Lighting? setting? contrast? lens? what is it?

[DarkHorse]

While surfing through this great site, looking at diffrent photos,
i see some that look "flat"
then i see some that look "glossy"

almost like when i use Digital Photo Pro, with my raw pics, going to "liniar" from standard,

is it the prossesing, the lens or what??

i cant seem to get that "crisp-glossy" look

[zepp]

Examples?

[DarkHorse]

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ght=70-300+zoo

this link shows the example of the "glossy" look i see,

then theres the flat dull look,
almost like the old days using glossy or semi-gloss paper,

[DarkHorse]

Originally Posted by DarkHorse

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ght=70-300+zoo

this link shows the example of the "glossy" look i see,

then theres the flat dull look,
almost like the old days using glossy or semi-gloss paper,

to me my shot here i took this morning if flat, dull,
missing the "glossy-look"

johnp

[Peruna]

Adjusting contrast, saturation and/or vibrance (if using Lightroom) will give more pop to your photographs.

Personally I like the "dull" example.

[The Philos]

Using a curves adjustment layer with a slight S-curve and a little tweak in white point and saturation bump would increase the contrast.

[DarkHorse]

all i have is the Digital Photo Profesional, and an old photoshop 6

i think the right word im looking for is the "vivid" colors i see,

i dont seem to get them straight off the camera, might be the crappy 28-80 lens or me,
im using a new Xti by the way,
and i shoot raw+jpeg

[DarkHorse]

if any of you want to re-do my pic for a comparison, please do,

[Peruna]

You can adjust contrast and saturation settings in your camera. Mess around with those until you get the look you like right out of the camera.

[DarkHorse]

Originally Posted by Peruna

You can adjust contrast and saturation settings in your camera. Mess around with those until you get the look you like right out of the camera.

thanks, ill try it,

[The Philos]

Originally Posted by DarkHorse

if any of you want to re-do my pic for a comparison, please do,

This might be over-the-top for you:

[Arnor]

Hi John,

Here is my edit. This is Photoshop edit only. In DPP you can open the raw image in the edtor, hit Ctrl-T to get the tool palette and there you can make adjustments to the photo in the raw state and then transfer it to photoshop (Alt-P).

I used a levels layer to lighten the photo (midlevel to 0.83), a hue/sat layer to increase the saturation by 20. I then used a curves layer to create an S-curve to increase the contrast (1. input point 176, output 202 2. input point 71, output 55). I also increased the blue color a bit by using input point 121 and output 132.

I use Photoshop CS (I also have CS3) but I think you could do all of this in version 6 (I think I have 7 on some machine somewhere, but can't find it<g>)



Best regards,

[Arnor]

John,

Forgot: When you have the saturation and contrast to where you want it, you can always go back to the levels layer and adjust the brightness. This is one reason why I like keeping the levels and curves separate. Curves can do anything that levels can do, just different interface. I like both, so I generally use both:) I use an action to add those layers and then use a shortcut key to run the action. Since I use this for just about every photo I process it makes it quicker to access:)

Best regards,

[Duffy Pratt]

Here's another edit: I moved to LAB, set a white point and black point. Then steepened curves in A and B channel pretty severely. Took less than a minute, and can easily be done in PS 6.

Duffy

[johnastovall]

You'll never get the crisp glossy look on a monitor. You have to print to get that on a high quality ink jet printer with good color managment and the right paper and then you can do as good or better than a wet darkroom print.

Is your monitor calibrated even?