Digital Infant!!!

[kellym]

Hello All-
I just bought my first Digital Camera. I've been a film purist for quite a while, and i'm ready to start learning. I just bought a 10D. Here is my question. I see all these sites with these vibrant unbelievable images:
www.susanstripling.com (http://www.susanstripling.com)
www.theimageisfound.com (http://www.theimageisfound.com)
www.graham-studio.com (http://www.graham-studio.com)
How are these being acheived. I'm very familiar with photoshop, so is that were this is happening, and if so, how? If it's happening in the camera, what settings should I be using. I don't know much about digital yet, but I'm ready to learn,
Thanks!!
Kelly;-)
www.kellymoorephotography.com (http://www.kellymoorephotography.com)

[poke]

Congrats on the 10D, its a fantastic camera. There are a number of ways to get the most out of digital. My personal preference is to shoot in RAW format, then use the exposure, shadow, contrast and satuation sliders to make the image pop. I think its also fairly universally accepted that UnSharp Mask needs to be applied in varying amounts depending on your intended photo use ie. web and print outputs require different levels of USM. I'll leave it to some of the more experienced PS users to lend their thoughts on the recommended amounts for each.

You may want to look in the Post Processing and Printing forum for more detailed information.

Welcome to the forum... hope to see you post some photos soon :)

[intechpcx]

There are a lot of things that go into getting great, eye-popping colors in your pictures. Unfortunately I haven't become skilled enough yet to get all of them. However, a couple things do come to mind here. First, I am sure all of those shots were handled in photoshop. Those that are particularly skill with P/S gain an eye for knowing exactly what color levels need to be bumped up or down, what areas need lightening, etc. It is amazing how much can be done in P/S. However, Photoshop is nothing without getting the shot in the first place. Obviously, much of the key to getting those vivid shots is getting the lighting and exposure correct. The sites you posted are some fairly well versed photographers with a ton of talent for getting the shot.

If it came right down to it, I would guess that it's about a 60/40 split. 60% of it is getting the shot in the first place, the other 40% is knowing just how to post-process the pictures.

For me personally, I don't let any picture go without the Unsharp Mask, Auto level adjustment in P/S. For my more serious work, I shoot in RAW so that I can set the White Balance and saturation settings before I even get to P/S. Also, on my 300D I keep it set to Parameter 1 as that seems to get the best out of bright colors.

As with everything in photography, I think it comes down to practice, practice and more practice.

(BTW: I know how it feels to be a "Film Purist". I was there for a long time as well. Took some convincing from some co-workers to get me to make the jump to digital).

Oh and one more thing, I checked out your site, you do some very impressive work!!