Help with Post Processing, please!!

[Ralph III]

Hello,


I took some pictures this weekend and am trying to do my best with post processing. Need some help with RAW image editing inCanon DPP, ver. 2.1.It wasfamily portrait shots of a friend who is in very poor health.


Afternoon,outdoor shots with somein full sun while others in heavily shaded areas. Shot with Canon 30d,detached flash (set to manual), in RAW/Jpeg format.


I would like to know the best way, without to great aneffort due to time restraints, in makingthe following corrections and in further learning.


1)Isbrightness adjustments a matter of taste or do you use the graph somehow? Which is almost complete Greek to me.My full sun shots just need to be darkened and typically I do this by taste.


2) The rest of my shots werepurposefully underexposed. I wanted a darker background while using flash on mysubjects. However,myflash setting was to low initially. What is the best way to lighten subject without lightening the background to much?Also do I adjust with the "brightness adjustment" slider or thevertical barson the graph?I always use theslider and typically adjust 17, 33 or up to50. Are these typical adjustments or can I go even higher as one pic is very dark (no flash fire).I initially adjusted the RAW imagein DPP and then the Jpeg imageinPhotoshopbut Noise becomes anissue.


3) My greatest problem is with shadows or bright spots. I have a few shots which need to be lightened some but also have very bright areas where sun shone through. These areas are blown out onone side of face (cheeks and nose). What is the best way to lighten the overall photo and address the bright spots?


My initial attempt, in order to quicklypresent something forthem to choose,was to lighten the RAW in DPP. I thensaved and adjusted the Jpeg image in Photoshop using both the "lighten shadows" and "darken highlights" feature. I thenused the clone tool or brush tool toisolate and darken the blown out areas specifically


4) Lastly, howmuch and when do you adjust with Gausien Blur or Sharpness. I have a few which are slightly out of focus and then want to present some with a softer touch.





Your help in making the above corrections would be greatly appreciated. Note: I ambetter using DPP for RAW images while using Photoshop(more features) on the Jpeg image.


Thanks

[Johnny Rasmussen]

Hi Ralph,


Looks like you are using an old version of DPP. Why not download and install the latest, version 3.7.2 ?


In my opinion there are two ways of doing this, the technical correct way, or doing the adjustments that suits you to get the results you are looking for. I am using both methods. It is all a question of what you want to achieve.


For images where the highlights are burned out I don´t use DPP. I think Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom will give much better results. Canon have recently introduced a Highlight and Shadow tool in DPP. I you download the latest version and are working with RAW-files you can try it. I don´t like it at all. It is a very poor implementation IMO. ACR or LR are doing much better with their Recovery tool.


1) The Brightness slider under the RAW-tab in DPP is basically an exposure slider. You are changing the overall exposure. If you click "View" and "Highlight alert" and "Shadow alert" you will get a warning if the exposure is "incorrect". Highlights are marked with red and Shadows marked in blue. You can adjust the exposure by using the Brightness slider and/or try the Highlight and Shadow tool if necessary.


2) Hmm, I would probably use a mask in Lightroom or Photoshop. If you want to stick to DPP you can try applying selective curve adjustment ( S-curve ) found under the RGB-tab.


Adjusting the vertical sliders under the RAW-tab or RGB-tab is identical to setting a black point (drag the left vertical slider to the right) and a white point (drag the right vertical slider to the left). You are are adjusting the dynamic range. You can find a much better description in the DPP help-file.


How much adjustments can be done before noise is an issue? That is very subjective. If the choice is between a noisy image or no image at all I don´t mind a little noise.


3) I was working on a portrait a few months ago and one of the images had areas with no colorinformation. The highlights were totally blown out. I adjusted them in Photoshop. I used Clone Stamp Tool or Spot Healing Brush Tool. When I do extensive editing I prefer to work with the raw-file or a 16-bit TIFF file.


4) I have used Gaussian only a couple of times. I start by making a duplicate layer, then under the layers button set it to overlay, I then apply Gaussian Blur starting with a value of 4-5, adjusting layer opacity.


Sharpness is of course always the last step. For easy sharpening I use Unsharp Mask. Radius 0.2, Amount 300+





- Johnny

[peety3]

1)Isbrightness adjustments a matter of taste or do you use the graph somehow? Which is almost complete Greek to me.My full sun shots just need to be darkened and typically I do this by taste.


2) The rest of my shots werepurposefully underexposed. I wanted a darker background while using flash on mysubjects. However,myflash setting was to low initially. What is the best way to lighten subject without lightening the background to much?Also do I adjust with the "brightness adjustment" slider or thevertical barson the graph?I always use theslider and typically adjust 17, 33 or up to50. Are these typical adjustments or can I go even higher as one pic is very dark (no flash fire).I initially adjusted the RAW imagein DPP and then the Jpeg imageinPhotoshopbut Noise becomes anissue.


3) My greatest problem is with shadows or bright spots. I have a few shots which need to be lightened some but also have very bright areas where sun shone through. These areas are blown out onone side of face (cheeks and nose). What is the best way to lighten the overall photo and address the bright spots?

I try to do two things when adjusting brightness (up/down) in DPP: check the histogram, and mouse-over various parts of the image, looking at the RGB values shown on the bottom. If you see a '255' for any color, you're most likely clipping that color for that pixel/area, and therefore causing color distortions (the clipped color is 'depressed' next to the other colors, and therefore you'll have a color shift towards white).


I've changed brightness up to +/- 2.00, usually with little to no issues.

[Ralph III]

Thanks for the help and tips. It sounds like my general tactics were sound but did learn some new things. Take care, Ralph