Best way to edit?

As i surf this forum and check out everyone's images, it seems like mine are somewhat flat in comparison. Now I do have some real nice ones, but it seems like the new thing now is to bump up the contrast and make everything look like it was PSed. I'm more of a purist in terms of doing everything in camera, and not taking it into PS to do anything, unless I'm going for a certain look. I shoot all RAW, so I have ultimate control, and use CR because I personally don't like Lightroom at all. I manually manage where everything is, which is why neither Lightroom nor Aperture are right for me. But in terms of everyone here, how do you edit your images, and what do you normally have to do? Are there any purists here as well?

mknabster wrote in post #10611220
...Are there any purists here as well?

I'm as as close to a purist as you can get, but I still edit my shots to reflect the mood or creative vision I had in mind when shooting. Maybe the better term is minimalist.

But if you're shooting raw and you do nothing to raw images, of course they'll look flat. I at least run raw images through the basic tab in ACR and later revisit the image for creative work in Photoshop.

What would you recommend doing to them, in general that is? When i shoot macro, everything pops, so i never worry about that, but in terms of landscapes and such?

mknabster wrote in post #10611286
What would you recommend doing to them, in general that is? When i shoot macro, everything pops, so i never worry about that, but in terms of landscapes and such?

For landscapes, if you aren't already using one, get a good quality circular polarizing filter and always shoot on a tripod or monopod. Shoot early morning or just before sunset. Maybe experiment with HDR techniques or B&W conversions. A flat color landscape shot can often be turned into a dramatic B&W.

If you're shooting in RAW, you should definitely be added some contrast. That doesn't mean boosting it so high it looks "photoshopped", it can still look natural... but RAW files are much too flat to leave them be completely. They also need some sharpening. At times, I'm very "purist" and don't like heavy photoshopping but I still add basic contrast and sharpening to all my images.

Hmm, I never thought about sharpening, I guess that's why that option is there. I never fully grasped what that slider was for. Are there certain types of pictures sharpening should be applied to, or is that for basically everything? And also, if you are familiar with Camera RAW in PS, which is better to up, the contrast, or the blacks?

mknabster wrote in post #10611397
... if you are familiar with Camera RAW in PS, which is better to up, the contrast, or the blacks?

You want to set your black point first, because the black point effects shadow detail and color strength. You want to make sure you're not clipping dark areas, but retaining deep color at the same time. Contrast can help a photo "pop" but can lose midtones and shadow detail if you over do it.

I prefer to boost the contrast but I don't like putting it up too high so if I need something extra, I increase the blacks by 1 or 2 points.

Along those lines of Black Point. In Lightroom2, I have noticed my black-point is automatically set to a value of 5. I could have sworn long ago (and it may have changed from a LR2 update/patch), that the Blacks value was set to 2.

Any thoughts on how this happened, or - more importantly - how I change the default value LR2 uses. My best guess is that it possbily has to do with the Camera Calibration slider in the develop module. I think it is set to Standard Adobe RGB. Should I set it to Camera Standard?

I think the Black has always had a default of 5.

Thanks for your responses everyone. I'll play with the settings, and see what happens, i'm sure i'll get something that i'm happy with

RAW files most of the time need a little saturation and contrast boosts

Bagman wrote in post #10612330
Along those lines of Black Point. In Lightroom2, I have noticed my black-point is automatically set to a value of 5. I could have sworn long ago (and it may have changed from a LR2 update/patch), that the Blacks value was set to 2.

Any thoughts on how this happened, or - more importantly - how I change the default value LR2 uses. My best guess is that it possbily has to do with the Camera Calibration slider in the develop module. I think it is set to Standard Adobe RGB. Should I set it to Camera Standard?

LR "defaults" are specific to one camera, and can be set (in the prefs) to be ISO-specific.

If I import an image into LR2, shot at an ISO setting I'd not used before, it will come in with the "LR default": Everything 0, Blacks at 5, contrast 25, brightness 50.

René Damkot wrote in post #10617137
LR "defaults" are specific to one camera, and can be set (in the prefs) to be ISO-specific.

If I import an image into LR2, shot at an ISO setting I'd not used before, it will come in with the "LR default": Everything 0, Blacks at 5, contrast 25, brightness 50.

ISO-specific is just what I think it is? LR2 reads the ISO from the photo's EXIF information and then applies those settings you described?

I can tell you that the values for the fields you mentioned are exactly what LR2 sets all my imported photos to.

mknabster wrote in post #10611397
Hmm, I never thought about sharpening, I guess that's why that option is there. I never fully grasped what that slider was for. Are there certain types of pictures sharpening should be applied to, or is that for basically everything?...

That's an "It depends" type question. Sharpening on earlier versions of ACR was not that sophisticated and many users chose to do NO sharpening in ACR, then do their sharpening on the converted image later, in Photoshop. The sharpening now is greatly improved, but the camp is still divided between those who apply a base sharpening amount to every image, those who selectively sharpen according to the needs of the specific image, and those who still wait until they get into Photoshop before sharpening.

Every raw image needs some sharpening. When to sharpen, how much to sharpen, and what to sharpen is something you'll have to learn.