In this article, I’ll be discussing how various curve adjustments affect the image and the image histogram — but only in the realm of linear curves. So… linear… curves? Yup, you can do straight lines in the curves adjustment and they have their applications. So let’s look at a few extremes, then I’ll show you how to apply the linear adjustment to an image in need.
I’m still working on putting together my article on using curves and histograms to edit photos, so in the meantime here are some good video tutorials on the subject. These tutorials are easier to understand because they show how the curve adjustments affect the image in a more dynamic fashion.
This first tutorial is fairly [...]
Curves adjustments are complicated… so let’s start learning the basics.
The image histogram is often treated as a thing of “extra information” and treated as a “good way to check for clipping”. While it’s true that the histogram provides a good check for highlight and shadow clipping, it also serves a greater purpose in post processing. Our mortal eyes are no match for the mighty histogram when it comes to tricky photos. Understanding the histogram and how your image editing software interacts with it can greatly improve your productivity and quality output.
Reading histograms is an important skill to acquire in the world of digital photography. Most images from digital cameras will require some amount of post processing, particularly if you shoot raw format. And most of the processing can be done by viewing the aesthetics of the image as you go, but having the ability to read and manipulate a histogram will increase your productivity and output quality.
The technique outlined here really just applies to a first round of processing — this might be acceptable for posting to Flickr, but a fine art print would require much more time and effort on your part. Also, I’m not talking about doing black and white conversions, crazy artistic interpretations, creative cropping, etc. We just want to make the photo look more natural at this point.
Here’s a small tip for using Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw presets for sharpening and noise reduction settings.
This article is a project entry from Martin Kimeldorf. He shares two of his Photoshop actions with us: exposure blending and shine reduction. The exposure blend action provides a means of combining and blending multiple exposures of the same scene to produce a higher dynamic range. The shine reduction action allows you to paint out and reduce the intensity of certain highlights.
I find resizing photos for web output to be one of the most boring and repetitive tasks in post-processing. My workflow consists of only creating JPEGs as needed, and deleting them when they’ve done their deed. My photo archive also consists of RAW (from the dSLR), TIFF (from film scans), and PSD files, in both AdobeRGB and grayscale color spaces. So with all these requirements, I found that a Photoshop action is the way to go.
Those who have used Photoshop probably know the power of actions. Some also know the power of LAB color mode. The problem is that LAB can sound like a scary thing, and most actions are “one hit wonders.” Neil Cowley has created something that will blow you away — The ONE Action. It’s an action set that guides you through the LAB colorspace workflow. I’ve worked in LAB for a few little things in the past, but I hadn’t realized the full potential until I started working with the ONE Action.
