color

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Permalink Reply by Michael on March 3, 2009 at 1:26pm

Hello Dianne, Yes Photoshop is how many of us enhance the colors in our photos. the list of tools within Photoshop to tweak the colors and methods is very extensive. And if you to talk to five different people you will get five different ways that they each do it. A good start is by looking either under (Image -> Adjustments) or (Layer -New Adjustment layer). I prefer to you adjustment layers because these changes are non-destructive and don't effect the source image. But of course if you only work of copies as you should it doesn't matter as such. Except that you can selectively remove the adjustment layer or change it anytime you like with out effective the other changes. This can not be done if you go the image adjustment route. Under either of these options you will find the tools you need to enhance tone, color, Hue/Saturation, contrast, replace color, levels, curve, match color etc... Once you understand these tools and how to use them you will understand how it is being done in the photo you are talking about.

Or if you have extra money to spend you can buy any number of excellent plug-ins for Photoshop that will do it for you. Nik filters, digital film tools are two of my favorites. Nik filter are widely used by top professionals but they are not cheap. Hope this helps. Hopefully other will response to your request as well with some of the many way this is done.

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Permalink Reply by Michael on March 3, 2009 at 2:08pm

Dianne, I should have also mentioned the quality of glass (lenses) and camera you have plays an extremely large part in the photo color and quality you get. You probably already knew that but I would be remiss not to mention it. A good example of the type of photo quality you will get with good glass and camera is those photos that you saw on PC from Julienne Bowser. She has very good glass. She has never told me what Camera or lenses she has but she doesn't have to. The quality of the photos made it obvious. Professional and others spend lots of money on their equipment for good reason. It is not because they have money to waste. It is because they know how much it matters.

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Permalink Reply by Dianne Wiebe on March 3, 2009 at 4:34pm

Thanks Michael....what a difference between men and women right there. You say Julienne never told you what type of glass she uses....now, a woman would have come straight out and asked! We NEED to know everything, otherwise we would be mis-informing people when we say we know everything!!! ;-)

I will see if Julienne is on facebook tonight and ask her!!! See, now that I know you have sort of discussed it with her, I will ask and (hopefully) get the answer - don't worry, I won't mention your name.

Anyway, I actually never did think of that, I just really loved how vivid her photos are, and naturally assumed that they had been re-touched to make the colors pop.

So, what kind of camera do you have? When you made your choice on which one to buy, what were your deciding factors?

Anyway, questions, questions (remember my comment?)....I appreciate any advice people who have been doing it longer than I have, and take beautiful photographs like you do, can help me!

Thanks Michael....

Take care,

Dianne

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Permalink Reply by Marie on March 3, 2009 at 6:43pm

www.hku.hk/cc/document/photoshop

shows some of the basics and useful stuff in cs3. Dont know if this will help. But worth a try. Good luck:)

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Permalink Reply by Michael on March 3, 2009 at 8:38pm

I've only been at this 1 1/2 years so I'm still pretty new at this myself. Oh yeah, I wasn't suggesting that Julienne does not tweak her photos, I would imagine she is shooting Raw and has to. But I'm sure she would anyway. I'm just saying that the source image you start with makes a tremendous difference. And that source image is the result primarily of the lens and the camera. I don't have any really good lenses, but I have had some exposure to a few so I have seen first hand the difference. Most of my photos that you see are taken with the kit lens (18-55mm) that came with my Canon XTi (400D). It is really not a good lens at all. But considering that it is a kit lens it is respectable. But far from good. I do have a Canon f:1.8, 50mm fixed lens that for the very cheap price that I paid for it is AMAZING! It cost about 85 bucks and if you paid 385 buck you couldn't do better. To do better you'd have to send about 650.00. It is a freak of nature in the lens world. And a lot of people have it but don't admit it. It can take Tack Sharp photos. But it is a fixed 50mm so I don't have a lot of opportunities to use it with the type of photo I generally take. Because they almost always require a zoom. I also have a Canon 75-300mm zoom. It is not good, but will do until I can justify spending more for a better one. For Canon "L Series" lenses are the best. Other that the that 650.00 fixed 50mm I spoke of I don't think Canon make any L series lenses for under a thousand or more. And generally much more. But trust me when you see a well taken photo taken with a "L" lens you understand why.

I've only had my camera for 1 1/2 years but I have already out grown it. I have my eye on the Canon 50D or Canon 5D. But like most people the economy has hit hard so it will have to remain on the back burner for now.
I take all my photos in manual mode, Raw, and process them in Lightroom before exporting to Photoshop. As a web UI design/deveoper I have been using Photoshop for a very long time. Long before I got into photography. I used it to layout my web page design and create images for the pages. That of course made things much easier for me when I got in to photography back a year and a half ago.

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Permalink Reply by Bob O'Lary on March 4, 2009 at 6:29am

Dear Dianne,
I am a 25+ year professional photojournalist, who had a life-changing revelation when I discovered PhotoShop.
Back before 1995 my life consisted of easily 4 hours in the darkroom for every photo job I shot. PhotoShop enabled me to apply ALL my darkroom skills to a computer screen, and stop using all those chemicals and water, not to mention paper and film! (BTW, buy a Macintosh too!)

Here is the single best source for learning & applying photoshop techniques to my work:

http://www.photoshopuser.com/

It is simply the best way to teach yourself this wonderful and superior computer application to your best use.

The NAPP (National Association of PhotoShop Professionals) has the most comprehensive teaching & help files I have found. If you join, tell them Bob O'Lary sent you! *wink*

Best of luck maam!

Bob O.

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Permalink Reply by Dianne Wiebe on March 4, 2009 at 6:52am

Thanks Bob....I will definitely look into that site. I am anything but computer-illiterate, so it frustrates me when I can't figure out a program! I know you can buy "Photoshop for Dummies" books, but it's not the whole program I need to figure out, just the little tricks.

Anyway, Thanks again!

Take Care,
Dianne

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Permalink Reply by Michael on March 4, 2009 at 8:06am

Dianne, a final comment. If you can get your hands on some of the Photoshop plugins they will limit your learning curve tremendously and allow you to do exactly what it is you see others doing that you like. There are a lot of free plugins that you can get over the internet. And there are also trials versions available. Even after all my years of experience with Photoshop I use Plugins about 65% of the time.

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