How to make my pictures pop?

[yanz]

Hi. As i mentioned in another thread i would like to print few of my pictures to hang on my wall. The problem is that i think that they are pretty good pictures but they are just not popping. I was trying to find a good tutorial on how to make a picture pop. Maybe you guys can point me to a right direction.


Thank you very much in advance,

Yan

[Gary Lindquist]

It might be helpful if you add an image here to let some of us work on it to see what we can do and let you know what we did to make it pop. I think the process would vary depending on what the image might need.

[S.E.V.]

What software are you using?

In lightroom on my photos i usually adjust the following levels.
Clarity upto +50 usually below that
saturation +12-+15
Vibrance +5-+10
Sharpen image (I always shoot in raw)
Adjust indiviual color levles
Sometimes contrast, fill light and recovery if the image is slighty blown out.

I mean that is the quick edit that i usually do. Everyone has there own way of editing photos. Some make different layer in photoshop and go all out or some just even sharpen tweak a few levels and thats it. There is now set rules just play with it till you think it is right then post it up for some CC then go from there.

[yanz]

Thanks for the quick reply. I agree with you that each image would require a different kind of processing to make it pop, but i was thinking there could be some kind of a general tutorial as a base. It could be that the images itself do not grab attention and photoshop would not help much.

Here are few images that i would like to print and maybe redit before i do so.

http://images30.fotki.com/v485/photos/5/55129/5458384/santorini4268-vi.jpg

http://images32.fotki.com/v1088/photos/5/55129/5458384/santorini4133-vi.jpg

http://images28.fotki.com/v988/photos/5/55129/5359738/Myconos-vi.jpg

http://images25.fotki.com/v943/photos/5/55129/4251478/NYCHDR2ajpg-vi.jpg

Yan

[yanz]

What software are you using?

In lightroom on my photos i usually adjust the following levels.
Clarity upto +50 usually below that
saturation +12-+15
Vibrance +5-+10
Sharpen image (I always shoot in raw)
Adjust indiviual color levles
Sometimes contrast, fill light and recovery if the image is slighty blown out.

I mean that is the quick edit that i usually do. Everyone has there own way of editing photos. Some make different layer in photoshop and go all out or some just even sharpen tweak a few levels and thats it. There is now set rules just play with it till you think it is right then post it up for some CC then go from there.
Thanks for the reply.

I mostly use acr/photoshop. I tried lightroom few times but in the end I always import the picture into photoshop to finishing tweaking. I endup just using photoshop only to edit.

Yan

[Radtech1]

Yanz,

Please define pop.

Without having a clear idea of what you want, it is impossible to tell you how to get it.

Rad

[yanz]

Thanks for the reply. I mean for the picture to stand out. Of course most of the time its the subject matter in the picture that stands out, but a lot of times the picture just needs a little more saturation or contrast or certain way of sharpening to make it effective. Maybe the word that i am looking for is flat. For example the first picture that i posted is not bad but i feel that if i make a large size print its going to be flat and not very interesting. I feel that with a little processing i can make this picture so much better. Same goes for the rest of them.


Thanks again,
Yan

[bbulldog]

check out this link

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=95468&highlight=little+pop+from+the+shadow

[TheHoff]

All but #2 have quite a bit of "pop" on my laptop LCD. #1 looks rather good.

Remember that when printing large, the bigger the image is, the lighter it will appear. It is best to get a strip proof at the final size to judge levels and contrast.

[Broncobear]

Hey Yan that is a beautiful photo of Santorini, I think S.E.V offers some excellent ideas, I'ma lightroom user myself.

[lungdoc]

Look pretty good as is, to my eyes #3 needs a slight clockwise rotation to straighten.

[yanz]

Thanks everyone for your replies and suggestions. I am going to try to follow the tutorial in the link and give lightroom another try. Thinking about this and looking at these picture i think in the long run i really have to work on my composition to really get the dramatic look that i am looking for. Photoshop does help a lot but it really has to be done in camera.

Thanks again for all your help,
Yan

[cytime]

Basically a simple S-Curve will give the image more pop and add a bit of contrast as well.

Getting it right in the camera is great and learning how to tweak in PS for the best image is the goal can't polish a turd as they say....

[Roach711]

Here are two very quick edits. In the first I added a bit of contrast using Brightness/Contrast in CS2. The second adds monochrome.

[Pasukun]

Here is my take on couple of them.

[yanz]

Thank you very much for the edits. I think this is what i was looking for before i print them. I have to play around more with contrast. Pasukun can you please let me know what you did with the images.


Thanks again,
Yan

[Flagpole]

These photos are great. My quick edit on the first one:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2140/2476091018_a02323b9f4_o.jpg

Flagpole

[yanz]

Thanks for the edit. Looks great. Can you please let me know what you did.

