 Pat Harry |
What are your Must Have post processing tools? Other than Photoshop, Lightroom, and something to remove noise - what do you use the most in post processing?
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Lynn R. Powers |
Proper exposure including as low an ISO as necessary.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Pat, I have been a Photoshop user since 2001 and learned about levels, curves & white balance along with taking some courses here at BP but these days I am shooting with a Canon 5D Mk II full frame and most of my processing is done on the 1st page of ACR Adobe Camera Raw. It has an eyedrop tool for setting white balance, then flows down to exposure, fill light, brightness, contrast & then Clarity/Vibrance/Saturation.. My curves are set at medium which works fine most of the time and I sometimes re-adjust it if needed. If my exposure is correct, the 5D2 images come straight out of the camera looking great :) ACR is the tool I do 90% post today. I still use layers & have PhotoMatix (HDR), Topaz Adjust & Corel Painter but use these only for specific effects I want to enhance an image to my liking. Hope this helps, Carlton
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chrisbudny.com - Chris Budny Contact Chris Budny Chris Budny's Gallery |
Adobe Camera Raw---I'm with Carlton on that one! Then just standard PS filters & tools, and Topaz Filters plugin when I want to play around.
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Lynn R. Powers |
Pat, I didn't mean to sound like a "Smart Alec". But you said "Other than Photoshop..." etc., and I consider my My cameras only have 10 & 12MB and as long as the shadows are exposed enough I get very little noise. I have also found that over processing can cause apparent noise.
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- Carolyn M. Fletcher  Contact Carolyn M. Fletcher Carolyn M. Fletcher's Gallery |
Topaz Adjust, Dream Suite, Buzz, Virtual Photographer, Flood, and occasionally a little Fractalius.
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Pat Harry |
I'm enjoying the responses - thank you! Lynn, I certainly did't hear a smart alec tone in your response at all! I'm looking to build up my post processing tools a bit. A few years back I learned about Viveza from Tony's class, and love that tool. I was just wondering what other tools folks. However, I've learned from the responses above that I need to make more out of ACR. I tend to just adjust exposure in ACR, and do everything else in PS. Carolyn, you've mentioned a few I haven't tried, so I need to go look at them. Thanks!
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Lois Wilkes |
I work is layers all the time so any changes I make to my original can be deleted if I don't like it. I don't have the hang of smart filters yet, perhaps one day soon. I also love the topaz plugins esp adjust, detail, lens effect- I do have their whole suite (which goes on sale every once in a while) and On One suite. Both companies have lots of video tutorials. I also like flaming pear Atherize and Flood. Akvis seems to have some interesting plugins,but they crash my PS5 if I try them. (Windows 7) On One also has some stripped down freebies to download of their products and some camera raw viewer presets, too.
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Kathryn Wesserling |
As an extra tool, I use Topaz fairly often - especially Adjust and deNoise (which now can be used in one step.) I've learned to start with a Preset and then customize it with the choices on the right side. I've also started - after resizing my almost-final version for BP and others - going back to the UnSharpMask, but moving the strength down to 60-70 (which provides more clarity without being strident.)
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- Ken Smith Contact Ken Smith Ken Smith's Gallery |
With RAW processing; e.g., Adobe Camera RAW, you can create several images from the same parent RAW file; one image underexposed, the next the normal exposure, and the 3rd overexposed. Then, use Photomatix software for the HDR. I also use Topaz Adjust. There's a nice free plug-in called Virtual Photographer.
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Kathryn Wesserling |
VP is a good Plug-In. I go in spurts with it, but it's nice to keep handy.
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Pat Harry |
I haven't heard of flaming pear or the VP plug in. I see some serious tinkering coming up!!
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Lois Wilkes |
Flaming Pear has a suite of plugins. My favorite is Atherize where you can do crazy things with colors if you want to and Flood which is a lot of fun as you can put water in front of any image. Its amazing how it picks up the colors in the photo to make the water. They also have a lot of freebees you can download.
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Kathryn Wesserling |
Pat, here's the url for Virtual Photographer. I think maybe that I don't use it so much since Topaz continued to improve Adjust. But, now I'm remembering that I especially liked it when working on a B/W and tones (time to go back & check it out.) Like Adjust, you can save any custom "formula" that worked well for you. http://www.optikvervelabs.com/
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