BajaNomad - Photo editing pointers for posting?

Photo editing pointers for posting?

gringorio - 2-27-2008 at 08:56 AM

Since it seems that I can never get the perfect exposure I usually do a few things in Photoshop to photos I intend to post online. Using the full resolution/size photo (say 3000 by 2000) I first:

1) Adjust brightness/contrast

2) Adjust hue/saturation

3) Crop if necessary

4) Then I use the 'sharpen' function

Then I reduce the photo to about 600 by 400 and use the 'sharpen' function once again and then save that copy of the photo (Remember to save your original!). Some photos don't look good after this second sharpen, you just have to see how it looks.

Lately I've been saving edited photos at about 3-400 kb's and hosting them at Photobucket so I can then post sharper, better resolution photos here on Nomad and the photography oriented Baja Trekker that limit photo postings to around 50kb's each.

There are also similar things you can do with the settings on your camera, such as adjusting sharpness and color settings…

Anyone else have some good photo edit pointers to share or things not to do?

greg :bounce:

BMG - 2-27-2008 at 09:11 AM

I prefer to save the photos in a little larger size. Most of the time I size them to 12" (864) on the largest dimension.

Ken Bondy - 2-27-2008 at 02:00 PM

Terrific gull Greg!! Beautiful flower BMG!!
++Ken++

DianaT - 2-27-2008 at 02:19 PM

Thanks for the tips---and both those are quite wonderful photos. Now, if anyone else posts more tips, we may get to see some more great photos---- :yes:

Diane

BigWooo - 2-27-2008 at 02:33 PM

I shoot in RAW format and do the jpeg conversion in photoshop. For some reason the colors seem a little more natural that way.

I almost always have to tweak some setting on the photo to get it right. I usually wind up changing the midtone contrast a bit and/or darken/lighten the highlights. I almost always have to sharpen a bit more after reducing.

Glad to see I'm not the only one that constantly has to "fix" my pictures.

tripledigitken - 2-27-2008 at 02:39 PM

Gringorio,

Have you tried adjusting the exposure compensation on your camera? I have a Nikon D80 and it is on top of the camera body and after fooling with it I have got it so the exposure is correct most of the time (-.7 fyi). The sharpness settings and saturation I leave alone.

I also find adjusting for contrast usually is an improvement (in photoshop), but seldom fool with saturation as the Nikon produces pretty vivid colors right out of the camera.

I really enjoy the photos you post.

Ken

[Edited on 2-27-2008 by tripledigitken]

Osprey - 2-27-2008 at 02:42 PM

I fix all of mine. Incredimail lets me stretch my holding the fish photos in my Emails (which is real handy don'tcha know). makes me look a little chato but who cares, those are the longest fish evvvvver.

gringorio - 2-27-2008 at 07:05 PM

Hey Ken,

yeah, I just learned about that function on our last Baja trip - very useful! So now I just need more practice under varied light conditions ... preferably in Baja!

Any other tips out there? :yes:

Quote:

Originally posted by tripledigitken
Gringorio,

Have you tried adjusting the exposure compensation on your camera? I have a Nikon D80 and it is on top of the camera body and after fooling with it I have got it so the exposure is correct most of the time (-.7 fyi). The sharpness settings and saturation I leave alone.

I also find adjusting for contrast usually is an improvement (in photoshop), but seldom fool with saturation as the Nikon produces pretty vivid colors right out of the camera.

I really enjoy the photos you post.

Ken

[Edited on 2-27-2008 by tripledigitken]

Cardon - 2-27-2008 at 08:02 PM

I have a few photoshop tutorials on my blog. The tutorials are all video tutorials so its easy to watch and learn. When you get to the blog click on the Photoshop Tutorials and watch the Levels Adjustment tip especially. The levels adjustment can really make your images pop!!
http://craigstutorials.com/blog/

http://craigstutorials.com/blog/

Keep posting pictures.

shari - 2-27-2008 at 08:14 PM

I have a funny photoshop story...my sister in law is um....rather plump...and in a family photo...actually they are all kinda rotund...well I played with the scewer and stretch thingy and made them all a bit thinner....they LOVED the picture!!! and now folks come to me for tweaked photos...they know I can make them look younger...thinner...improve complection etc....even darken gray hair!

Natalie Ann - 2-27-2008 at 08:50 PM

I'm a purist... use the color level thingie, perhaps contrast a bit, sometimes an unsharp mask if I'm going to resize. Agree that working from the RAW image and then changing to jpg at the end provides best color and clarity.

Oh yeah, I do love that crop tool.... all my photo frames have to be custom made. :yes:

Nena

Roberto - 2-27-2008 at 08:57 PM

Here's the take of a professional photographer who takes LOTS of pictures. A little controversial, but common sense. It's like anything in the arts, there are those that focus on technique, and those that focus on content. Then again we're talking about pictures on a website here, where virtually ALL the monitors of the viewers will not be calibrated.

