do you have to use photoshop

[amironsi]

Everyone is using photoshop these days.
i try not to use it unless i need to do some cropping...
i want to get my pictures out to the people as i saw it in my viewfinder without any editing, or adjustment if possible.

do you have to use it to use effects???

[liza]

Yep. Wedding photography is an art that really requires some effort in post processing.

[Time Thief]

Everyone is using photoshop these days.
i try not to use it unless i need to do some cropping...
i want to get my pictures out to the people as i saw it in my viewfinder without any editing, or adjustment if possible.

do you have to use it to use effects???
The problem is that straight out of the camera is not usually how you saw it. Therefore some post processing is required to make it that way. Then you can do some more and make it even better.

[tim]

I could do 99% of my work in DPP, but I do it in ACR instead. Very few of my images get a large amount of processing in photoshop above the the basics like color and exposure, I really wonder what people spend all their time doing in PS. My last count was that i've done 30 weddings this year, as well as working a normal job for part of the year too, no way do I have time to take more than a few images into PS.

[Phil V]

There are two universal truths at play here;

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder;
If you're happy with the images you get straight from your camera, and your customers are happy, and you're happy with what your customers are paying, then you're doing fine.

You get what you pay for;
If you spend no time making your work 'the best it can be', then you will reach a price ceiling. Customers perceive value in beautifully presented photo's.

Now you have to walk the tightrope, between over processed stylized images and ordinary images. It is possible to process an entire wedding quickly, including PP, but it takes practice. It's also possible to build a business with very little Photoshop use, we did it for years with film.

n.b. In the 'film days' the top level earners used lots of darkroom tricks to ensure they produced 'the best print they could', at not inconsiderate financial cost. This is what gave them the edge over the competition. Today we can all do the same, cheaper.

[tim]

To the people who do a lot of PP: what do you do to the average image before it goes in an album? I generally can't find anything a well shot image needs beyond tweaking brightness, white balance, contrast, and saturation. Sometimes I might remove something from the background, but I just learned to shoot so I don't have to. I used to do blemish removal, B&W, and sepia conversions in PS, but now I do them all in ACR. I don't use actions that make images look fake, midnight sepia is way overused, and I don't do selective color. What's left?

[twofruitz]

I find photoshop too slow for processing and only use it for a couple of features it has, such as the levels, curves and so on.

Paint Shop Pro 11 on the other hand is amazing for digital manipulation.

[Phil V]

I don't use ACR, I'm still using CS2 and my raw conversion is done in DPP (personal preference).

So, in PS, all my images get the saturation, all the B&W conversions, the vignettes (most images), blemish removal for Bridal closeups (I use Jeff Ascoughs action for this - quick easy awesome - doesn't look over clean), the odd image may need straightening, and always chance of localised lightening for the lady hat wearers (common at UK weddings). Older brides also get subtle work to ensure the money they spent on makeup was worthwhile.;)

Including culling the images and doing the WB in DPP, this is about 1 days work (6-8 hrs).

[Padawan Dad]

You don't HAVE to use photoshop. However, I think think that one could get by very easily with just DPP (Canons free software.) I pretty much just ad contrast, and crop my photos, if needed in LR. Some like to go all out with actions, and all kinds of effects... whatever floats your boat. Everyone has a different eye. But you don't HAVE to use photoshop to provide great photos to your clients.

[TeeJay]

.... and always chance of localised lightening for the lady hat wearers....

:shock::shock::shock:

TJ

[sl3966]

To the people who do a lot of PP: what do you do to the average image before it goes in an album? I generally can't find anything a well shot image needs beyond tweaking brightness, white balance, contrast, and saturation. Sometimes I might remove something from the background, but I just learned to shoot so I don't have to. I used to do blemish removal, B&W, and sepia conversions in PS, but now I do them all in ACR. I don't use actions that make images look fake, midnight sepia is way overused, and I don't do selective color. What's left?

Photoshop is my goto mainly because I have been using it since I think version 3. I am/was (now I need to update it) an ACE in photoshop indesign and illustrator which I use daily in my job so I get twitchy if it's not open :confused:. Most of the clients I get are more inline with the style that I have so a more conventional couple would probably pass me over if they saw my portfolio, it's not for everyone but the people that like it, love it. That's the best thing about this business, you and I can work in the same city and still have a good client base because people have differing tastes. You are right that midnight sepia is used a lot but if it sells then I am not going to let my personal beliefs stop me from using it. Also, I have never done a selective color photo that the couple didn't pick for the album or prints. Lastly, even if I did not use heavy PP I would be taking every photo into PS for sharpening before printing.

[highway0691]

ACR for white balance, saturation and mostly exposure. Photoshop for sharpening, cloning, cropping and vignetting - although ACR will do some of these I'm habit driven and also like to view photo in it's finality in PS before handing onto client just incase I miss something, I find I'm using PS less and ACR more & more.

Cheers

Damian

[PixelMagic]

My question is why even use Photoshop to crop your image? There are lots of very cheap and even free programs like IrfanView that will crop your images. That way you can truly claim not to use any Photoshop.


Everyone is using photoshop these days.
i try not to use it unless i need to do some cropping...
i want to get my pictures out to the people as i saw it in my viewfinder without any editing, or adjustment if possible.

do you have to use it to use effects???

[bcap]

I use Lightroom 90% of the time. You need to do SOME PP (if only RAW conversion) to the photos. Like someone mentioned above - usually the way you see the scene isn't the way the photo will come out.

