Editing Photos

FotobyMoMo

What are the top things people do for edits? I feel my eidts suck and the reason the images come out crappy. What are some suggestions from some of you great photographers and your edits? Please help!

Matthew Saville

FotobyMoMo wrote: »

What are the top things people do for edits? I feel my eidts suck and the reason the images come out crappy. What are some suggestions from some of you great photographers and your edits? Please help!

Hi MoMo,

Not sure what exactly you mean by "edits". Are you talking about simple color correction skills, processing techniques, that kind of stuff? Or special, stylized editing?

Either way, here's my advice: Learning proper color correction is definitely an essential skill for a photographer, but "extra" editing should never be used to make up for crappy images. I can't say whether or not your images are actually crappy, because I've never seen them, but I will say that in my opinion an image needs to be able to stand on it's own two feet, before any editing whatsoever.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use post-production to do something special, in fact many famous photographers use photoshop to truly define their style. But, an image has gotta start off great if it's ever going to be *truly* great.

Hopefully others will chime in with tips on where exactly you can learn special (or traditional) processing techniques.. :-)

Take care!
=Matt=

Art Scott

[QUOTE=Matthew Saville;1507803

Hopefully others will chime in with tips on where exactly you can learn special (or traditional) processing techniques.. :-)

Take care!
=Matt=[/QUOTE]

I totally agree with Matt.....1st and formost the image needs to be as near perfect coming out of the camera....I have been at this for over 30 yrs and I am still learning....but I learned to make sure exposure comp, everything was as close to perfect as i could humanly get it with the constraints put on me......so all my flash was and is still metered by hand (using a handheld incident ambient / flash meter).....a lot of my ambient , indoor and outdoor, images are also metered by hand and I shoot a lot in manual mode......stage shows, concerts, dance shows etc etc, are shot in aperture priority when I do not have time to chimp and I cannot get on stage to meter a lighting run thru......

As for learning....there are great videos at KelbyTraining.com and also Lynda.com


I also hope others will chime in here also............

Matthew Saville

Art Scott wrote: »

I totally agree with Matt.....1st and formost the image needs to be as near perfect coming out of the camera....I have been at this for over 30 yrs and I am still learning....but I learned to make sure exposure comp, everything was as close to perfect as i could humanly get it with the constraints put on me......so all my flash was and is still metered by hand (using a handheld incident ambient / flash meter).....a lot of my ambient , indoor and outdoor, images are also metered by hand and I shoot a lot in manual mode......stage shows, concerts, dance shows etc etc, are shot in aperture priority when I do not have time to chimp and I cannot get on stage to meter a lighting run thru......

As for learning....there are great videos at KelbyTraining.com and also Lynda.com


I also hope others will chime in here also............

Start by mastering exposure and white balance, indeed. Lately over the past year or so I've been taking it a step or two further, and getting really into the picture controls. But, we've already had the "SOOC" discussion here a few times. Here's the blog post:

http://matthewsaville.com/blog/2010/05/17/for-photographers-what-does-sooc-mean/

Take care!
=Matt=

FotobyMoMo

Thanks guys, sorry I been missing for a few days so I didn't check the thread. I have learned my mistakes. As a new photographer I have yet to learn so much. I am learning to use spot meter and the zoning system. It's been giving me far better images. I feel if I can master that then I will get near perfect exposure for my shots and edits will be a lot easier and less needed for my images. I also have to learn the "Do's" and "don'ts" for editing. Slowly but surely I will be there.