Photography Forum | Post-editing

When it comes to post-editing, I tend to straighten the image first, then crop it, then I adjust the exposure (brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights) and colours (temperature, tint and saturation) in that order, then I sharpen the image (applying noise reduction if necessary) and, finally, I re-size the image (to 1200x800 pixels). The question is...am I doing things in the 'correct' order?

Also, having at long last saved up enough shekels to purchase a copy of PS Elements 10 (half price at Currys!), am I better off using the 'Guided Edit ' function while I familiarise myself with the various tools in the 'palette'. If the answer to my last question is 'yes', would it be advisable to avoid the 'enhance colours' option, bearing in mind that it has led to a couple of my photos being rejected on the grounds that the colours weren't "natural"?

I'm doing everything same till colours , then resize and after that sharpening.

Thanks Chris, much appreciated. If it works for you, then it's good enough for me, particularly bearing in mind that your acceptance ratio is the stuff that dreams are made of!

What is my acceptance ratio? Where can i find it?

It's 97.59 per cent. Go to the 'Aviation Photos' page and scroll to the bottom of the drop-down list. Click on 'Photographers' and, hey presto, you're third on the list.

I would agree with FLcriminal, sharpen after re-sizing.

I go in this order:-

Level
Crop
Spot removal (if needed)
Levels
Curves
Colour
Re-size
Sharpen
Noise Removal

Thanks Jim and Steve. Your advice is much appreciated.

I (mistakenly?) thought that PS Elements would solve all my post-editing problems, but, as things stand at present, my acceptance ratio seems to be going down, rather than up!! Ah well, if at first you don't succeed...

It's not which software you have but how well you know it. Spend as much time as possible trying everything. Most members (myself included) use Adobe CS. It took me a long time to get a workflow that suited me. There's no right or wrong way to edit just whichever works best for you. The AR is not important I noticed 4-5 above me but some of those have much less onsite.

Sorry to be a pain, but could somebody please give me some tips on the best way to anti-alias using PS Elements. Up to now, I have tended to feather the jagged edges using the 'blur' tool but, since switching from Gimp to PS Elements, an increasing number of my shots are now being rejected for being too soft...so I'm guessing (aka hoping!) that there must be a better way!

...and/or over-sharpened!!

before you start sharpening create a duplicate layer sharpen in small increments. not all parts of the shot will sharpen at the same rate so you may need to oversharpen some parts then erase the oversharpened parts using the percent option slider of the erase tool. when your happy flatten the image and your done
you have to experiment with different erase settings but this method works be carefull not to oversharpen the sky i usually overcome this by selecting just the aircraft using the quick selection brush

Thanks bluechalk. It sounds awfully complicated but I'll definitely give it a try!

by sharpening on a duplicate layer you are not affecting the background layer until you flatten or merge layers, practice oversharpening exessiveley then try to erase using different percentages start with 25% and move the slider up or down and watch the effect, when doing my final sharpening i use an amount 0f 40 and a radius of 0.5 and add incrementally/ using actions makes the job much easier but you need full
version of photoshop to create them i use a mac so inserting actions are different from windows maybe some of the nice gentlemen on pm could create some for you and email them to you with instructions

james
a little tip for adding small amounts of sharpening addatively after setting amount and radius in unsharp mask you can add repeatedly by going to the filter option in your elements menu and the last filter used is displayed at the top just click on this and repeat the same amount. you have to set it up for each session bit its quicker than repeatedly going in to the unsharp mask function if you dont have actions set up

Thanks again, Jim. It looks as if I'm going to be spending most of the Christmas break experimenting!