Enjoy.

http://kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm

Natalie Ann - 2-27-2008 at 09:07 PM

Oh yeah, that's the one other thing I do... calibrate my monitor. But the pro photog is correct, I don't know of anyone else who bothers with this. I like it because calibration seems to give me image colors on MY monitor which closely match the colors I saw when taking the picture.

Nena

Roberto - 2-27-2008 at 09:19 PM

I use the older version of this:
http://www.colorvision.com/product-mc-s3pro.php

Here's another article you might enjoy.

http://kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm

[Edited on 2-28-2008 by Roberto]

BMG - 2-27-2008 at 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by morgaine7

Quote:

Originally posted by BMG
I prefer to save the photos in a little larger size. Most of the time I size them to 12" (864) on the largest dimension.

Unfortunately, that's too big for the forum page layout, makes the lines of text really looooong on the entire page, and forces your avid fans to resize their windows if they aren't maximized. Gringorio's size is perfect, IMO.
You're forgiven, though. :lol:

Nice flower pic!

Kate

Kate,

That is the size that I save on my computer and website for viewing. Most people I know have at least a 12" monitor so the pictures don't usually exceed the screen width. Using a smaller screen with the left side forum frame does stretch it a bit on my old laptop (w/15" screen) but not enough to use the bottom scroll bar. On smaller laptop I see how this could be an issue. When I post a photo using the attachment option I usually reduce the photo to 8.5" on the longest dimension to get it below the 50k max.

Steve

I LIKE TURTLES!.....

Sharksbaja - 2-27-2008 at 09:59 PM

....and fungus too.

Actually I like fungus more. I only crop my fotos if necessary. I've tweaked many pics but they are usually composites or fun stuff. I will take multiple shots with different camera settings if that little tiny LCD image doesn't look good when I review.

I agree, that different monitors deliver a different picture, bigtime.

btw, if this photo looks crappy because of resizing it I may just DELETE IT! :lol:

Skipjack Joe - 2-27-2008 at 10:54 PM

Has anyone converted a JPG file to RAW successfully?

I thought I'd try to see if indeed there is no resolution lost during the compression. Photoshop really messed up the image during the conversion (the decompression) back to RAW.

BMG - 2-27-2008 at 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by morgaine7 The forum page layout is 750 pixels wide, with 600 allocated to the message cell, but that width isn't fixed.
Kate

I guess you're over my head now. The seagull pic is 650 px wide. Does it stretch your screen?

BMG - 2-28-2008 at 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by morgaine7

Quote:

Originally posted by BMG
The seagull pic is 650 px wide. Does it stretch your screen?

Can't tell because the page is already stretched, but if it did, it wasn't noticeable at the time (when it was the only post). Anyhow, I found some earlier threads where the issue was discussed, along with other suggestions for image editing:
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=23465
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=25033

Kate

I think it's finally sunk in. Thanks for the links Kate.

One problem with my earlier recommendations is that I was saying how I save photos on my computer. I like the 12" size for later personal viewing versus the smaller size. I also use the larger sized photo on our website but that is for merchandise and always thumbnailed so a customer has to click to see the larger photo.

I now realize that I didn't respond correctly to the original question about resizing photos for "posting". This does bring up a problem for me though. I quite often link to photos either on my website or use Photobucket and all are resized to my 12" standard. I was never aware that it caused problems for other Nomads. Oh well, no more linking photos for me.

Steve

Levels adjustment

Skipjack Joe - 2-28-2008 at 09:57 AM

This is the best thing I've found in photoshop and I'm grateful to Natalie Ann for telling me about it.

This feature changes the tone spectrum in an image. It can make a picture shot in the shade have the same luminiscence as one in the sunlight. It does it in a way that you can't accomplish with the contrast and brightness adjustments. It's way better.

Levels is related to Ansel Adam's Zone System in photography. In my opinion they should have named them zones in honor of the man. Briefly, A.A. came up with 10 tone zones a black and white photograph could have, ranging from total white to complete black. AA believed that a good image should have the total range of tones with some jet black parts and total white.

However, this can seldom be achieved due to lighting conditions. An image taken on an overcast day might have only 5 zones. The same is true of one taken in shadows. AA found a way to overcome this by developing the film longer or shorter in its bath. By doing this he could make a 5 zone image into a 7 zone image. He called this N+2 development. The results were remarkable. A drab, muddy looking image would become alive. It wasn't just technical mastery. The emotion a picture conveyed just changed completely. AA got so good at it that he would take uninspiring picture fully knowing how he would transform them into great gallery pictures. He called that previsualization.

Levels does the same thing. When you have a histogram that's bunched up in the middle you have an image with a narrow range of tones. If you move the right and left arrows to the boundaries of the histograms you are telling photoshop to essentially make that section be fully black or white and make all the information in between the two use up the full spectrum of tones.

Try it. You'll like it.

I hope I haven't bored you with being too technical.

Many contemporary photographers knew about AA's zone system but chose to just shoot as they were being moved. I've seen images that were almost totally white that are very moving, so AA's conclusions are not universal.

Generally speaking though, every image can be somewhat improved by tweeking the levels adjustments. Cardon's images show how much this can alter an image.