RAW v Photoshop Comparison

Carrigman

For what it's worth I attach, for comparison purposes, two versions of a photo of St Declan's Cathedral, Ardmore, Co Waterford. The first shows the untreated "as shot" RAW image from the camera. The second is the final version after I had enhanced it in Photoshop. I first selected the sky portions using the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I then applied a Levels adjustment to the selected areas to darken the sky. Next I selected the Inverse of the original selection in order to work on the building itself. I again applied a Levels adjustment, this time to lighten the building. I boosted the colour using the Hue/Saturation command and applied a slight S curve in Curves to give it that bit of extra "zing". Finally, I applied Unsharp Mask to sharpen it.

This is not to say it' s a particularly strong image or that the Photoshop work is any good. It's just to show people who may not be familiar with Photoshop the kind of things you can do. And even if you don't use RAW and are happy with JPEGS direct from the camera there is hardly any image that could not be improved with some image editing be it in Photoshop or any other program.

elven

My only nitpick with the PS work is the halo effect round the walls against the sky, it makes the whole scene look a wee bit fake. But I like that you've done this to show people that you don't necessarily have to stick with the picture 'as is' from the camera and using photoshop isn't cheating, as some people seem to consider. I'm sure it's been said before here but photoshop, like all things, can be done well or done badly and that's what should be taken into consideration, rather than the fact that it's been used at all on any image.

Something that I've been thinking about a lot recently, is that there are loads of pictures I've seen and thought "I really could do something nice with that" but I never know how people would react if I suggest making changes to their picture. Then i found a group on flickr where people post pictures and everyone has a go at putting it through their own post processing and you can see the different effects that can be achieved. I think it would be quite fun to have a thread with something similar here where people can submit pictures and we can all have a go with them in ps.

I recently did a bit of work on something a friend took, it definitely won't be to everyone's taste but again it's always fun to try out something different. I'll attach them both so you can see anyway.

Does anyone have any pictures that they wouldn't mind people having a go at? I'm going to rifle through and see if I can dig something up, if anyone fancies it. I hope I'm not hijacking your thread Carrigman, just thought that it fitted in well with your post.

joolsveer

I certainly don't mind if you use some of my shots to illustrate what can be done with PS. I would be the first to admit that I need to learn a lot more about post processing. Burning in and dodging were skills that I used to have in the darkroom when processing the old Ilford Multigrade. Feel free to use any of the shots. If you need a better resolution just PM me.

Carrigman

elven wrote:

Then i found a group on flickr where people post pictures and everyone has a go at putting it through their own post processing and you can see the different effects that can be achieved.

Interesting. What's the name of the group Julie?

elven

Something like 'show us your style'. Unfortunately it's a) not hugely busy and b) has a lot of mediocre shots that people are hoping to have made into good ones, which isn't really what it's about. Some of the photoshopping is a bit ott... but I like the concept anyway.

joolsveer

I found this http://www.flickr.com/groups/showusyourstyle/

5uspect

if your looking for good PS tutorials check out the photoshopTV video podcast on itunes. They have loads of really great tips, for example to select the sky quickly and easily in the OPs RAW picture you can just use the channels to create masks and selections. i.e. duplicate the blue channel fiddle with its levels to darken the buildings and lighten the sky - instant layer mask! no need to mess around with lasso tools

elven

sounds good cheers

ChityWest

Excellent ! i-tunes has 84 photoshop bits on there - never thought of searching for that. Nice one.

Fenster

Well in my case I'm using ufraw and the Gimp, but here is my own before and after shot for a recent photo: