Basic Digital workflow
The bullet point’s below are the steps i take to process my colour Digital images. For Monos its very similar but has some additional tasks, you will also require basic understanding of photoshop to follow these steps……..
- This probably the most important step you will ever make with your digital camera……STOP using JPG and switch to RAW NOW! Why i hear you ask? Well the answer in a nutshell is simple. When you press the shutter the camera is working with 2 different sets of data. 1) Pixels from the image sensor 2) camera settings ( White Balance and exposure for example). If you choose RAW then the image is kept in its raw format with the camera settings retained as a ”sidecar” in the raw file itself. (The RAW file will also include a small JPG that is displayed on the camera preview screen after the shot is taken) But if you’ve selected to produce a JPG the image data is processed according to the cameras settings to produce a finished JPG at the time of exposure. OK with that so far?? Right then Modifying a JPG in photoshop is highly destructive, reason being every time you save the file you are destroying more of the picture. Why? A JPG is a compressed file so every-time its opened its uncompressed then when saved its compressed again. And every compression destroys more of the image. When a RAW file is opened and saved this is 100% NON-DESTRUCTIVE. The original pixels are preserved. The processing values can be changed to improve the picture but you can discard these and return to the original image with no damage done. Yes RAW’s are larger and take longer to download but this is a small price to pay, just buy some more cards and make a cup of tea while there downloading!!! Oh by the way you wont see any difference between a JPG & RAW file until you put them into photoshop then the benefits become apparent. Everything you see on this website that’s been shot on a digital slr had the original file shot in RAW.
- Right then now that’s out the way Once you have the chosen raw file downloaded you can import it into PS by using the Adobe camera raw or Nikon’s own Capture NX software. Its becoming more commonplace for photters to do most of the processing in the camera raw processors these days but for this tutorial i will say lets just open it into Photoshop and go from there. Once its open in PH the first job is to have a look and decide if it needs cropping to improve the composition or to help remove something that’s obtrusive…if so crop it down and you can also use this to correct a crooked picture (is the front buffer bean leaning like the tower of Pisa??) If so you can straighten it up.
- Next step bring up a new curves layer select the grey eyedropper (one in the middle) and find something you think is mid grey in colour. You’ll soon know if its wrong a heavy colour cast will appear. Once you’ve got the right area click OK. (note you can view your changes by clicking on the “eye” in layers palette this turns your changes on & off.
- OK so you’ve now corrected any errors in the white balance, next job is to make bump up your contrast & tone. Bring up a new Levels layer. and pull the LHS marker (effects the blacks) on the histogram up from 0 to around 10, then select the RHS marker and pull that in from 255 to around 235-245 ( effects the whites), then the middle marker can be dragged from 1 > 1.15 max to boost the mid-tones or drop from 1> 0.85 max to drop them. Most images unless in really bright light will need a little boost in the mid-tones. If your exhaust steam looks burnt out with the whites up @ 235 then erase the area out a little but drop the opacity of the eraser to get some of the effect you want.
- Right then next warm up the image a little by opening a new layer called Colour Balance here you want to add +2 on the Cyan- Red scale & -2 on the Yellow to blue scale. This just warms the image up enough especially important on Mono’s.
- You may want to add a vignette around the main image subject to help give it more impact. This is easy also. In the tool box on the LHS choose the elliptical marquee tool (top LHS of the toolbox) use it to run round the bit you want to keep unchanged then right click and choose “select inverse”. This then picks out the outside area. Right now open up a new Levels layer and drag the middle cursor down to no more than 0.85. (make sure the feather is set to 250px. erase any areas you don’t want vignetting.
- Final bit is for upping or dropping highlights / shadows. Along the top go into “select” and choose colour range. choose either highlights or shadows. Add a new Levels layer and using the middle cursor bring it up from 1>1.15 max for shadows or for Highlights drop from 1> 0.85 max. If you go to far you will see it begins to look naff. Again erase out any areas you dont want the effect to be seen.
- And thats about it really. Sounds alot but its real simple after youve done a few hundred it becomes second nature…..If you fancy having a go and get stuck just get in touch and we could go through it step by step. It really does produce the goods. Honest!
Cheers & Happy editing
Jon.