[Maxxdem]

Hi guys,

Hereunder 2 pictures I took in/around Aalborg, Denmark. As I said in my previous post, I am new to DSLR and post processing, and I would like to have some feedback about what to do. I don't really have the "eye" yet for what to improve when the pic is on my screen.

When I look at the original pictures and processed picture in the end, I even almost see no difference

I upload 2 rather different pics, both in the original and my processed way. What would you have done differently?

Thank you already!

As shot

Processed

As shot

Processed

[Kerrowdown]

On the first image I'm seeing a wee bit of cropping all round the image, but what other type of processing do you think you have done to this image?

And the second image is really subtle if at all, now we may have lost some sharpening detail on upload, but the same question as first, the what other type of processing do you think you have done?

[atupdate]

It would be helpful to know what software you are using. That way any suggestions can be tailored to the limits of your software.

Tim

[Maxxdem]

Hello guys,

Thank you for reacting to this.

I am glad to see that I am not blind, and that the differences are not clear for you either.

What I did was, for pic 1, crop the left part and play a bit with highlights and shadows. For the second pic I mostly brightened the shadows. As I could not see a notable change and as I did not understand what the rest would do, I didn't go much further. Sorry if this is lazy!

Concerning the software, I use Lightroom.

[Bruce Clark]

Hi

The whole point of PP is to get the result you want. Most digital images can be improved by a tweak in levels, contrast and sharpening. The less the better is one way of looking at it. Unless of course you want to radically alter the image. There is nothing wrong with that to get the effect you want. Lightroom XY display easily shows the differences you are making so I work with that a lot. I find it a good idea to walk away from the computer for a while and reexamine your work. Sometimes the "Auto" function proves a good starting point.

Neither of these photos need a lot in my opinion.

Looking at the first image, apart for the obvious cropping, I would in increase contrast slightly in the sky, lighten up the building some more and more sharpening of the buildings. The Lightroom brush tools are excellent for detailed work as they can be set to recognize edges. There also seems to me to be a slight blueish colour cast so I would treat that too.. I have attached my take on it, but I must emphasise this in my interpretation.





With the second Image all I would do id try to sharpen the foreground flower some more. Careful not to overdo it.

[Ray-uk]

This is what I would have done.
Each pic had small adjustments to Crop,Levels,Saturation & unsharp mask.

[Maxxdem]

Hello Guys,

Thank you for your answers.

I did not know that you could work on a specific part of a picture, everytime I wanted to brighten up a dark part, I had to give up the colors of the sky or something like that. This is most interesting! However, as you say, I prefer to limit the post processing to a minimum, and to spend more time outside. I want my picture to show what I have seen in the shot. If some post processing is needed to make this better, good, but it has to stay the shot as I saw it.

Anyway, I like how you both gave it a go on the house, and how both pics look completely different! Also, I like the flower! How did you manage to get it so sharp and bright, without killing the background?

[Ray-uk]

Hello Guys,

I like the flower! How did you manage to get it so sharp and bright, without killing the background?

I'm using different software so I can't give you an exact answer how you can duplicate the results, but I show the workflow of each individual step below:











The adjustment at each step was made to the whole image. I would suggest that you master this sort of procedure before you try to do selective editing on parts of the image.