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    Photo Editing Tips

    I don't know how many of you edit photos, so this thread might not go over that well. I thought that it might be nice to have a thread that could help people solve problems with a picture they took, or maybe repair an older picture.
    I enjoy working on pictures, and thought that maybe others did too, but that they didn't have the expertise to accomplish what they needed to do in order to repair or touchup a picture.
    I'm no expert, but I have some knowledge, and hoped that there may be others here who have some expertise that they could share with those who need help.
    I'm a big fan of Photoshop, and I use it extensively for most of my editing work. Others may use something else, and that's fine if it does what you need it to do.
    There was a thread that I was reading a few days ago regarding the Raw camera format, and why it has replaced the TIFF format.(that thread must have been removed because I can't find it anymore) That's an easy one....Raw is by far, the best format you can use when taking a digital photograph. The easiest way to describe the difference in formats would be to say that the TIFF format would take the photograph, apply all the camera settings such as white balance, sharpness, etc., and process the image that you photographed with all those parameters to result in a picture.
    With RAW, the camera saves all the raw data individually. That is, when you press the shutter and allow light to strike the sensor, that produces raw information from the sensor to the camera's processor. This information is just recorded as bits of data. You also have the camera settings that are saved separately, like the white balance and sharpness. This information is not fed into a processor so that it comes out in a nice, neat TIFF image. Instead, the information is stored as separate bits of data, and is combined so that you can see what the picture looks like, but the combined parts are individually adjustable.
    For example, if you used the wrong white balance, you can access the white balance setting you set up when you took the picture, and change it to a different white balance, since the white balance isn't a permanent part of the photo. It's just raw data that hasn't been processed into the final image yet. The same goes for other aspects of the photo....the sharpness, the amount of each color that the sensor was exposed to, and so on. Raw allows you to redo the camera's settings after you've taken the picture. That makes for a powerful image editing tool.
    By the same token, if you are an excellent photographer and don't make many mistakes when you take pictures, then you might find that raw isn't something you need. Myself, I always figure that there is always the chance that one might make a mistake, and that mistake could result in a ruined picture, that could have been saved if it was taken in raw, so I try to shoot raw most of the time.
    So, getting back to the main idea of this post, is anyone interested in a photo editing topic like this? I was thinking that if people responded well to this thread and needed to have a photo edited in some way, they could post the image to a newsgroup, or to someplace like Pixentral http://www.pixentral.com/ so that we could download it, repair it, and repost it with tips on how it was done.

    #2
    Okay, now I see the thread about raw files. It was started by Mothra. I didn't see it because I keep having weird things happening on the boards. When I go to a main topic, such as Tech Art, I only see three threads. I leave and come back, and still three threads. After I posted the above post, I return back to the Tech Art section, and now there are pages and pages of threads that were not visible before.
    The same happened with other main topics also. I don't know why they weren't visible before, but they are now....weird.

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      #3
      dekoda, if you want to see more threads, you go on the bottom left side and there's a tab that says "last month", choose "beginning" and then click on "show threads" right beside it, then you'll get to see all the threads. Hope this help, and it's the same for all categories.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by casgrain View Post
        dekoda, if you want to see more threads, you go on the bottom left side and there's a tab that says "last month", choose "beginning" and then click on "show threads" right beside it, then you'll get to see all the threads. Hope this help, and it's the same for all categories.
        Thanks casgrain, that worked! The same thing happened again, just before I read your post and was wondering what was going on. I do wonder what causes that to happen, since I haven't changed any settings.
        One other thing, do you have to login to access the message boards, then login to post a message, then login after reading a few more posts and trying to post a reply, then login when you go to a new thread, then login if you want to reply to a thread in the new thread, and so on? It seems like I've logged in to these boards 25 times today, and I haven't logged off once.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by dekoda View Post
          Thanks casgrain, that worked! The same thing happened again, just before I read your post and was wondering what was going on. I do wonder what causes that to happen, since I haven't changed any settings.
          One other thing, do you have to login to access the message boards, then login to post a message, then login after reading a few more posts and trying to post a reply, then login when you go to a new thread, then login if you want to reply to a thread in the new thread, and so on? It seems like I've logged in to these boards 25 times today, and I haven't logged off once.
          Hi dekoda, you don't have to login to access the message boards as even non-members can view every post... but yes you do have to log in to post anything or view your own personal settings... that's a bit strange that you should have to keep logging in so many times though... did you try clicking the 'remember me' box under where you type your username and password? I did that and now I NEVER have to log in ever, it's automatic...

          Luv Melinda

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            #6
            Originally posted by Melinda View Post
            Hi dekoda, you don't have to login to access the message boards as even non-members can view every post... but yes you do have to log in to post anything or view your own personal settings... that's a bit strange that you should have to keep logging in so many times though... did you try clicking the 'remember me' box under where you type your username and password? I did that and now I NEVER have to log in ever, it's automatic...

            Luv Melinda
            Hey Melinda! The 'remember me' box won't work for me. Me software is setup so that it doesn't accept cookies, so it won't remember me. My software is an older version of MyIE2, and it prevents popups, cookies, and was one of the first browser addons that had tabs. Now it's called the Maxthon Browser, but I like this older version, so I'll stick with it. Thanks for the tip though...

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              #7
              That's ok dakoda, sorry I couldn't help... my browser is funny for the opposite reason, I'm using Firefox and it won't let me log-off the boards! Lol... I've tried logging off and restarting my entire computer but when I come back on the boards I'm still automatically logged in! Weird huh? But I don't mind, it's not a problem or anything... hopefully some of the more technically minded people around here will have a solution for you, I'm just a novice!

              Luv Melinda

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                #8
                Decoda, your software is the reason why you have to login so many times. But I believe there is an option in that program that allows you to make an exception to allow cookies from AW, most that kind of programs have that option.

