How to make your pictures "pop"

Hi guys and gals, I have been looking at some of the pics you guys post, and I must say I am amazed! Besides the sharpness of the pictures, the color is outstanding. Which brings me to the question, how do you make the images stand out and POP!

Currently I am using the "faithful" setting on my body and have L glass... 24-105 and 70-200.

Any suggestions????

Thanx

Only a noob here, but I was using "Faithful" and went to "Neutral" and noticed a difference. I also might do a small amount of PP in Lightroom as I learn it. It's amazing what you can do with bad shots using raw and LR!!

Technique, composition and a good glass is one thing, but you'll also need a good software to post process your photos. Almost 100% of photographs you see on the net or elsewhere, were processed using the software. In most cases, you would be suprised, if not shocked to see before and after.

BTW, you have some great glass, capable of producing these images of the quality you're talking about.

milleniumking wrote in post #16151058
Hi guys and gals, I have been looking at some of the pics you guys post, and I must say I am amazed! Besides the sharpness of the pictures, the color is outstanding. Which brings me to the question, how do you make the images stand out and POP!

Currently I am using the "faithful" setting on my body and have L glass... 24-105 and 70-200.

Any suggestions????

Thanx

Start with increased saturation. Also consider increasing sharpness and contrast.

Shoot in Raw, learn to post process your images. It makes all the difference. Join NAPP, or Lynda, or even Kelby Training. There's a lot to learn both about seeing the light, creating the light, and processing the files to make the images stand out.

check out some threads such as this one:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=684360

DC Fan wrote in post #16151140
Start with increased saturation. Also consider increasing sharpness and contrast.

QFT. This is usually what I do to my images for the most part. I also edit out flaws via either cropping or using clone/healing brushes. Learning how to use adjustment brushes to finally adjust parts of a photo is a big tool to making your photos pop (for example adjusting the exposure and such of just the iris of the eyes in a portrait can do wonders to make the eyes pop)

There are several tricks. Maybe tricks is the wrong word. Techniques. I don't have much room to talk, however, as I'm still learning this myself. I get lucky sometimes with "pop".

My suggestions are the following:

1. Shoot Raw AND Jpeg. The camera's engineers should not be discounted. If you take a good shot and it comes out great in Jpeg, then be happy. Sometimes the Jpegs out of camera are really good. Shooting in Raw gives you more room to work with it, of course, but Raw comes out relatively bland. It's up to you to work on it and make it pop. Raw is awesome, but it's not perfect. You have to know how to process.

2. Lightroom will not see things the same way Canon's software sees things, so you might get a file that looks a little different in lightroom.

But mostly listen to people, especially those whose work you admire.

I have heard that a ton of behind the pc time is spent to get the pics to pop. I am a noob and have been just trying to treat the camera like a 35mm. I want the pic to pop from the memory card and if I can get it better in a program then ok. What programs are you guys & gals using to get the fantastic results I am seeing around the site?

I personally use Lightroom with a bunch of addons from Nik software to PP my images. If you want to treat the camera like a 35mm and really make your images pop I have some settings I use for when I do shoot JPEG (rarely) I use the standard picture style and bump sharpening 1 notch and everything else 2 notches and it produces images with tons of pop,contrast and saturation.

If using Lightroom, clarity, vibrance, and the whites and blacks sliders will have the greatest effect, combined with a curves adjustment as needed.

kcrunchone wrote in post #16151187
I have heard that a ton of behind the pc time is spent to get the pics to pop. I am a noob and have been just trying to treat the camera like a 35mm. I want the pic to pop from the memory card and if I can get it better in a program then ok. What programs are you guys & gals using to get the fantastic results I am seeing around the site?

Lr and Ps. Honestly, sometimes the light and subject are right and the images look great. Sometimes the light forces a compromise that you have to anticipate and correct in post. Either way, you'll always need some post work, even if it's just some sharpening. Lighting is key, good light makes a good image. You still need to be able to visualize the potential and shoot with an eye to optimizing what's available; both with the original capture and with processing.

Thanx for the responses. I dont use LR or any PP software and when I do I am just messing around with it. I am definately going to try and bump up the saturation and sharpening in camera and give it a shot. Hopefully I can post some pictures soon showing my improvement!

Thanx

Why don't you post an example of a photo that you like and you would like more 'pop' and see what folks can do with it?

You will need to change your profile to allow for editing, so folks can work on your photo...

milleniumking: just try and download the trial version of the LR5 from Adobe website. You'll have 30 days to play with it. There is plenty of tutorials available, including those included with the LR itself. It really is not that difficult. Just play with it and I am sure you'll acquire a lot of knowledge and you'll be able to suprise yourself with the results.