Cleanup & BW values

[Marty E]

Hi, I’m working on a group of floral monochrome photos and am wondering how much cleaning up is not enough or too much? This tulip evidently picked up a lot of specks of dirt from an early morning watering. I’ve also included the histogram with B&W values to bump up the dramatic a bit. Any suggestions?

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

I go pretty crazy with the healing brush on ones I really like. I mean, if it isn’t there where your eyes were looking it theoretically shouldn’t be there when the shot is made.

[Marty E]

Thanks, Rob. Your feedback gives me a good way to think about it. I want to avoid this one looking “gritty” if I enlarge it, so I’ll get after it with the healing brush to get rid of the distractions.

[Federico Alegria]

maybe you could increase the brightness on the red tones so it would contrast with the dark tones from the leaves

[Marty E]

Thank you, Federico. I haven’t learned to adjust the RBG tones yet so this is great feedback. I will definitely try it out. : )

[davidc]

If they are for my self, I don’t clean up much except for sensor spots. If I do need to clean for someone else I tend to try Frequency Separation first, but having said that the AI tech can clean much quicker. As Federico mentioned adjusting the colour, Especially in lightroom gives you a massive scope of adjustment to the contrast. Its a bit like a selective dodge and burn.

[Marty E]

Thanks for your suggestions, David. I wasn’t aware of frequency separation, so I’ll look into it. I hadn’t kept up with Lightroom, but may have to give it another go. I guess I’m one to learn the basics of post-processing “old school first” before using presets so I can get a better understanding of the hows, whats, wheres, and whys of my editing. I also try to think of  “training my eye” to see what’s needed tom improve my shots.

[davidc]

That’s the best way. Try not to use presets as a one click fix everything, Because every photo is different. I only tend to use them if I want a certain look to a set of images, like a certain tone or effect, and those are ones that I have saved myself. At first I used free downloaded ones to to look at them and see how they where constructed. I found most if not all had to be tweaked to achieve the Image I wanted. What software are you editing with?

[Marty E]

Thanks, David. I really appreciate your thoughts. I use Photoshop Elements 12. I know it’s an older version and not as advanced as newer ones, but it’s fine for learning the basics along with some intermediate and advanced techniques. It’s the same for me as you say, I don’t use the presets because I’d rather tweak it myself.

[davidc]

You are getting very good results, Keep experimenting.

[Marty E]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, David. I’ll keep going!

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