Help my editing seems to be lacking

Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical MF Wide Angle - Black

03/06/2011 07:50:32 AM · #1

I think I have come a long way in the past year and my composition and lighting has vastly improved, however I am not completely happy with my editing. Here is a shot from a recent High School Senior shoot I did.

Unedited

Edited

I edited in LR2, Viveza 2 and PSE8. I think it is ok but I don't want just ok. What do you all look at when you edit? What are your thought processes? How did you learn editing? Any books to recommend?
I am downloading a trial version of CS5 but I'm not sure it is the tools but rather my use of those tools. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I like a modern look to the edits, but when I look at my work I do not think it is up to par with the professional level.

eta: I have been watching the photovision training dvds and it seems as though all of those professionals use CS3 4 or 5. Is that a industry standard for portraits?

Message edited by author 2011-03-06 07:52:30.

Paul

Leica SL

03/06/2011 08:22:36 AM · #2

I've had a go, trying to confine my edit to a single package - in this case Color Efex Pro. I also took my cue from your edited image in terms of the style and coloration you wanted:

This is from your unedited jpeg, then:

Film Effects with all the grain turned off (Agfa Optima 400)

Then Blur vignette (3rd type, 2nd shape), centre set on face and then removed from your subject with controls points and moderated elsewhere with control points.

Coloration done with the Duplex filter (default coloration) with the diffusion slider set to the bottom and then the colour on his top moderated with control points.

I then used the Tonal Contrast filter to ramp up the texture in the hair, again removed with control points from everywhere else.

Final stage was just a little sharpening and a slight warming.

You may have wanted to depart from this look altogether but I wanted to show what scope there was with Color Efex to have a lot of fine control.

I think I should've controlled the highlights a little more with the first filter.... but easily done.

Paul

Message edited by author 2011-03-06 08:41:44.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

03/06/2011 08:24:06 AM · #3

I doubt this is anything you'd want to see, but here ya go :-)

One thing I'd point out is there's an excessive amount of emptiness above and left, I'd crop that some.

Mike

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

03/06/2011 08:59:34 AM · #4

here's my take, the original raw would have yielded much better results

using Lightroom 3

here are the settings:

looking at yours again, its pretty good, it has a nice separation from the background that you enhanced in PP, yuo may just want to keep playing with the saturation and tones.

Message edited by author 2011-03-06 09:01:53.

Covert_Oddity

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

03/06/2011 09:44:19 AM · #5

I'm no editing guru but here's my attempt:

Duplicated layer and changed to overlay
Added second overlay layer and filled with neutral grey, brushed in some 20% black on the background, some 10% white over the subject
Combined layers and applied topaz clarify

Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical MF Wide Angle - Black

03/06/2011 11:02:21 AM · #6

Thank you for your replies, I think

Covert_Oddity is closer to what I am looking for but I was actually more curious as to what you look at/for when editing an image. Are there certain tools that you go for more often?

Paul

Leica SL

03/06/2011 11:51:06 AM · #7

I tend to use Nik tools almost exclusively. Color Efex Pro has a bunch of tools to get the job done - both in terms of clean-up and stylising. Whatever I do, I almost always end up with more contrast than when I started.

Kelli

Canon EOS-D60

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

03/06/2011 12:03:40 PM · #8

Topaz detail (used a few presets here) Filter forge (one of the dreamy presets).

EL-ROI

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

03/06/2011 02:02:48 PM · #9

jminso

I like your original image. I think it just needed a little polish to make the light shine through. I wonder why you went the way you did? What were your thoughts on editing?

I have just gotten into post processing having purchased PSE9. When I took some shots of my daughter I was shooting for a soft focus, high key effect, When I got it into photoshop elements, the unlimited world of options overwhelmed me. I ended up just brightening her eyes and cropping. I couldn't process the photo into the vision I had. So your original question interests me as well and I would like to hear your thoughts on your choices.

Covert_Oddity

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

03/06/2011 02:11:57 PM · #10

I often do the duplicate layer, change to overlay or soft light, I find it's an excellent way to increase contrast. I then use the opacity of the layer to control the amount and a mask to control areas.

I then do dodge burn using an overlay layer set at neutral grey. I burn with black set to a low opacity (usually somewhere around the 10%) mark, and dodge the same way but with white. I use this to bring emphesis to the areas of the shot I want.

After that will depend largely on the shot.

In the case of this shot I used topaz clarify to bring out detail as it was a touch lacking, particularly around the face, but I may also just use normal USM or smart sharpen.

LVicari

Canon EOS-50D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

03/06/2011 03:32:28 PM · #11

here is my take..note: very quick edit. I didnt take extra care on the spill of colour on his skin and I would adjust his skin tone some more.

03/06/2011 04:28:02 PM · #12

Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:

Therein lies a problem for me. I often just start doing stuff for the sake of doing it. I have my vision as far as location and posing and the light but I find it difficult to finish the product after. I think I really need to see the final product in my head and just do the stuff to get me there and forget about all the filters and editing programs I have and just do what needs to be done.

Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6ED AL [IF] WR DC

03/06/2011 04:29:06 PM · #13

Originally posted by LVicari:

here is my take..note: very quick edit. I didnt take extra care on the spill of colour on his skin and I would adjust his skin tone some more.

This, I LOVE. I have always been drawn to your style of editing and I love what you did with this. I wouldn't of even thought of changing his shirt color.

NiallOTuama

Google Pixel 2

03/06/2011 04:39:41 PM · #14

Any chance of a full-size image?

fldave

Pentax K5II

03/06/2011 05:21:30 PM · #15

Just exercising some editing... I need the practice myself.
Duplicate layer, soft light, flaming pear mr. contrast at 50% opacity in new layer, crop...

NiallOTuama

Google Pixel 2

03/06/2011 05:31:35 PM · #16

For me I found the background a little distracting, so did a really quick-and-dirty blurring of it.
I think LVicari's crop and lighting along the path is excellent, so sorta copied that a little bit.
Topaz for a bit of pop.
Bit of vignettes.
Edit: Whoops. uploaded wrong image. This is the one I meant.

Notes from image:

Originally posted by //www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=939425:

Edit for this thread
//www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=1063848

I found the details in the background distracting in the original image

Processing:
Lightroom auto's and some changes
Topaz adjust for some pop
OnOne focus point (focus'd square on bottom third, and allowed 100% transition, so the further away parts of the shot seemed more in focus. Then painted his body in focus).
Small brightness adjustments because it was too bright.

The shirt looks a little contrasty... I think it's good that it stands out from the shot though, so didn't change it around too much.

Message edited by author 2011-03-06 18:32:22.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

03/07/2011 04:23:08 AM · #17

Originally posted by jminso:

... I am not completely happy with my editing. Here is a shot from a recent High School Senior shoot I did.

I would only make one minor edit to your final version.