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09/09/2011 07:41:31 AM · #1 |
I am starting to realise that the ability to edit a photo is very important. Unfortunately this is an area I have no knowledge of apart from cropping and resizing and I have had several comments about my photos suggesting they could have been improved with the likes of "curves" etc. Would therefore appreciate any advice on the best way to learn the skill of editing. Is there a good book on the subject or perhaps a great website on it? Also useful to know what tools are required - I have Photoshop but have seen other tools mentioned too, the names I can't recall (one may have been photo matrix).
Thanks in advance
Paul |
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09/09/2011 07:46:22 AM · #2 |
| Perhaps you can start with the tutorials and "how-to" articles under the Learn menu ... |
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09/09/2011 08:11:39 AM · #3 |
depends on what you want to accomplish. if you are looking at basic editing, what ACR,lightroom, aperture, DPP or any basic RAW editor will do is allow you to adjust tones, saturation, curves, sharpening, noise reduction and some selective edits. the nice thing is they are non-destructuve edits so that you cant ruin your original image like in older versions of Photoshop, and they are basically sliders that you adjust so you can can see what is happening and how they are applied to the entire image. These software are very user friendly and can be learned easily just by playing with the software to see what happens when you move a slider or adjust a curve. You'll pick it up quick.
more advanced editing in Photoshop involves layers and layer masks and applying edit to selective areas of the images, merging multiple images, applying filters, that comes with practice and doing tutorials to come across different techniques that have been developed over the years.
generally though you really need a reason to choose an advanced editing technique over basic editing. 95% of my editing comes from lightroom, simply becuase photoshop tends to be way too bloated for simple editing and the basic raw editors are designed to make fast edits, so you aren't spending all night editing photos. I mainly do just simple adjustments, but sometimes i'll get an image where i need to clone out something or really make eyes pop with dodging and burning, or even retouching an image foreground and backgrounds with selective masks, but those are for images i really consider special that i want to take the time to control all the aspects of the image edit, and not just a global edit.
to add, i love lightroom, its a free 30 trial if you want to give it a spin and adobe has wonderful tutorials on how to master the workflow. i think you find that it will add some major punch even if you may not need much.
Message edited by author 2011-09-09 08:14:44. |
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09/09/2011 08:21:48 AM · #4 |
I am on my phone but I know someone has the link for those "you suck at Photoshop" tutorials.
Anyone? |
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09/09/2011 08:24:12 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by mbrutus2009:
I am on my phone but I know someone has the link for those "you suck at Photoshop" tutorials.
Anyone? |
//laughingsquid.com/you-suck-at-photoshop-by-donnie-hoyle/ |
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09/09/2011 08:51:27 AM · #6 |
| Thanks guys for the very helpful advice. It is definitely basic editing I am looking at. I have had a play with the curves tool in Photoshop but didn't really know what I was doing and being color blind I always have the thought at the back of my mind that I could be turning the grass brown or the sky purple when messing with these tools. Hence I thought it would make sense to learn to use these editing tools properly. Guess I just need to start at the beginning and learn from the ground up:) |
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09/09/2011 08:59:25 AM · #7 |
That's the first time I've seen those, they're hilarious! |
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09/09/2011 09:10:39 AM · #8 |
Those would be the ones. Thanks Mike! :D
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09/09/2011 09:18:20 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by paulsteven:
I have had a play with the curves tool in Photoshop but didn't really know what I was doing and being color blind I always have the thought at the back of my mind that I could be turning the grass brown or the sky purple when messing with these tools. |
I also have red-green color-blindness, and occasionally make that kind of mistake. but the key is to use the color readouts in the Photoshop Info window, and learn which combinations of colors produce the results you want. Curves are one of the most powerful tools you have for adjusting color and contrast, especially in combination with Layer Masks (a.k.a save selections or alpha channels). See this how-to article for an example. |
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09/09/2011 09:19:08 AM · #10 |
Here's a good article that explains the basic image adjustments that you will find in most editing applications.
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09/09/2011 09:39:04 AM · #11 |
From looking at your portfolio, the main thing you need to learn is curves - for that DPC-friendly colour pop.
For example, that 'Hay' shot is really good, but the colours look drab (by DPC standards) - I'm pretty sure with the right application of curves you'd have added 0.5 to your score. |
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09/09/2011 03:28:09 PM · #12 |
I highly recommend this book (there are other editions for previous versions of Ps). You will learn from the basics all the way to some relatively advanced techniques. Really good stuff.
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