Photo processing workflow

[Waterfall Mike]

Thought I would try a little tutorial on processing a photo. First photo below is the RAW capture with no work done to it at all, straight out of the camera. You can see its underexposed but I did it that way to preserve detail in the water. Second photo below is that same photo after I finished the processing. I think it looks a little nicer.

Original


Rework


So heres the workflow I used.

I guess I should say first that I prefer to work in layers so that each alteration can be adjusted separately at any time. Much easier to work this way, if you mess something up its only on that one layer any easy to redo. If you have never used layers heres a brief explanation on them. They are like working with a drawing using transparent sheets on top of each other. Any opaque pixels you place on a layer effects the look of ever layer below it. You can have solid pixels that cover everything below it or you can have semi transparent pixels that allow some of whats under it to show through by changing opacity levels for the layer or by using what are called layer masks.

To have your layer pallet looking like I do make these adjustments. Do this so my directions make more sense. When you open the layers pallet click on the arrow just below the "X" button in the upper right corner of your pallet. Drop down to the bottom where it says "Pallette Options". Click the middle thumbnail size, click the box for "Entire document" and click on the box for "Use default masks on adjustments".

A layer mask is a tool that allows you to cover or expose specific areas of the layer. Its a greyscale cover over the layer. By default the layer mask is filled with white so it reveals everything. You can fill the layer mask with black to conceal everything. Painting on a mask with the brush tool using black conceals the effects of your layer while painting on it with white reveals the effects of the layer. Theres a ton of free turotails on photoshop layers and layer masks out there to learn in more detail. There a powerful tool and I highly recommend taking the time to learn how to use them.

1) Make yourself a copy of your background, Drop down menu, Layers> Duplicate Layer. This preserves the original photo. All cloning is done to this "background copy" layer. In this photo I cloned in some tree and bush foliage across the top of the waterfall. The actual conditions where overcast with some light rain. That left a very dull looking sky above the falls. Thats all I cloned in this photo.

2) Now we will be working with adjustment layers. Create a new adjustment layer for levels. Do that from your drop down menus , Layers> New Adjustment layers> Levels. We will leave the name for this layer as Levels1. This will bring up an adjustment box for levels. I adjusted the left and right sliders in slightly. The histogram helps to show you if your clipping shadows and highlights. A little clipping is ok. Just adjust it here to suit your tastes. Remember, since this is an adjustment layer you can go back at any time and readjust it. Thats the beauty of working in layers!

3) Now we will make an adjustment layer for Midtones. Layers> New Adjustment layer> Curves. You get the curve window pop up. On this window we want to do some slight adjustments for the midtones. On the curve I dropped an anchor point about midway. I didn't want to do much in the highlight areas of this photo, there bright enough already. Now I dropped a second anchor point halfway between the bottom left corner and the halfway point I just made. I moved it up slightly to lighten the darker ares of the image without effecting the highlight areas. Adjust this to suit as well.

4) Make another adjustment layer for Levels. Layers> New Adjustment Layer> Levels.
Name this one " White Balance" . The purpose of this layer is exactly that, white balance. On the levels box you see three eyedroppers in the lower right area of the box, pick the middle one. If you hover your mouse over it you will see it says " Set Grey Point". Click it to activate it. This is the middle grey so just click it around the image and see how it effects the look. When the colors and look of the image are to your liking your done with this layer.

5) Make a new adjustment layer for Hue Saturation. Layers> New Adjustment Layer> Hue Saturation. The purpose of this layer is for individual color adjustments. I made slight adjustments to most of the colors for this photo. Remember, since these are layers you can go back and tweak them at any time now.

6) These next two layers are the ones that I think do the most for this type of photo. By that I mean a photo with lots of dynamic range, difference between the light to dark areas. A sensor can only capture so much dynamic range then it clips and becomes pure white or pure black with no detail. We can help bring back some detail with these next two layers. Create a new adjustment layer. Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Name it Darken. I used curves but we are not adjusting any curves here at all, just creating an adjustment layer to work with so you could use levels or anything else, just don't do any adjustments with the popup box, click ok in the box to close it.
We will be using a blending mode now. In your layers pallet up right under the tab that says Layers you see a dialog box that says "Normal". This is the blending mode box, another powerful feature of layers. Click the arrow button in the box and you will see a long drop down menu of options, pick the "Multiply" option. The whole picture will become very dark. Thats ok, its what we want. This is where the layer mask comes into play. The mask is the white box to the far right on your active layer. Click on the white box to make it active, it probably already is but clicking on a box makes it active. Now we want to fill this mask with black, remember when working with masks, black conceals white reveals. So go to the drop down menu Edit>Fill. Pick fill with black from the list. Now you see the photo revert back to what it looked like before this layer because the mask is now completely black and is concealing this entire layer from everything below it. Now activate your brush tool and make it white. Paint on the photo with the white brush and you will be revealing the layer, it will become darker. By adjusting the opacity of the brush you have more control as to how much of that dark you want to show through. Play with that and you can see the effect. You can also see in the mask box where you have painted. If you are varying the opacity you will see shades of grey in the mask box. If you do to much change the brush color to black and paint over it to conceal again. This is similar to Dodge and Burn but with more precise control. Since this is a layer it is also something you can go back to and adjust at any time. On this photo I painted in much of the waterfall with a low opacity soft tipped brush to bring out more of the detail in the water. I also painted on the rocks directly to the left of the waterfall. Just paint away because your in complete control here using the mask. If you don't like it paint it over the opposite color and start over. You can come back again later to adjust more if you want.

7) This layer will be for lighten. Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Name it Lighten. Same as above, do no adjustments with the curve pop up window , just click ok. We only want this layer for the mask part of it. This time we want to pick the blending mode option "Screen". You will see the whole photo go much lighter, this is what we want. Same process as above, fill the mask with black to conceal. Activate your brush tool and make it white. Paint in the darker areas to lighten them, vary your brush size, softness and opacity as needed. On this photo I didn't paint much here, mostly to the right side of the waterfall.

Thats it, now you should save this work as a PSD file so you can go back if you want and adjust anything, the layers will all be saved. You then flatten the image, sharpen and save it as a Jpeg file.

Feel free to download this photo and make your adjustments. Post your rework photo here if you wish. Any questions you have just ask, If I can answer it I will.

Enjoy!

Mike

[Mr. Pickles]

Seems like a lot of work, and to me the water isn't white enough. I like it white white. I tried this and thought it punched more...
1) Levels adjustment layer of 0, 1.23, 220
2) Contrast adjustment layer of +20
3) Saturation adjustment layer of +10

[Waterfall Mike]

Actually its a lot more time consuming and harder to explain how to do it then it is to actually do it. A lot of people do most of these adjustments without making layers so its the same process only with layers. The addition of the layers makes it much easier to adjust things.

The masks and blending modes allow for more precise fine tuning of adjustments. This work flow may not be for everyone but its how I do it, not always every step but most of them.

When you get the hang of doing this work flow you can do a photo in about ten minutes. That all depends on how much work you need to do to it and how fussy you are with your photos.

As far as what works for any particular person, How much punch you give a photo or how white you make the water is a personal taste decision. Thats why I asked for people to post there version here for everyone to see.

Thanks

Mike