Learning RAW and PP...please C&C!

Hi there,

Just learned some tricks from the RAW and PP masters in these forums. Let me know what you all think so far. Good or bad...always appreciated. Thanks!

Before/After Contrast USM

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Looks good to me. I am not on my calibrated monitor so I can't comment on the color, but the contrast looks much improved. The haze is gone which is a good thing.

the contrast is good, and the sharpening worked. it could use a tad more saturation though.

In2Photos wrote in post #3096728
Looks good to me. I am not on my calibrated monitor so I can't comment on the color, but the contrast looks much improved. The haze is gone which is a good thing.

Thanks! My settings for USM were 29 39 0...played around with it a bit and settled for those numbers. Aren't you proud? I really like trying new things out, though it takes me a while to jump in.

Thanks again for your tips from the other post, Mike!

ZL4life wrote in post #3096766
the contrast is good, and the sharpening worked. it could use a tad more saturation though.

How much more saturation do you think it needs? And when you mean saturation, you're talking about shadows, highlights, and such...right? I guess I will have to start playing around with those other settings...I don't know...I'm always afraid that I'll mess up somehow and not be able to go back and fix it.

what photo editor are you using?
In PS you can take snapshots and go back to where you were if a path dont work out.

The edited image looks good, maybe just a hair flat, more saturation would help.

didnt spend a lot of time on it..
hue/saturation layer +10 saturation -2 lightness.
The resave to jpg made it look over sharpened ignore that part.

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JennB wrote in post #3097121
How much more saturation do you think it needs? And when you mean saturation, you're talking about shadows, highlights, and such...right? I guess I will have to start playing around with those other settings...I don't know...I'm always afraid that I'll mess up somehow and not be able to go back and fix it.

saturation refers to color intensity. Stmrdr's is good... i would have gone with something even more though, like +15

Just a tip for photoshop: When you do any post-processing at all, create a new layer from the background. It's essentially a copy of the picture inside the picture. That way, you don't actually change anything about the original photo, and if you want to instantly go back to the original, just delete the layer. You can also do a before/after comparison by making the copied layer visible/invisible (with the eye icon). It's super handy and often saves a ton of time and headache.

Thanks for all your comments and tips! I'm using Photoshop Elements 3...I know it's time to upgrade to 5, just haven't had the time to do it. As per your recommendations, here's how my saturation processing went:

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Looks great...very life-like.

did good

Sonic Infidel wrote in post #3098412
Looks great...very life-like.

strmrdr wrote in post #3098644
did good

Thank you both for your encouragement! I truly appreciate it!

wow, nice. I agree about it needing a saturation boost, but I think your result turned out very well. I've never taken the time to do a JPEG / RAW comparison side by side like this, but the difference is quite noticeable. There's detail in the RAW conversion that was simply lost in the JPEG that helps enhance the shot quite a bit. I need to try this myself

elbirth wrote in post #3102917
wow, nice. I agree about it needing a saturation boost, but I think your result turned out very well. I've never taken the time to do a JPEG / RAW comparison side by side like this, but the difference is quite noticeable. There's detail in the RAW conversion that was simply lost in the JPEG that helps enhance the shot quite a bit. I need to try this myself

Thank you! I'm so hooked on RAW...it's amazing! Also learned local contrast enhancement can do wonders for those hazy photos. Just trying to let it all sink in...I have 3x5 cards with different settings written down. Can't wait to try them all!