                Melinda, if you want to log off, try to log off in Internet Explorer, that should do the trick.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by yusanord View Post
                  Melinda, if you want to log off, try to log off in Internet Explorer, that should do the trick.
                  Yeah I did that yusa and it worked, but only worked for Internet Explorer, once I opened Firefox again it was still automatically logged in... weird huh? But like I said, I don't care, it's not a bother or anything...

                  Luv Melinda

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Melinda View Post
                    Yeah I did that yusa and it worked, but only worked for Internet Explorer, once I opened Firefox again it was still automatically logged in... weird huh? But like I said, I don't care, it's not a bother or anything...

                    Luv Melinda
                    That could be because Firefox has a feature that remembers login information, if you want it to. Did you by chance click on the "Remember this Password" box in a popup window in Firefox? That might be why it automatically logs in for you.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Abby, I don't know if you'll read this thread, but if you do, I was wondering who shot the Maddy series? If it was you, I was curious how you got the light in Maddy075 and Maddy076?(as well as many of the other shots in that series) It's obviously not a flash, and the sun isn't shining directly on Maddy, so was it a reflector? Her face and upper torso look sunlit, while her lower torso looks as if it was lit on an overcast day with a white-ish sky. I like the effect...

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by dekoda View Post
                        That could be because Firefox has a feature that remembers login information, if you want it to. Did you by chance click on the "Remember this Password" box in a popup window in Firefox? That might be why it automatically logs in for you.
                        Yeah I did click that box dekoda... but that doesn't mean it should still automatically log in if I log-off does it? I think FireFox must love AW so much that it doesn't wanna leave...

                        Luv Melinda

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by dekoda View Post
                          Abby, I don't know if you'll read this thread, but if you do, I was wondering who shot the Maddy series?
                          Toby did. There's always a List on each Profile page that shows who shot each set.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Vid Dude View Post
                            Toby did. There's always a List on each Profile page that shows who shot each set.
                            Thanks Vid Dude, I hadn't seen that before. I know this will sound strange but I don't really look at the models pictures that much, unless something about the shoot catches my eye, like the lighting in the Maddy series did. I mostly just read the boards here. I think it's because I've scanned so many pictures, that I'm not that interested in seeing more.
                            I know what some people must be thinking...."You joined a porn site to read the boards?" It sounds the same as , "I buy Playboy for the articles."
                            Actually, I do like looking at some of the pictures to study the photographer's technique. I like closeups of the models faces the best, like Melinda179 and Melinda182. The use of lighting gives her face more depth, as opposed to just having her whole face well lit. Abby showed me that technique, and I try to duplicate it whenever possible.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Hiya Dekoda, sorry it took me so long to find this thread, but now i have i can certainly tell you how it was lit!

                              This shoot was shot on a mostly overcast day, no reflectors, but every now and then the sun would come out and mess with my white balance (as you may have noticed). The warm light falling on her torso is sunlight being reflected from the red brick walls you can see the reflection really clearly in maddy094. The location is down the side of a house where there is quite a bit of shade from overhanging plants, a big privacy fence and the sunlight coming down from above at about a 60degree angle and hitting the redbrick wall, therefore there is soft bluey overcast light falling on the left hand side of her body and harsher warm light being reflected onto the right hand side of her body. hope this answers your question!

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Originally posted by toby View Post
                                Hiya Dekoda, sorry it took me so long to find this thread, but now i have i can certainly tell you how it was lit!

                                This shoot was shot on a mostly overcast day, no reflectors, but every now and then the sun would come out and mess with my white balance (as you may have noticed). The warm light falling on her torso is sunlight being reflected from the red brick walls you can see the reflection really clearly in maddy094. The location is down the side of a house where there is quite a bit of shade from overhanging plants, a big privacy fence and the sunlight coming down from above at about a 60degree angle and hitting the redbrick wall, therefore there is soft bluey overcast light falling on the left hand side of her body and harsher warm light being reflected onto the right hand side of her body. hope this answers your question!
                                Hi Toby! Yes, it does, thank you. I'm always interested to know how a certain look was achieved with lighting, in various photos. When I saw this series, I was intrigued as to how the lighting was accomplished. I wasn't sure if it was created with artificial lights, or the photographer was able to use existing light (the sun) to their advantage.

                                You did an excellent job using the sun to highlight Maddy's body. The light didn't look artificial, but I've learned from Abby that you can't always trust your eyes to detect artificial light. Your use of sunlight gives the photos a natural quality that is hard to achieve without everything coming into alignment...Maddy's pose, the sun coming through the clouds and lighting a portion of Maddy's body that you wanted to illuminate, etc. Excellent job Toby! I wish I could take pictures like that.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  I decided to revive this old thread, because I just bought a software bundle that included one program that I really wanted, so I bought the bundle since it was on sale. The program that I wanted is call Topaz Labs Gigapixel Ai, and it does something that I never thought was possible....it can enlarge a picture without losing any detail, and in fact, when it resizes the picture, it actually makes it sharper than the original picture was. I was using On1 Resize to enlarge pictures, but even though it's better than Photoshop's resize function, it still just does a so-so job. The On1 Resize uses fractal algorithms to enlarge a picture, whereas the Gigapixel program uses artificial intelligence to resize pictures. I grabbed this picture of Jane Fonda off of the internet, and I enlarged it using On1 Resize, then Topaz Labs Gigapixel Ai. I thought that maybe the photographers here might be interested in something like this.

                                  ORIGINAL PICTURE

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                                  ON1 RESIZE ENLARGED 600%

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                                  TOPAZ LABS GIGAPIXEL Ai enlarged 600%
                                  Attached Files

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