G1 - New Photo Added

[John - NJ]

I added a new photo to my website today.

Constructive criticism is welcomed. Thanks.

[RobertG]

Nice display of G1 photos.

Thankyou for sharing.

(no critique from me!)

RobertG

[Wolflook]

I really like your photos John. Have done a great job bringing out nice rich colors. Do you have a standard "increase saturation" technique?

Look forward to seeing more of your shots.

Don

[John - NJ]

Thanks. I really haven't developed any routine way to do anything yet. I'm still experimenting.

[Eric F.]

John,

I really liked the waterfall picture. The colors in your photos are superior. I noticed that you are making your shot in RAW, are you sharpening them or adjusting the color saturation?

I have just recently started to do some post processing of my photos and the results are very good compared to JPG out of the camera. Any tips you have to share be appreciated as the trial and error method make learning curve to long.

I have a waterfall that looks a lot like your picture only 3 miles from my home. Your photo has inspired me to visit it very soon.

Here is a link to my website if you would like to view.
http://home.att.net/~ozarke/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html

Regards,
ERIC

[Del K]

John,

Some very nice pictures. I like the colors as do others here, but I especially like your composition. I noticed it first on the buildings and the sun and sky through the trees. Good eye!

[moonstone]

Hi John,

Nice photos :)

Do you use any filters on those shots to bring out the rich color?

-Malcolm

[John - NJ]

Del:

Thanks. I tend to push the colors to the limit because that's what I like. I'm glad that others like the results also.

The "eye" comes from years of mistakes with film. I found that less is more and tend to zoom in alot. I also crop after the fact in Photoshop. I have some photos that looked terrible alone but great when I split them in two. Isn't technology great!?!

del k wrote:
Some very nice pictures. I like the colors as do others here, but I especially like your composition. I noticed it first on the buildings and the sun and sky through the trees. Good eye!

[John - NJ]

Malcolm:

I have not used any filters except for a circular polarizer for some of the photos.

Thanks for visiting my website. I will try to add more photos weekly, so please visit again. Comments and questions are always welcome.

moonstone wrote:
Nice photos :)

Do you use any filters on those shots to bring out the rich color?

[John - NJ]

Eric:

Here are three of your photos. I played with them alittle. Let's discuss.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1573480&a=12518771&p=46665478

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1573480&a=12518771&p=46665480

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1573480&a=12518771&p=46665482

[Eric F.]

John,

thanks for posting some of my pictures. I would have missed them but just thought I would check your posting again for ideas. I think that there should be some way to let a person know who you want to direct your post. Oh well, on to the important stuff.

Your changes were interesting. The moss picture is right out of the camera with compression for web. I have several versions which one I printed out looks almost identical. Cropping is a bit different but the colors are about the same. I am holding it up to the moniter.

Same thing with the waterfall. It was taken in bad light with no changes (G1 was new and I just had to try it out, even though there were no colors anywhere). I have played with this set of pictures and have gotten mixed results. Mostly with brightening and contrast. My print looks pretty close to what you came up with.

The Bridge is another story. It is a recent picture which orginally was taken in RAW. I think this was my first set of pictures taken in RAW. Your version has a lot more color than the one I chose to print. I can't remember if I changed it before or after I put it on the web. I especially notice that the rust and the leaves in the background are much more vibrant. The picture is actually true to the colors but why not make it better? Would you give me a brief description on your processes for this picture?

I am a novice at PS LE. So make it basic. I have spent some time to get familar with it, but not able to make many successful changes that I have saved. Have used sharpen and contrast and played with the Hue.

I mostly use the Picture It Photo program. It is comparatively easy to use and the results are good, (especially the crop, sharpening, and saving) just not as many features as PS.

Thanks for your interest.

[John - NJ]

Eric:

I usually follow the same pattern starting with a tiff file converted from raw.

1) I look at the photo and crop, if necessary.

2) I change the picture size (max is 512 x ?)

3) I adjust the levels. I do not use Auto Levels. I change the levels by moving the end pointers to the base of each slope at the start of the rise. The mid-point adjusts automatically.

4) I adjust the saturation. I increase it to the point that it looks fake. Then I back off until I get what I want.

Note: I use ZoomBrowser to convert RAW to tiff. There are times when I double click on the RAW thumbnail which brings up a temporary file. This window has adjustment levels that work differently from the standard Canon conversion (Low, Normal, High). They are sliders. Using this window to add color sometimes works better than the saturation in Photoshop. When you save the file in this window you have the option to pick jpeg or tiff. I use tiff and continue the work in PS 5.5.

5) After saturation I play with contrast and brightness. It's usually just a visual adjustment.

6) After it's all done I sharpen the image using either KPT6 Equalizer or nik Sharpener Pro. Equalizer gives a softer sharpen. Better with people and flowers. nik adds lots of detail. The moss picture and the waterfall was Equalizer. The bridge was nik Sharpener.

That's about it for now. I keep trying different things. I always keep the RAW file as is so that I can start over if I don't like the results. I'd really like to learn layers and masks and other PS features, but trying to find time to read everything is difficult. I mostly try to get the picture right when I shoot so that I don't have to touch it. Sometimes I succeed.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Eric F.]

Thanks John:

Your process on getting your pictures from camera to finish was just what I had asked for. I too would like to be able to do the layers in PS, but it takes a lot of time. I picked up a tutorial from DP review forum that I downloaded from adobe. Has a bunch of lessons. I have taken a couple so far but it really is a slow process and will be some time at it before it would apply. I would rather take the pictures now that the weather is good. When the winter comes again I will have a bunch of pictures to try to make better. Like you I really try to pick and compose so I don't have to worry about good BASE RAW pictures.

Thanks again for your STEPS. I will be trying to duplicate this at my next opportunity.