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Whitewater Photography Tutorial #9: Post-Processing.
This should be the last, and potentially most controversial
subject of the tutorial. Post-processing, also synonymous with
photoshopping. How much is too much?
I'll be focusing on Adobe Photoshop CS4 and some unique features to it.
Even if you don't use it some of but not all the technique can be
applied via another program.
Some argue that photography captures reality and
as such shouldn't be tampered with, calling this "journalistic
integrity". I believe that truth in journalism is a very subjective
matter because of the undeniable influence of the writers background. A
war of independence in America, a revolution to England. You're
probably asking how this applies to photography. Each photographer
makes a vast array of choices that influence the photograph, exposure,
angle, what moment to take the shot and so on. All these influence the
shot and can make a small rapid look scary or a potentially deadly
situation look mundane if a sieve is left out. This just goes to show
that we really aren't capturing reality, or at best are only capturing
part of it.
What goes on in photoshop is no more than went on
(and still goes on) in the darkroom. Inspirational photographers like
Ansel Adams would spend hours developing one print with just the right
amount of contrast. Thankfully we can do it without chemicals, and in
less time.
My personal goal is to do my best to capture the
feeling of a rapid or place, and occasionally the feeling of running
one. Of course looking at a photograph isn't the same thing as being
there, feeling mist on your face, hearing the roar of the water and
being fully immersed in the experience. In light of this I have no
problem pushing an image in photoshop to best capture how I felt about
the environment at that moment. My personal taste is to keep
photographs looking real while capturing the moment as well as
possible. The end result is only as good as the original shot, heavily
processing a mundane photograph gives you a heavily processed mundane
photograph.
Raw or jpg? This is a personal choice with plenty
of advantages to both. Jpg's are much smaller sized files because just
the information that makes it onto the histogram is saved, everything
else is clipped off. They are much easier on computer resources to edit
and store. Raw files save about 1/2 stop of extra information and up
the file size considerably. If you have a high end dSLR and shoot raw,
you'll need a computer to match for post processing. I choose to shoot
raw because, whitewater exposure can be tough to nail and it gives you
a little breathing room. I've also shot jpg only for over a year and
sold plenty of those too.
This section really applies to a basic edit of an
image for web use. When it comes times for prints most (larger)
companies just want raw files because they have people with a degree
for getting shots perfect for their printing methods. There are some
exceptions and this is more or less how I edit the final jpgs too,
without the final resize, watermark and sharpening.
First off you'll need to change an option in
photoshop. This year I learned that you can open .jpg files with the
more powerful raw editor. Go to: Edit > Preferences >
File Handling. “Camera Raw Preferences” >
JPEG and Tiff Handling > Automatically open all supported JPEGs.
Now both raw and jpg will open in the raw editor. I'll do a quick walk
through of a photograph that needs minimal work.
Chris Korbulic on Fantasy Falls run of the North Fork Mokelumne. Shot
with the Nikon D200, Nikkor 20mm 2.8 @ 1/1000 F5.6 ISO 100.
Go to the upper right corner and turn on
"Highlight Clipping Warning". You'll see the washed out area on Chris's
helmet turn red. The highlight clipping warning makes any area of pure
white look red. It's hard for the human eye to differentiate when white
washes out, but easy for the computer, so when there is no information
and it's true white (255,255,255) it shows it as red. I leave this on
for editing all whitewater shots.
#1 Vibrance: I like a lot of color in my shots, and to test
things out will put my "vibrance" at 50. Vibrance is a new saturation
tool that does a great job of leaving skin tones natural while helping
out other colors. Adjust to taste (mine is rarely above 50).
#2 Exposure: Every shot gets just a small touch up or down as
needed. I pushed this shot up .45 because Chris's face and the sky are
pretty dark. This makes a few small spots of whitewater clip (wash out)
and turn red. That's ok because of the next step.
#3 Recovery: The recovery slider pulls back just the bright spots that
have clipped. It's amazing and I love it. In this shot I set it at 25
to remove any red spots from the water. A small one still remains on
the helmet but this is normal and would look unnatural to get rid of.
#4 Fill Light: This adjusts the tonal curve in the shadows. Huh?
Sliding it to the right makes dark sections of the photo brighter
without affecting the highlights. For this shot I set it at 35, the sky
now looks nice and I can see Chris's face.
Now the photo is where I like it, bright colors
give it plenty of "pop" and nice lighting on the subjects face. Now I
hold down the Alt button and open a copy of the file. If you ignore Alt
the image will open and create a file of your raw preferences for the
original. I don't want this extra file created since this is destined
to be a jpg for the web.
Now the file is open in regular photoshop and we're almost done. Resize
the photo for it's final size in web use. I like to go 800 pixels on
the long side of the image. Pull up the image size option by hitting
Alt-Ctrl-I, or via the menu: Image > Image Size.
Since this image is horizontal the width is the long side, so I put in 800 and make sure it says pixels and hit OK. 
(Note I''ve already selected the Type tool halfway down on the left)
But the image looks tiny! Hit Ctrl-Alt-0 (zero)
for the image to show at it's natural size. Now is when you add your
watermark of choice if you want to. I like a simple "photo darin
mcquoid" in white. To get the copyright (©) symbol either copy
and paste it from a web page or after clicking on the image with the
type tool, hold down Alt and type in 0169. Release alt and you'll have
the symbol. Align your text where you want it, and if so desired add a
style. Go to Windows > Style to open the styles window. I like a
basic drop shadow. Now hit Alt-E to merge down or via menu: Layer
> Flatten Image. Now for the last step!
Watermarked image.
Sharpening an image should always be the final
step, because any adjustments made after sharpening can soften the
image. Resizing an image always softens it considerably. I like a
little sharpening, but not too much, or you'll get an image that looks
like it came from an archaic digital camera. There is no shortcut for
the Smart Sharpen feature, so through the menu system go Filters
> Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Your first time some
adjustments will need to be made. Be sure the "Preview" box is clicked.
Set it to "Remove: Lens Blur" and set your Radius to 0.1 pixels. Make
sure "More Accurate" is switched on and that you are previewing the
image at 100%. Now adjust the slider until you see the desired result.
The sharper the original image, the less sharpening you'll need. If the
original is very soft you'll need to be much more aggressive with the
amount and radius of the sharpening. For this photo I set my Amount to
30.
Save
the file and upload to a site that won't resize automatically, and we
are done with a basic edit.
These steps may not seem like they make a huge difference while you're
in the process, but if you compare the results side by side it's
amazing. Here is what a direct conversion of the image would look like
with no adjustments.
The same image with basic adjustments made.
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #1: Intro
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #2: What is the right exposure?
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #3: Getting the right exposure.
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #4: Low Light Action
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #5: Focus
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #6: Basic Lighting
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #7: Composition
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #8: Gear Picks
Whitewater Photography Tutorial #9: Post Processing
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