[Dorman]

Like Bryan Lightroom does 90% of my processing.

[MrsOpie]

What I've learned with printing photographs from black and white film is that the true art and craftsmanship of a photograph is how you process it after you take it. Its makes a world of difference.

[bcap]

What I've learned with printing photographs from black and white film is that the true art and craftsmanship of a photograph is how you process it after you take it. Its makes a world of difference.

Ditto that. In the world of digital photography, I strongly feel that the digital post processing is just as important as taking the photo itself.

Strong statement, but, I do feel that way. PP can make a good photo a great photo, but, at the same time, can make a great photo a crappy photo if the wrong techniques are used.

[Lord_Malone]

I use Lightroom primarily. But I find CS3 to be an invaluable tool when I need to make some severe changes to the image such as cloning out unwanted things or creating special effects. The great thing is that LR + CS3 work seamlessly together. I can't imagine using one without the other.

[bcap]

I use Lightroom primarily. But I find CS3 to be an invaluable tool when I need to make some severe changes to the image such as cloning out unwanted things or creating special effects. The great thing is that LR + CS3 work seamlessly together. I can't image using one without the other.

Likewise. Lightroom for global adjustments and PS for local adjustments. They aren't meant to be substitutes, but, instead, complements :)

[sblais]

I started using Lightroom recently and I can now definitively see how it will play a BIG role in my PP workflow. I now process almost all the images in it and only open photoshop when we need specific touchups

[tim]

What I've learned with printing photographs from black and white film is that the true art and craftsmanship of a photograph is how you process it after you take it. Its makes a world of difference.

Ditto that. In the world of digital photography, I strongly feel that the digital post processing is just as important as taking the photo itself.

Strong statement, but, I do feel that way. PP can make a good photo a great photo, but, at the same time, can make a great photo a crappy photo if the wrong techniques are used.

You guys still haven't said what you actually do to images. How about a few before and after shots?

[bcap]

You guys still haven't said what you actually do to images. How about a few before and after shots?

Before:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/before.jpg

After:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/after.jpg

[bcap]

Before:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/before2.jpg

After:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/after2.jpg

[bcap]

Before:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/before3.jpg

After:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/after3.jpg

[bcap]

Like I said though, these are all completely processed in Lightroom.

I only use PS when I need to do some local adjustments or advanced cloning/masking.

[sl3966]

Here are some

http://scottlewis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p877612996-2.jpg
http://scottlewis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p782714313-2.jpg
http://scottlewis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p895722415-2.jpghttp://scottlewis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p1051183626-2.jpg
http://scottlewis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p814003747-2.jpg
http://scottlewis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p750230056-2.jpg

All done in PS and before I get clubbed on the PP in the last one, the bride loved it. lol

[ktgiggle]

I think for basic editing (cropping, red-eye removal), you dont really need PS, and there are plenty other free tool for doing this (Picasa is great).

I use PS + Kubota action to convert to black & white as my PS skills are not adequate to produce a nice looking B&W, sepia tone pictures. Other use for PS is to make a picture frames (key line), resize the pictures for printing, designing albums (if youre album company doesn't provide software to to lay out the pages), and other special effects like manipulating hue/color/saturation to achieve a pleasant skin tone , bumping up contrast, cloning / blurring out those distracting detail and background, adding detail / overlaying pictures), etc.

I think PS is still a valuable tools (if done right), and a good friend of wedding photographers, but as many says, you do not really have to have it (especially for some gifted photographers whose raw pictures rarely need any PP besides the basic editing.

[tim]

Great examples Mr PP. Would you do that for every image in an album?

[bcap]

Great examples Mr PP. Would you do that for every image in an album?

Absolutely. These are relatively basic adjustments, and every image that I give out gets this treatment.

[Ray Marrero]

yes.

[waves]

Before:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/before2.jpg

After:
http://www.mimphoto.com/photos/20071105/after2.jpgBryan I also use lightroom how did you acheive this in Lightroom would love to know specific settings also ever use any actions like in CS3

[bcap]

I've had a few folks PM me regarding the PP for this image, so, I'm going to share it here instead, so more members can benefit from the information.

The processing was done completely in lightroom, and I'm not going to share exact numbers of all the settings, as this doesn't really do much for you guys - it's what worked on THIS photo, not EVERY photo.

I brought exposure and fill light up a little bit, and really cranked up Blacks (+26) to give the desired dramatic/contrasty look. Pushing Clarity up a little to 15 helped with some pop also.

I did a bit of a curves adjustment to give the photo the desired punch and pop, focusing on Darks and Shadows and bringing them down for drama. I adjusted the channels in HSL to where I wanted them - this doesn't really contribute to the feel/look of the photo as much as everything else, this is more so fine tuning.

The magic in Split Toning is where the color effect is from. I gave it a bit of a cross-processed look with the following settings:

Highlights Hue 31
Highlights Saturation 34

Shadows Hue 193
Shadows Saturation 43

Balance +25

Other than that, a fairly heavy vignette and I was done :)

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions at all

[amironsi]

so mainly we can say that the post processing required to the picture is either global (the whole picture) or local (some retouches to parts of the picture)
This way i think post processing is ok with me. cause i thought people change a lot of things. Now i use lightroom a lot to do effects, adjust WB and other stuff.... i am sure it is helpfull