Yan

[Flagpole]

I only did 2 things there:

1. Used Velvia Vision plugin from Fred Miranda (http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/vv) to boost the colors, enhance contrast and "increase" dynamic range. I really like "velvia" effect this plugin produces in terms of colors. Not sure how to replicate the results with just PS. Possibly using shadow/highlight, contrast, saturation and curves may yield similar results. Then I sharpened it a little.

2. Duplicated the adjusted layer from above and changed blending mode to "Multiply" to see if it darkens the sky. Created a "Reveall All" mask and used a B-to-W gradient dragged it from lower right corner to upper left corner. I then used a soft (10% opacity) white brush to lighten shadow area as they got much darker with "Multiply" blend layer.

That is all. I really like these photos. Great work capturing there

Flagpole

[ZeroOne86]

Most of the techniques have already been mentioned that make a picture pop (e.g; level, curves, selective color). I'd also also have to recommend Nik Software plug in if you have photoshop. They have some great filters that will help out such as pro contrast and some others. Also I'd recommend looking at http://good-tutorials.com you might be able to find something in there to help you out.

[Picturesports]

Hi Yan,

This any help ...

http://www.motorsportmedia.co.nz/potn/NYCHDR2ajpg-vi.jpg


What did I do ... Saved your Jpg and imported it in to Lightroom, then

Recovery +80
Blacks +5
Brightness + 14
Contrast +27
Clarity +50
Highlights +33
Darks -12
Shadows +7
Saturation - Settings
Red + 26
Orange +100
Yellow +100
Blue +83 - Basically I boosted any colour I could see on the shoreline

Sharpening (trying to pull outthe stars around the whirte lights)
Amount +89
Radius 1.0
Detail 36

Nothing very scientific - my "method" for what it is worth is to think what I want and then what might achieve it - for example the answer to how NOT to make the star on the white lights come out is to put in Luminance Noise Reduction :-)

Cheers Dave

[yanz]

Thanks everyone for your advice and edits. I will try them and will post my results before i print.

Yan

[silvex]

One easy way I do to add pop to photos. Is by using selective color in CS3. I simply "play" with each color black slider. Most of the times add black to grays (+10) and blacks (+5). Really boots the contrast on the photo.

[vincewchan]

Here is my take on couple of them.

Wow, could you share with us what you did step by step?

[Pasukun]

On mine, I 1st used USM or UnSharp Mask filter.
I used 200% with 0.2 pixels.

Then used level to raise both highlight and black level to give it a bit more contrast. (Go easy on this or you will start clipping highlights and ambient details)

Next, I raised Saturation to give it a strong color pop. (again go easy on it, or you will start clipping the colors. Especially in the gradient area)

On the boats and ocean(?) photo, I also added setting sun to give it a bit more dramatic scene and erased the boat at the near horizon as it did nothing but distraction.

[KTA]

there's a simple way to add some "pop" to your pics, you want might to try, this works well with portraits :

USM
20%
60pix
0thershold

My quick tip

[Chris A]

Hi Yanz, I love your pics. Esp the second last one.

I am not a pro, however I have been doing workshops with a great print specialist (Les Walkling - in Melbourne, Aus), and whilst I have been getting my head around the blending modes, local sharpening etc to make things pop, I have also been using simpler things he has mentioned (most of which are mentioned here) in my general workflow to make things pop, and they have made a difference. I do most global adjustments in LR (esp decent S curve as mentioned above - this has made the major difference in my work), and then switch to PS for local adjustments. Most of your pics pop to me, except the second which I agree with those above just needed more of an S curve, and a little more saturation (unless you want to go for the zen look and go less saturation and make it look all wafty, but that is beyond my PS abilities.

The other thing that has made a big difference to my images to make them pop - and this is probably too obvious and you already do this, but it helped me anyway - is to make sure I am working in the correct colour space for the output device (eg: sRGB for the web; for printing: whatever colour space the lab is using - my lab uses AdobeRGB); to give the printer all the info it needs; to stop using un-colourmanaged mini-labs; and to calibrate my monitor. I know these things are obvious for most, but being a newbie they weren't until I learnt about them, and using the correct colour space for the purpose has corrected a lot of flatness that had been really frustrating me.

Also - I know you said you need to get it right 'in camera', but if you are shooting Raw (can't remember if you said) then a certain amount can't be done in camera. Shooting Raw though has helped me so much with things like increasing dynamic range, so the extra PP work has been totally worth it (and I prefer the workflow).

Anyway - I love the pics. The only other thing I would do would be to locally open up some of the shadows at the bottom of that hill in that gorgeous first shot. Otherwise - they pop plenty. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for letting a newbie rabbit on - normally I just lurk : )

[Chris]

Well you certainly provided a nice set of photos to pp. Congratulations on your composition efforts and picturesports edit of the bridge is very nice IMO.