Looking for some prossesing help, please,

[DarkHorse]

O,K, first, i was advised to play with my camera(XTi) settings untill i got one that i liked
heres what ive got my custom settings at,

i shoot "RAW"

contrast-1
sharpness-4
color saturation-1
color tone-0

i leave the camera to A/W balance good or bad---?

now after shooting i plug into my laptop, and use Digital Photo Professional,
i click on a raw pic and open the tool pallate,

in the "RAW" tab,

1-i usauly take and move the "LEFT" bar-slider to the right till its on the graph,
2-then i play with the white balance adjustments,
3-then ill play with the contrast,color tone,satuation,sharpness,

convert and save,

open photoshop7
resize
save

AM I DOING THIS RIGHT??

yesterday i went to RGB, tab in DDP instead of "RAW"
with a bird pic,

and it came out looking better, i thought,

theres so many ways to do everything i get confused,

ive just doing a convert and save, in DPP
and then going to photoshop7

but when i get paying around i get lost, dont know what to do first,

IN PHOTSHOP
is there a standard way of steps to making adjustments,?

1-open the pic,,,duh,,
2-
3-
ect,,,,


I usauly bracket my shots,
but when i forget how do you - or + your evposure level,?

sorry this is so long,
but thanks for anybody who responds,

heres my pic from yesterday i played with, if you want to beat me up,,
ill listen,

the cropped one is the one i tweaked, but still feel im lacking something compared to thers pics here i see, vibrace-pop-3-D, something,

thanks
johnp

anybody close to crowley who wants to come over and give me some instructions,??
ill provide LUNCH, and ive got horses to shoot,

[Duffy Pratt]

A few things:

If you are shooting RAW, then your in camera settings have only a limited impact on what you are doing -- they are all completely changeable by the RAW processor. DPP will apply the in camera settings as defauts, if that's what you want. (Actually I think it does apply them unless you have set other defaults.) That applies to white balance as well.

So, you can't do anything wrong with the in camera settings if you are shooting RAW. The best you can do is save yourself processing time.

I"m not that familiar with DPP, but here is the basic order you want to take in RAW processing:

White Balance
White Point (Exposure)
Black Point (not sure what this is called but it is an overall darkener)
Gamma-Brightness.
Contrast
Saturation
Contrast

I'm leaving out shadow and highlight recovery because I don't think they exist in DPP. From your basic description, it sounds like you are doing things pretty much as I would. Whether its right or not depends only on two things: the final outcome, and whether the time involved to get to that outcome hinders you. If you get satisfying results in an acceptable amount of time, then you are doing it right. And no matter how good you get, there will always be more to learn/discover about image manipulation.

Do a google search on DPP Tutorials. I learned the basics about it a while ago from a tutorial made by Canon, I think.

Also, there are other things that you might ultimately want to do with PS. The learning curve is pretty steep, both on RAW processing and on PS, but if you like tinkering its well worth it.

Duffy

[DarkHorse]

Thank you,
very much,

[rwwright]

i shoot raw also but the camera contrast, saturation, sharpness etc are set to 0. i then do my processing much like Duffy using some different tools. I like lightroom as first stop to catagorize each photo and catalog it. And then to determine which photos are worth my time processing. )not a large percentage). Sometimes I process in lightroom for the initial steps and go to cs3 to finish up, sometimes I just go straight to cs3.

One comment. I Never sharpen at all in the processing stage (except a test just to see how it looks). I do my sharpening when I determine the output, ie print, jpg, web, etc.

[Duffy Pratt]

Some people do sharpening in two steps, based on the research and advice of Bruce Fraser. The first sharpen, which is done early, is designed to get rid of the effects of the mosaic algorithm. He calls it a capture sharpen. I think the idea is that this step is device dependent, and the amount that one needs for this sharpening does not vary on an image to image basis, so long as the images are from the same camera. (There might be some variation based on camera settings. I don't recall).

Then there is output sharpening, which depends on a host of factors. This would be a last step before sending the image to its target device, whether printer or monitor.

Finally, in some pictures, there might be a need for creative sharpening. This would include stuff like making jewelry really sparkly, or isolating a sharpen on a catch light in the eye, etc...

For the RAW processing, the only thing you might want to consider at this point is the capture sharpen. I don't do it, and I haven't noticed any big difference. But Bruce Fraser recommends it, and I don't disregard his advice very lightly. At some point, I expect to buy the Photokit Sharpening plug-in. But for now, I'm still toying with USM and Smart Sharpen.

Duffy

[Donb10]

John:

Hang in there, your getting better each time. Time is what it takes with photoshop. I think the possibilities with this program are endless and the learning curve is steep. Just keep reading anything you can find on the net about post processing, take notes and printout tutorials you think will help.

I like you bird photo. I picked up a canon 400mm f5.6 several weeks ago but the weather here has been to bad and my dog won't let the birds land for very long.

Hope you don't mind, I lightened your photos of the bird using a process from a book by Katrin Eisman "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching". I used her tutorial and made it into an action. It basically makes a selection of the luminosity channel, this selection is then inverted and the blending mode is changed to "screen" which make the darker parts of the photo lighter. The results are adjustable using the opacity slider. I then added a little saturation to the colors via the channel mixer, and then added contrast using the high pass filter.

[DarkHorse]

WOW,,

johnp

Originally Posted by Donb10

John:

Hang in there, your getting better each time. Time is what it takes with photoshop. I think the possibilities with this program are endless and the learning curve is steep. Just keep reading anything you can find on the net about post processing, take notes and printout tutorials you think will help.

I like you bird photo. I picked up a canon 400mm f5.6 several weeks ago but the weather here has been to bad and my dog won't let the birds land for very long.

Hope you don't mind, I lightened your photos of the bird using a process from a book by Katrin Eisman "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching". I used her tutorial and made it into an action. It basically makes a selection of the luminosity channel, this selection is then inverted and the blending mode is changed to "screen" which make the darker parts of the photo lighter. The results are adjustable using the opacity slider. I then added a little saturation to the colors via the channel mixer, and then added contrast using the high pass filter.