Photography Post Processing--Before and Afters

[BigFatMeanie]

Cool! I prefer this one. But I'm an art neanderthal so, you know...

Also, I just PMed you some details about Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom...

[swampfrog]

Here's the sandpiper before and afters.

First the original RAW:

1C2A4211, on Flickr

First round of processing as posted in the photography thread:

1C2A4211-2, on Flickr

And this one given the next level of treatment, photoshop and selective NIK processing the processing here is subtle, clicking and viewing the flickr images will facilitate seeing changes:

1C2A4211-Edit, on Flickr

[Copelius]

Original (not sure why not rotated. it is on flickr)
DSC_3030 by copelius, on Flickr
processed with PS Elements 14
DSC_3030 by copelius, on Flickr
I appreciate the comments already on the ISO and shutter speed. Since these are the majority of what I shoot, it is very helpful.

[Moliere]

Flaming Gorge


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[swampfrog]

Original (not sure why not rotated. it is on flickr)
DSC_3030 by copelius, on Flickr
processed with PS Elements 14
DSC_3030 by copelius, on Flickr
I appreciate the comments already on the ISO and shutter speed. Since these are the majority of what I shoot, it is very helpful.

There are a couple of green spots near the white spot bottom center frame. Not sure if they are left over from processing?

[Copelius]

There are a couple of green spots near the white spot bottom center frame. Not sure if they are left over from processing?

Took me a while but I saw them. Looking at the original and zooming in, it appears that when I adjusted the color and exposure in processing some interspersed flowers over developed. They are the same flowers as the ones to above and to the right of the white, which is the end of a log.

[swampfrog]

Full on dramatification for this one.

Before:

1C2A5680, on Flickr

After:

1C2A5680-Edit, on Flickr

[tooblue]

Full on dramatification for this one.

Before:

1C2A5680, on Flickr

After:

1C2A5680-Edit, on Flickr

HDR, or other techniques ... also, are you shooting with a filter? I quite like the dramatification. There is so much more depth to the clouds and the sky.

[swampfrog]

HDR, or other techniques ... also, are you shooting with a filter? I quite like the dramatification. There is so much more depth to the clouds and the sky.

Not HDR on this one, though others I did that morning (bracketed shots for later HDR conversion). 90% Lightroom to enhance contrast in the shadowy dark areas, boost overall contrast/brightness, and some brush work to enhance the greens and highlight some lines. Then to Photoshop to apply the smart sharpen filter (for depth) and noise reduction and also do some cleanup work.

[swampfrog]

Really digging deep into the noise for these eclipse exposures. Even with the severe banding in the noise, an interesting image emerges.

Before:

1C2A8742.jpg, on Flickr

After:

1C2A8742-Edit.jpg, on Flickr

[BigFatMeanie]

Really digging deep into the noise for these eclipse exposures. Even with the severe banding in the noise, an interesting image emerges.

What is banding?

[swampfrog]

What is banding?

When raising the shadows or lightening a digital shot, you get a lot of noise, you also tend to get exposed to sensor weaknesses. Banding is a pattern of color noise that gets exposed when increasing the exposure of really dark areas of the photo. Sometimes this manifests as lines or bands of slight red or green. Sensors are not equal in picking up distinct colors, but generally you don't see this is in a normally exposed image. In this case it's a bit of a red band just outside of the yellow, and a slightly green band just before it goes black. I subdued most of it in Photoshop, but it's still visible. When trying to bring back detail that was captured in the really deep shadows, you get interesting artifacts that take extra work in processing to clean up--or at least make less intrusive. The newer sensors (especially Sony's) are getting much better at capturing this data more evenly.

[swampfrog]

I don't usually do this kind of thing with wildlife, but in this case is seemed warranted.

Original


After processing

[wuapinmon]

Thought about doing this for awhile. Instead of just posting in the regular thread, this one is to see what the original looks like compared to a final version. Also post processing tips, tricks, and techniques. You can click on the pictures to go to the full resolution versions.

Start it off with a morning at the Osprey nest.


OspreyBefore




OspreyAfter

That is exquisite.

[swampfrog]

Another look at processing. Even an overcast, low visibility image can be made into something interesting. Click on an image to go to the original website and view at different resolutions.

Before (Original)


After