to keep the background white. If you don't want to invest in lighting, then try to shoot at a time where the lighting is strong enough to blow out the background. Set up on a tripod and take one shot with the background white, and then another with however much negative exposure compensation is needed to render the object correctly. Then combine the 2 images in photoshop.
 
Yep I've just learnt about exposure compensation, I have taken lots of photos tweaking the settings.

mrjames said:
Then combine the 2 images in photoshop.
Click to expand...

How would you do this? I've had a quick look at HDR on CS5 but wasn't sure on the settings, plus the final image has a ghosting effect on it!
 
The goblin said:
Here are a few test shots, taken purely for lighting practice!

...

Now I know these are not cakes, my friends sells cakepops (cakes on a stick) so I wanted to just shoot something stick like to practice! The light was pretty poor today so I couldn't blow the background out completely.
Click to expand...

You should really try to get the lighting right when you're shooting, will save you lots of time in post. That said, there are a quite a few ways to fix the uneven background. Any method will more than likely involve the use of layer masks.

You don't even need to take two images like mrjames suggested, you can just process the same RAW file in two different ways - one exposed for subject, one for background. To combine them in Photoshop, you would stack them and then use a layer mask to selectively hide/reveal parts of the image.
 
Forget about HDR for straightforward images, get as much right as you can in camera and then for this image anyway, a quick curves layer and the maybe some light dodging of the highlights to tidy up should be sufficient

goblin1.jpg
 
nickshek said:
You should really try to get the lighting right when you're shooting
Click to expand...

I'm trying! I've learnt quite a lot recently, but clearly still a long way to go!

Kerioak said:
Forget about HDR for straightforward images, get as much right as you can in camera and then for this image anyway, a quick curves layer and the maybe some light dodging of the highlights to tidy up should be sufficient
Click to expand...

Ooooo I like that! I've heard quite a lot of talk about curve layers. This is my problem now, I don't understand the process. I think it's time to locate a course and learn properly before I annoy you lot with lots of questions!

In the mean time I'll post one of my cake photos for some ideas. (if you don't mind?)
 
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The original photo


My cropped and slightly touched up shot


The packaging shot


Here are a two photos. The first one I have cropped and removed a few issues. (I'm not very good at that yet either)
I've had a quick look at curve layers but I really haven't a clue! I am going to look at those YouTube clips in a bit!

Now the packaging shot looks really quite dark in the top right corner.

My one final question here is (I mean that) is it possible to make this image square? My friend wants to sell these cakes on a website that requires square photos! Now we did reshoot them from further away to allow for a crop but is it possible to do it with an image like this that can't be cropped?

I'm off to do some on line studying now!
 
I've been looking through the 'how would you edit this image' thread and there are some seriously amazing effects on there - ZeroCool stands out in my head as a name that repeatedly crops up, as does Stubar. How do you get to such a level with PS - I mean, is it all just playing around with different things, making mistakes and learning what does what for future reference? I've got a couple of books for using PS but I find myself getting lost in them because I find an effect I want to apply to my images but don't know how to do the basics even!
 
rowano said:
How do you get to such a level with PS - I mean, is it all just playing around with different things, making mistakes and learning what does what for future reference? I've got a couple of books for using PS but I find myself getting lost in them because I find an effect I want to apply to my images but don't know how to do the basics even!
Click to expand...

This is me exactly!

I've discovered the wonder that is content aware, but selecting the area I want is a challenge and then it leaves a little ghost edge around the item you removed, blending that out is probably very basic but I'm clueless!!!
 
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