Photo Editing

[HarleyQuinn]

Was talking with CBright in chat last night about photo editing and was curious if anybody else does that/uses certain programs? I've been an advocate of Photoshop since Photoshop 4/CS and been a big fan of Lightroom for the past year when my mother turned me onto it as she uses it for work. Currently rolling with Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC courtesy of the Adobe.com website (Lightroom is $149) with paid in full for both instead of the monthly paying option.

- Photoshop I mainly utilize for cropping, copy/pasting images (usually screencaps off PowerDVD16 Ultra), and light manipulation. It's also better for fine detail editing on portraits and such. Love the Curve tool.
- Lightroom I absolutely love for the ability to play around with an image's white balance, exposure if necessary, shadows/highlights, and leveling.

Included a few very quick examples of stuff I've done below with before & afters.
Photoshop

Lightroom

 

[HSJ]

How would you suggest someone get started in learning these programs? I recently started a business and think learning how to use photoshop and other programs will be beneficial and can help me cut out going through the hassle of hiring someone to do it.

 

[vivisectvi]

Lynda.com is a great training/tutorial resource.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

What Dubq suggested. If you want quick tutorials (e.g. 10-15 minutes) on something specific Youtube is also solid since you can follow along/experiment on your own stuff if you're a visual learner.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

A very big fan of Tim Grey's stuff on Youtube as well for more of a primer on what sections do/how to use them

Also wanted to showcase how you can have some fun playing around with screencaps through Lightroom as well. Here's a shot of Thea taken from Episode 3x13. Not too thrilled at how the "Verdana" kind of washes out a little bit but whatever. Get a little more detail in Thea's outfit and the room itself while losing the overwhelming shadow and the hard yellow tint.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

A better example of how editing a screencap can provide some details...

The before shot is incredibly darkened with very little in the way of highlights or even contrast or color pop. The after image gives a better depth to the shot while highlighting the sheer volume of bottles in front of Thea as well as providing some contrast in color.

 

[SFH]

I'm being gifted an Epson Perfection V550 scanner in the near future. A relative has given us over 200 old photos from as far back as the 1940s. The specs on this scanner indicate an ease in cleaning up spots on photos and making them look their best.

In comparison to my current POS scanner this thing is going to be a God send. I've scanned trading cards with a regular flat bed scanner and you can tell what it is and says but there's some definite blurs on the smaller print stuff. The Perfection has an elevated lid for 3-D scanning. I've got side by side comparisons from my friend's scans compared to my scans and the resolution difference is staggering.

I will also be able to scan film, slides, and general negatives into color photos.

I'm interested in getting into possibly colorizing the black and white photos or providing more vibrant colors to the early "Color" photos that I have. Also, cleaning up of the artifacts on them will be something to look at unless this scanner is self aware and able to sense that and fill in scratches and remove dirt automatically.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Another quickie example

Image: Alyson Hannigan and Sarah Michelle Gellar at an MTV Movie Premiere 1998ish

First Image: Horrible Underexposed, Flat with No Contrast, Hue skews towards the Red
Lightroom Image: Fixed the exposure, Details brought out in SMG's dress, More natural skin tone & color, Alyson's jacket pops now, Carpet is actually a red carpet

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Decided to show how you can make an older, flat, slightly undercolored image to pop a little more via Lightroom. One of my favorite tactics I've utilized more is the 'Guided' aspect for leveling and adjusting pictures that are skewed slightly.

- Fixed slight skew in camera angle
- Fixed flat color, makes them pop more
- Widened contrast a bit more
- Slightly tweaked skin tone color

Bill Belichick Gets Gatorade Bath w/NY Giants B&A

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Bouncing off Saints_Fan_H I decided to try my hand at making an old image of QB Norm Van Brocklin circa 1951 pop/look more modern via Lightroom CC. Here's the result. This also really shows the power with Lightroom CC and how you can use it if you know what you're doing.

Before Image

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Had some more fun playing around with a classic Jim Brown pic in Lightroom. Biggest difference is the detail/color in Brown's uniform and slightly more pop in color overall.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Did another edit job just to highlight how to pull detail out of an underexposed picture utilizing the classic Willie Mays catch. The first picture is greatly underexposed, a little dull in color, and too high in the contrast of the entirety of the image. The fixed version radically makes everything stand out (e.g. the fact that there are actually stairs to the stands in the deep area past his catch), the contrast is lowered to give a scope to the size of that back wall area, and the color feels a little more natural and vibrant.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Some quick Lightroom CC tips when trying to edit or improve older pics from the 1960s - 1990s

#1: Be careful with color boosting. It's very easy to push Vibrance/Saturation up and overwhelm to the point of losing detail. You're not gonna be making these HDR level images.

#2: Use your eyes to judge Temperature/Tint. This helps set up the ideal white balance (I always start with this after checking 'Remove Chromatic Abberation') and quickly lets you get a feel for how hard to adjust the rest of the sliders.

#3: Ignore the 'Contrast' slider until the end. Only use if your image looks a little flat. If you edit the image properly, the Highlights/Shadows/Whites/Blacks give you enough control & power over the contrast of the image.

#4: Don't over-do the 'Clarity' slider - See #1. I usually boost it no more than 20-30 and that's largely to bring out the detail in background people. Even then, I don't ordinarily like going that high and prefer to settle around +5 - +8 range if boosting.

#5: Play around with 'Shadow' and 'Black' sliders. There's a fine line between bringing out detail and making an image look flat/losing the contrast as a result.

An old 70's pic of Bradshaw against the Dallas Cowboys

And a Barry Bonds swing from his Pirates days against the Chicago Cubs