Where should I start to get a good finish with my photos

Gilles A.

Hi,

I bought a digital camera a year ago.
This is a Canon Rebel XT (350D). Okay, this is only an entry level, but I think it does the job for now. I shot in raw format.
I have taken thousands of bird's photos so far.

The problem is that I am totally unable to give them a good finish.
I received Paint Shop Pro XI for Christmas but I didn't find the trick to use it to transform my raw photos in good looking ones.
So I installed Photoshop CS2 3 weeks ago and I still have the same problem.

BTW I found PS more complicated then PSP.

I read a lot about those two image editors and I bought a book from Scott Kelby on Photoshop CS2 to help me finishing my photos.
I haven't finished my reading yet.

I have tried so many things so far and nothing works.
My photos are still unpleasant to look at.
The snow is blue, and so are the birds.

Here is an example:


This photo has no transformation. I just opened it in PS raw editor, cropped a little and saved it in jpg format.

You can also look at a series of snowy owl at
http://garchambault.smugmug.com/gallery/2434326#129322208
I miss something with all of them and don't know what and how to fix it.

Can someone help me and show me exactly what to do with this photo to give it a good finish (color, white balance, sharpening).

I would be so grateful if someone could help me with this photo.
I have thousands of them, waiting to be processed.

Thank you very much,

Gilles A.

Sam

What ya got a trained owl? These are darn good.

It doesn't look like they need a lot of work, just some white balance, and minor tweeking. If you give access to a few of the RAW files, I bet many here would see what they can do and pass along the steps they took.

While they can be improved, I think you might be a little hard on yourself.

Sam

Gilles A.

Well thanks for the encouragement.
I took at least 3000 shots on 10 different owls in my area and thrown away 99% of them.

I have tried to work on the white balance but then the image were not sharp anymore.
So I think I just need a few tips to make them whiter and sharper.

Any idea?

Gilles A.

Sam wrote:

What ya got a trained owl? These are darn good.

It doesn't look like they need a lot of work, just some white balance, and minor tweeking. If you give access to a few of the RAW files, I bet many here would see what they can do and pass along the steps they took.

While they can be improved, I think you might be a little hard on yourself.

Sam

rutt

It's a long road, but Dan Margulis teaches photoshop enhancement from first principals. If you learn what he has to teach, you'll be able to make almost every image a lot better.

I wrote a little tutorial that is meant as a intro. We also have a reading group for each of Dan's two books: Photoshop LAB Color, and Professional Photoshop.

El Kiwi

Sam wrote:

What ya got a trained owl? These are darn good.

<snip>

While they can be improved, I think you might be a little hard on yourself.

I agree. I'm no nature photographer, but these are really nice photos.

DoctorIt

Whoa Rutt! overdone take it out of the oven!!!

Gilles - before we go overboard on you with tutorials and colorspaces, can you better explain this:

I have tried to work on the white balance but then the image were not sharp anymore.

there is absolutely no reason why WB tweaks in RAW should affect your sharpness.

that first image you posted is really not bad. The white could use only a minor tweak, and I would suggest it only needs a very very small bit of selective sharpening in some areas.

You have a great capture of a rare bird, don't make yourself crazy convincing yourself you have to "process" it to death.

Gilles A.

I tried to tweak a little the WB (and some other values) in Camera RAW (from PS CS2) and you're right, it doesn't change anything on the sharpness of the photo.
The difference is subtle but I think it's worth it.

I also tried the tutorial from rutt and it gives also a subtle difference on the photo.
However, I have no clue on how to save my photo in JPEG format.
When I am in Camera RAW, I can save the photo in JPEG, but when I use PS CS2 (I mean, the main editor from PS CS2), I only can Save as Web ... to have the choice of the JPEG format, and this option destroy the exif information.
Is there a way to use Save As ... and choose the JPEG format from the list in order to keep all the exif information?

Gilles A.

DoctorIt

Gilles A. wrote:

Is there a way to use Save As ... and choose the JPEG format from the list in order to keep all the exif information?

Gilles A.

Of course! There's no need to do a "save for web", simply do a "save as" and select a different file format, namely jpg. It's simple. Otherwise, the default format will be PSD.

gluwater

Gilles A. wrote:

When I am in Camera RAW, I can save the photo in JPEG, but when I use PS CS2 (I mean, the main editor from PS CS2), I only can Save as Web ... to have the choice of the JPEG format, and this option destroy the exif information.
Is there a way to use Save As ... and choose the JPEG format from the list in order to keep all the exif information?

Gilles A.

When you are opening the images in CS2 it is 16-bit from the raw file. Go to Image>Mode and change the file to 8-bit, then you will be able to select jpg from CS2. If this doesn't help post back and I'll try to figure something else out.

Gilles A.

Thanks to all of you.

When I open the image in 8-bit instead of 16, then I have the JPG choice in the list of format to save in CS2.

Also, I saw some snowy owls from other photographers today and it seems to be difficult for anyone to have a good contrast between the owl and the snow in the background.

But I have some hints to improve the finish of my photos now and I thank you all for that help.

Gilles A.

moose135

I agree - those are some nice shots. A little tweaking on the white balance, but otherwise not much is needed. Shooting a white bird against a white background

HiSPL

Also, make sure your monitor is giving you a true representation of the data. A well set up and calibrated monitor goes a long way in making your post processing easier and better.

Great Owl!

Duffy Pratt

It looked to me like there was a bluish green cast to the picture, and there is no white or black point in the shot, so you are not taking advantage of anywhere near the contrast range that you could. I did curves to kill the cast and add contrast, and then did some sharpening.

Duffy

rutt

Duffy Pratt wrote:

It looked to me like there was a bluish green cast to the picture, and there is no white or black point in the shot, so you are not taking advantage of anywhere near the contrast range that you could. I did curves to kill the cast and add contrast, and then did some sharpening.

Duffy

Very nice. Ask Pathfinder, those white birds have always been a problem for me. I want to see feather detail, but by the time I sharpen and steepen enough to see it, the bird is darker than anyone wants.

pathfinder

John, we are returning to a topic that you and I wrestled with several years ago.:D:D

The problem with white birds is that if all the contrast is used to display feather detail, well, there will be little left for the rest of the image. Some folks white bird images end up with the whites reading 210,212,214, or so which to my eye is not white but light gray. I think sunlit white birds need to read 230,230,230, or better unless they are in the shade.

I find that frequently the red channel is blown when shooting white birds - ( I suppose some will say that means I need more -EC of course - but that is not always the case ).

The feather detail usually resides in the green or even better in the blue channel. Sometimes a channel blend with the blue channel will help bring out feather detail in the white birds also - then shift to LAB and use the Blend IF command to limit the effect to the whitest areas only. Sometimes I even multiply blend the green or blue channel to achieve good feather detail.

You can also see specular reflection lines from sunlight reflecting off the water surface like you noticed on my snow geese shots.

I spent considerable time looking at egrets in Florida in late afternoon sunlight with the same reflections line phenomenon, and I could NOT see ANY detail in those areas of specular sunlight reflections as I would expect - specular reflections by definition do not contain detail.

Good black points and good white points ( not on specular reflections) go a long way on improving the quality of images too.

mamamia

Gilles A. wrote:

Hi,

I bought a digital camera a year ago.
This is a Canon Rebel XT (350D). Okay, this is only an entry level, but I think it does the job for now. I shot in raw format.
I have taken thousands of bird's photos so far.

Only level

jfriend

I thought I'd take a try at this one too, just because it looks like a fun image.

• Set whitepoint
• Set blackpoint
• Add S-curve for contrast
• Color correct to remove blue-cast from white feathers
• Sharpen