Too Much editing with my 20D

[umax19]

I recently got a EOS 20d but i notice I'm doing alot of editing with the final outcome with photoshop. The picture is never perfect, usually under expose when using flash at nights, contrast and color are poor. Is this natural for me to be editing all my photo.
Quality set at max. Help me anyone

[AjP]

practice, practice and practice... analyze your pics, lighting conditions, also when you shoot make sure you check histogram, this will help you to get an idea

[lordjim]

Umax19 -

You may want to look at the following thread:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=644253#post644253

It is normal to have some processing to do for all your photos. However, if all your picture are consistently underexposed, you may want to check how you set up your exposure when you shoot.

Also, you may want to have a look at the following book: "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It will help a lot.

Hope that helps.

[Headcase650]

The default perameter on the 20D gives drab pictures on purpose to give the photographer more control in post processing. If post processing isnt your thing go to perameter "1" this will boost sharpness, saturation and contrast over the default perameter "2". If this isnt enough, make a custome perameter set and and boost saturation, contrast and sharpness all the way up and see how you like it.

Dark pictures is typical because it allowes the photographer to boost brighteness in post processing. If it shot everything bright you would clip some of the highlites in the shot and once they are gone they can not be retrieved in processing. Try to get your histogran to the far right but not all the way to the edge. You can brighten your flash pics in camera with the FEC option, just bump it up a stop and check the results with the histogram.

[pehabe]

i know how you feel... why the h+++ we spent more than 1000EU for camera and we need to pp the picture later... it could be done by cheaper camera or even p&s. number of pixel? noise? neeh

but i believe one word like ajp had said: practice :)
in the end the man behind the gun will make beautiful photos... like charlesu with his G2.
sorry i forgot the thread link :(

good luck

[Avalonthas]

SLR photography will always need some editing even the best pictures need a few touch ups. Part of the job :(

[umax19]

Thanks guys, i was worried that something was wrong with my camera but all i have to do is take alot more pictures


Umax

[Mohawk]

Try shooting in RAW, on the AV setting. Also check your exposure comp. You may have it set into the negative. I like mine set at roughly +1/3 for most shots.

Mike

[davidwegs]

patience and understanding.

It would be normal for a digital SLR to underexpose a tad, to preserve the highlights. However if it is more than about 1/3 stop under there could be an issue other than the exposure tendencies in question. If there is gross under exposure you may be using matrix when you needed center weighted average and so on. If all setting yield the same results, it is a slim possibiliy that you have a duff body. Not many of those make it out of Canon so that is unlikely.

Seeing the shot and gettting the shot is what the technical part of learning will bring. It is probably worth you spending a lot (no too much) of time on here or some photo forums to ask and discover what works. Then with some patience (which I have precious little of) and practice, the results begin to appear. Persevere.

Good luck.

[arunchs]

Can you post an example with what changes you had to do on photoshop? The camera output could look dull, but I think in most cases, if you have a decent picture in the beginning, adjusting levels and applying USM should be sufficient to get a good final image.

[robertwgross]

When I first started shooting a D60 back in year 2002, it was a bit of a disappointment to me how much editing and fixing I had to do to the RAW images to make them right. Slowly, little by little, I found modes and settings that would help me along the way a little more, but still there was lots of "fixing" in the editor. Part of this was caused by me always converting directly from RAW to TIF with no correction along the way. However, after 12,000 frames on that camera, I learned how to set it up better, shoot better, and edit faster and better.

Then this year I started with a 20D. Since I knew most of what to expect from Canon, I got a fast start. Still, the 20D operates a little differently from the old D60, so I learned how to compensate a little better at the time of shooting (by checking the histogram). I learned how to do corrections faster in the RAW-to-TIF conversion, and that helped hugely. Then I've gotten some better editor tools, so final correction goes much quicker now. I'm shooting twice as many frames per month now as I did with the old D60, so something must be working right. Patience!

---Bob Gross---

[Bob_A]

patience and understanding.

It would be normal for a digital SLR to underexpose a tad, to preserve the highlights. However if it is more than about 1/3 stop under there could be an issue other than the exposure tendencies in question.

Hi David,

In almost every forum that I have visited the typical amount of flash exposure compensation used for the 20D seems to be +2/3 of a stop. This can vary based on the shooting situation or on the taste of the photographer ... but for me I put my camera away with +2/3 dialed in as the default starting point for the next session.

[wilflee]

It is quite normal to edit the photos you've shot.

What digital photography has done for us is that it has moved film photography's darkroom and printing process into our own hands instead of the lab's hands.

Every frame of film that's printed by the lab is also processed by the lab technician except we don't see it. With digital photography, we're doing it ourselves.

For those who have toiled many hours in the darkroom trying to get the "perfect" print, digital post processing has been a god send. For those who have never developed and printed their own pictures, digital is an easy way to get started.