BEFORE and AFTER: The Post Processing Thread

I took a last second drive to take a quick pic as the sun was coming down. I think I might have pushed the boundaries of reality a bit here, but as I was messing around in the raw, I found a lot of purple in the sky that didn't show up in the photo. I also remember that the sun was setting and the sun was particularly orange against the sky. I wanted to show that here, hopefully in a not too unrealistic way.


Before:
M3 CS Sunset RAW by JMG, on Flickr

After:
M3 CS Sunset by JMG, on Flickr

Friend did this edit for me (I took the roller)

Original:



Edited:

Not a good photographer or photo editor, but here are my before and after:

Did a set today with all the smoke around

Ickdeep wrote

Did a set today with all the smoke around

Great job on post--I wish I had skills like that!

Shooting RAW really opens up the possibilities. I lent my zoom lens to a buddy and taught him to increase exposure and track the car to get motion blur. I was able to find the clouds and color behind all that haze and over-exposure. Adding some dramatic lighting and shading to draw the eye to the car made this photo pop.

joooiiiiii wrote

Great job on post--I wish I had skills like that!

Thank you... just practice; practice makes perfect.

Here is a new one with my new truck

Ickdeep wrote

Thank you... just practice; practice makes perfect.

Here is a new one with my new truck

What software are you using for this?

I'm Analog in a Digital world. The last time I did photo manipulation, I used B&W FILM and a DARKROOM!

Heh.

R.

flybigjet wrote

What software are you using for this?

I'm Analog in a Digital world. The last time I did photo manipulation, I used B&W FILM and a DARKROOM!

Heh.

R.

This is with Adobe Lightroom. Which I think 99% photographers use to edit their photos. Its pretty easy to learn (a lot of YouTube videos on it). The key point with Lightroom & Photoshop is that you shoot photos in a .RAW format. This allows for the ability to really manipulate the photo.

Anyone on Flickr?

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



The last set are almost identical...take a second apart. But I must have deep 6'd the original for the "After" shot. But the conditions are exactly the same, hell the people on the pier are the same. Oddly enough, I never remember to save the original after I edit. I have killed off a lot of my originals!

This one is kinda cheating a bit, but the before is all the exposures involved just thrown on and set to lighten with no other editing involved. I did that to illustrate the positions of the flash I used. The second is the final product.

Supra beginnings by Michael Long, on Flickr

Supra by Michael Long, on Flickr

joooiiiiii wrote

Great job on post--I wish I had skills like that!

If you're new to post processing photos, shooting in RAW format, as stated above, os highly recommended. The photos save a whole lot of detail that can be extracted when editing them. The downside to this is the size of the photos is significantly bigger and they look flat straight out of the camera.
If you've never used any software to correct your photos previously, I'd highly recommended Luminar. It's super simple and the newer versions use AI quite well.

CurryPuff wrote

If you're new to post processing photos, shooting in RAW format, as stated above, os highly recommended. The photos save a whole lot of detail that can be extracted when editing them. The downside to this is the size of the photos is significantly bigger and they look flat straight out of the camera.
If you've never used any software to correct your photos previously, I'd highly recommended Luminar. It's super simple and the newer versions use AI quite well.

Thanks for the advice. I use Lightroom and purchased a iPad Pro 1TB for editing last year as my current laptop is not able to keep up with editing anymore. I love shooting RAW, gives me so much control over everything. I think my it helps my OCD a bit lol. I'll look into Luminar.

One of my new favorite edits is see through hood

this thread has motivated me to finally buy a camera! I'm decent-ish in photoshop but would always just edit other peoples photos for fun. I was thinking about upgrading my phone but then thought... everything on my phone is fine, its just the camera thats holding it back (pixel 2)... so why not just get a real camera?

bought a canon eos rp mirrorless + 24-105mm f/4-7.1 Lens + polarizing filter to get me started. might get another lower aperture lens in the future for more bokeh, or just create the effect in photoshop.

Humdizzle wrote

this thread has motivated me to finally buy a camera! I'm decent-ish in photoshop but would always just edit other peoples photos for fun. I was thinking about upgrading my phone but then thought... everything on my phone is fine, its just the camera thats holding it back (pixel 2)... so why not just get a real camera?

bought a canon eos rp mirrorless + 24-105mm f/4-7.1 Lens + polarizing filter to get me started. might get another lower aperture lens in the future for more bokeh, or just create the effect in photoshop.

Nice congrats! You want a big aperture (low F-stop aka a "fast" lens) for some bokeh, I would avoid creating it in photoshop as they always look bad and fake unless you are very very very very good at it. Alternatively, you can use a long focal length lens to create separation ie bokeh. My go-to lens at the moment is a 16-35mm F/2.8. I can get nice and wide for landscape shots, go to 35mm and open the aperture up to get some portrait type shots. I also have that 24-105 f/4 and you can create some decent bokeh at close to 105mm. It's a very versatile lens.

If you want an easy fast lens to play with that doesn't cost that much, try the "nifty 50" 50mm f/1.8. If want something a little more interesting I recommend the 85mm f/1.8, which to me is a nice lens for automotive photography. I used it for this shot:

M3CS by JMG, on Flickr

jmg wrote

Nice congrats! You want a big aperture (low F-stop aka a "fast" lens) for some bokeh, I would avoid creating it in photoshop as they always look bad and fake unless you are very very very very good at it. Alternatively, you can use a long focal length lens to create separation ie bokeh. My go-to lens at the moment is a 16-35mm F/2.8. I can get nice and wide for landscape shots, go to 35mm and open the aperture up to get some portrait type shots. I also have that 24-105 f/4 and you can create some decent bokeh at close to 105mm. It's a very versatile lens.

If you want an easy fast lens to play with that doesn't cost that much, try the "nifty 50" 50mm f/1.8. If want something a little more interesting I recommend the 85mm f/1.8, which to me is a nice lens for automotive photography. I used it for this shot:

thanks. yeah i keep forgetting big aperture = low f-stop. Doing more research and i agree... better to have the right lens for the job than to try and create an effect in photoshop. less time consuming this way too. I downloaded LR last night and played around with it, a bit more intuitive for color correction / lighting than photoshop.

camera should be here next wednesday. looking forward to playing around with the settings, subject matter, and getting some feedback here.

Humdizzle wrote

thanks. yeah i keep forgetting big aperture = low f-stop. Doing more research and i agree... better to have the right lens for the job than to try and create an effect in photoshop. less time consuming this way too. I downloaded LR last night and played around with it, a bit more intuitive for color correction / lighting than photoshop.

camera should be here next wednesday. looking forward to playing around with the settings, subject matter, and getting some feedback here.

Color correction and lighting corrections can really transform a photo. These recent ones were all just color correction and lighting adjustments in Photoshop and Lightroom:

just a couple i've done so far. I took your advice jmg and just ordered the nifty fifty lens. For the second photo i took inspiration from VisualEcho and his post #190 flipping from noon to night.

Humdizzle wrote

just a couple i've done so far. I took your advice jmg and just ordered the nifty fifty lens. For the second photo i took inspiration from VisualEcho and his post #190 flipping from noon to night.

Nice work keep at it! I would add a little blue to the night shot as see if that adds some atmosphere.

Route 66 before and after F90 M5 Singapore grey