Images / photoshop etc

Mp4 · 15 Apr 2007 at 16:17

Everyone makes mistakes, its how we learn from them. I don’t think he will develop an ego , as Massa has already

Hi guys ,

A totally noobie question but ive been shooting a fair bit over the past week with my D400, and I have no experience with photo manipulation. I do have Photoshop CS installed what changes would be good to make to a picture?

For instance this image…

The sun was towards my top right and its affected the image (most of my images come out like this)

rpstewart · 15 Apr 2007 at 16:24

Normally you want to do as little as possible within a processing application so starting with a good base image is the best policy. For example the one you've posted has been shot almost directly into the sun so when the camera has determined the exposure for the shot the sunlight has caused it to under expose the shadows. The easiest way to get round this is to shoot with the sun at your back so that it illuminates the scene.

You might be able to recover some of the detail from that shot by tweaking the levels or using a Curve adjustment but both will introduce a fair amount on noise into the image and may not be that successful.

brocksta · 15 Apr 2007 at 18:42

As rpstewart said, best practice would be to avoid doing it in the first place. Looks live youve shot that at midday when the sun is very bright, causing harsh shadows and washed out skies. Try to either take shots in the morning or evening when the sun isnt as strong, or when it is overcast.

valve90210 · 16 Apr 2007 at 14:46

Firstly I have to agree with the first two comments, you ideally want to start with as good a picture as posisble in order that you have as little to do in Photoshop as possible.

With regards to that shot, that should be a fairly simple and fairly effective fix.

Personally I would use levels or curves adjustment layers. These are in my opinion the best way to go because you can get rid of them and tweak then easily at any stage during your work on the pic. Also, you can mask any areas that you don't want affected by the adjustment layers.

I have had to restore far worse pictures than that and use them in publications and with care and patience, this image could look very nice.

Valve