How are they achieving this??

Hello,
This may seem like a dumb question but how are these photographer's achieving the "pop" to their photos. I understand the depth of field, but where does the clarity come from?
These photos have so much depth and life in them, in comparison to being flat. Does that make sense?

I'm looking for tips! I understand that equipment, experience and talent play a large role but any information would be helpful. As I'm trying to learn all I can.

http://ncp.typepad.com …b988340147e0776​16a970b-pi
Source: http://ncp.typepad.com​/ (Fantastic Photographer)

[MOD EDIT - Please link to photos that aren't your own]

achase wrote in post #12717137
Hello,
This may seem like a dumb question but how are these photographer's achieving the "pop" to their photos. I understand the depth of field, but where does the clarity come from?
These photos have so much depth and life in them, in comparison to being flat. Does that make sense?

I'm looking for tips! I understand that equipment, experience and talent play a large role but any information would be helpful. As I'm trying to learn all I can.

http://ncp.typepad.com …b988340147e0776​16a970b-pi
Source: http://ncp.typepad.com​/ (Fantastic Photographer)

[MOD EDIT - Please link to photos that aren't your own]

OK. You are likely to get 50 different answers. Everyone has their techniques that work for them. This works for me, but if someone has a way to do it better, I'm always open to learning since I've only been shooting digital for about 10 months now. I'm making the assumption that the image itself has been properly exposed and that the lighting was adequate for what you want to accomplish.


1.) Start with a RAW file and get the file as close to how you want it as possible.
2.) Export it as a tiff (Don't save to jpeg until you are completely satisfied with your final image)
3.) Open in photoshop and start with a "levels" adjustment.
4.) Use curves
5.) You can add a bit of pop with saturation adjustments but it's better if you can do that earlier in the RAW step.

Also, using layers, you can bump up the saturation of parts of the image - like trees, brick walls, etc, without giving too much saturation to other things like skin tones. You can apply whichever technique is needed to whichever part is needed at any time.

Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with HDR photography or tone-mapping which are a totally different beast.

looks like it should be able to be done in lightroom/ any raw converter.
without seeing the original i would
get proper exposure,
increase blacks a tad if needed
increase contrast

increase clarity to 25 -> these number is just my liking
increase vibrance to 12 -> same as above
increase saturation as desired

play with cruves if you dont like how it looks yet, will want something like an s curve, aka shadows down highlights up

sharpen, mask, noise reduction, because your camera doesn't do this to raw images

that is what i would start out with then play from there

you can also go into the hsl, and play with hue, saturation, luminosity for each color

Uhhh. Well in this case, what makes the people seem to stand out so much is a wide aperature and post processing mentioned above

it's a very even lighting due to the cloudy day

looks like a 50mm lens on full frame, narrow DOF but not stopped down all the way

post processing is probably boost in contrast, maybe boost in fill light (you can see good detail in jeans), a little bit of local contrast boost and sharpen.

the sucess of this picture is due to:
drawing attention to the subject by narrow DOF and an effective background
good colors due to proper white balance
even and soft lighting combined with proper exposure control