Pictures look flat

I must say that I enjoy coming to the site but the more I look at peoples pictures the more mine seem flat. Maybe it's my kit lens, or my lack of photoshop skill but everyone elses pictures just pop right out as if you're right there. And they're all so sharp as well. What sort of PP adjustments are you guys and girls doing to make them look so great? I generally adjust the histogram, play with the brightness/contrast, sometimes the hue/saturation and follow it up with the unsharp mask and then resize to about 600 pixels. Is it just trial and error or are there some photoshop adjustments that are absolute must do's to bring out the best in the image?

Post an image that is 'too flat' & turn on 'Image Editing OK' in your profile. Then ask people to show how they'd modify your image

Well, I see a few problems here Shane.

First off, when you import (and this is arguable), you want to do a "capture sharpen". Pretty much, this just bumps up the sharpness a little bit so as to compensate for any softness you have gotten due to compression. Do an very subtle USM (i.e. Amount 60, Radius 1, Threshold 10) to accomplish this.

Second, you NEVER want to play with the brightness sliders. This is probably the main reason that you are getting a "washed out" or "flat" look. Learn how to use "Levels" and "Curves". Once you do, you'll wonder why you ever used the Brightness slider. The contrast slider is ok to play with, but typically I find that after diong curves and levels, I don't need any more contrast.

Third, saturation is a great place to start. Try doing Saturation/Lightness adjustments ona per-channel basis (i.e. Red, Orange, Aqua, Blue, etc) to really isolate parts of the photo.

Fourth, crop your picture to however big you want it (depending on output - print, web, etc) and THEN do you final sharpening. This is called "Output Sharpening" and the USM settings will all depend, but a starting point of Amount 120, Radius 2, Threshold 5 is good for an 8 x 10 print.

Hope this helps.

Bryan--thanks for posting that info! I was just about to ask the same question. What is a "capture sharpen"? By USM is that UnSharpMask? If so, what is that and when do you use it--I mean, why sharpen then unsharpen? What does it mask?

I tried a CS2 class but the teacher was not going to get into really processing photos the way I thought he would, but I learned I didn't need CS2 or CS3 so got PSE5 and Light Room. Just getting up to slow speed on these programs.

Rudy M. wrote in post #3521087
Bryan--thanks for posting that info! I was just about to ask the same question. What is a "capture sharpen"? By USM is that UnSharpMask? If so, what is that and when do you use it--I mean, why sharpen then unsharpen? What does it mask?

I tried a CS2 class but the teacher was not going to get into really processing photos the way I thought he would, but I learned I didn't need CS2 or CS3 so got PSE5 and Light Room. Just getting up to slow speed on these programs.

Not a problem at all Rudy.

Yes, you are correct that USM means UnsharpMask. The title is a little deceiving though - it is a sharpening tool, not an unsharpening one. I think it has somethign to do with the way you could sharpen photos w/ slides, I'm not sure. I'm sure someone will cue in with an explanation.

I use some sort of sharpening to almost all of my photos. Now with the more advanced sharpening controls in Lightroom, i am trying to get used to that. I have certain settings that I have it apply on import.

Also, it mask anything - just the weird name again. The mask option in Lightroom though, does do some masking on the sharpening effect. As you turn up mask slider, it will not apply the sharpening to more and more parts of the photo with a more constant tone.

For example, if you were doing a headshot and you wanted to sharpen the deatils (i.e. eyes, mouth, nose, etc), aside from selective sharpening (more advanced, and in PS not LR), you could turn the mask up a bit higher to "mask out" the constant parts of the face (i.e. the cheeks).

Hope this helps!

Im still learning, but I picked up a lot of good basic info on curves and levels from this site that I apply all the time. You should read through the several curves and levels tutorials on this site. http://www.bairartedit​ions.com/pages/tutoria​ls/photoshop/

hope that helps

mprice wrote in post #3521259
Im still learning, but I picked up a lot of good basic info on curves and levels from this site that I apply all the time. You should read through the several curves and levels tutorials on this site. http://www.bairartedit​ions.com/pages/tutoria​ls/photoshop/

hope that helps

Great link. I just checked it out and it seems like there is a lot of valuable information on this site.

To the OP - I definitely suggest checking it out.

OK--I think I got what USM does. Correct me if I'm wrong. I understand USM to only allow sharpening of the lines or contrast areas, and not the solid color patches? Rather than a face, lets say a person's arm on a checked table cloth. The over all sharpening would cause distortions of sort thoughout if it is done too much, but the unsharp mask only allows the sharpening to be done on the lines where arm meets table cloth and the lines separating the checks? And nothing is done in the patches of color representing the individual checks or the arm because they are one, solid color?

I guess I need to simply let some other fires burn for a while and simply dedicate some undisturbed hours to learning this stuff!

mprice - Great link, helped me put a lot of the pieces and parts together! Thanks a lot

Leaving usm for a minute and going back to your first question.

How do you make a photo "pop"?

dull color is a result of one or more of several factors.

First taking the photo.
is it exposed correctly?
did you use a lens hood?
incorrect WB
incorrect color space

ok let's say you have a good photo in your camera.

Do you have you monitor color corrected?
Do you know what color space you are working in?


when you have all the above right, now it's time to process the file
levels and curves are a good way to start.
another little trick is to use match color, match color is supposed to be used to match the colors of two photos, but if you use it on one you can boost the colors pretty nicely there.

channel mixer is nice to boost a range of colors. ie the red barn in the background but not the grass...

Sharpening is also multi parted.

first you need a sharp picture in your camera, use a tripod, get a good exposure...

all photo's need some amount of sharpening. If you are using ACR version 4 or lower around 25% is a nice start.

in PS there are three sliders
radius
amount
threshold

different people have different ways of doing this, but try this...

View your photo at 100%
take the radius all the way down.
take the amount all the way up.
take the threshold all the way down.

now adjust the radius up, while watching your photo. look at the edges of your photo you will see fringing keep moving it till it's gone.

once you do it a few times you will understand what the sliders do and how they effect your photo.

after all that you can also use masks to sharpen parts of the photo different amounts.

a mask is like putting your film on a light table, place a white sheet over your photo and you can still see your photo, but if you put a black sheet over your photo you can't see it.

so sharpen the eyes and not the rest of the photo.

make a duplicate layer
sharpen the top layer
add a mask and fill it with black, then paint with white where the eye's are.

tons and tons of things you can do in PS and really a bunch of different ways of getting the same effect.

But it all boils down to getting it right in camera, or at least as close to right as you can.

More than happy to answer any other questions.

Bob

Thanks for all the replies. I'll try to put some of the to practice over the weekend.