Hello

[Leogirl]

Hi..I have been so inspired by many of the photographs I have seen on photo groups, taken by both professionals and beginners. I purchased my first DSLR camera almost 6 months ago and made it my mission to learn how to use it manually. Although I still have much more to learn, I am thrilled with what I have learned and produced so far with with my new camera. I’m totally addicted!! Now I need to learn how to edit!! LOL

[dadadam]

Hi
Like you I am an avid beginner, keen to learn and get better results.
The Home page of this site has many good tips, I have found Youtube very good, there you will find many free tutorials on just about every subject, just search for photography.
Good luck and happy shooting.

[Bill Pearl]

Welcome to the gang!

For 90% of my editing I use six adjustments, and usually only one or two of them for most edits.

When editing use a workflow. For technical reasons some edits should be done before others. Here is the workflow I follow:

WORKFLOW
(Ref: Paint Shop Pro X2 functions but the same actions available in any editing programme)

If original is Raw:
1. Exposure
2. White balance
3. Highlights/shadows
4. Curves (contrast)
5. Crop (hide, not delete)
6. Save as .dng file in /Originals (or favourite raw format)

Basic Pixel Changing Edits

1. Colour Balance (white balance or light source adjustment)
Adjust > Automatic Color Balance(advance control options available)

2.a. Exposure ( Shift-M )
Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Shadow/Mid-tones/Highlights
b. Flash Fill / Backlighting
Adjust > Flash Fill or Backlighting

3. Saturation ( Shift-H ): Adjust > Color > Saturation

4. Brightness and Contrast ( Shift -B )
Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast or > Histogram > Gamma for more control

5. Crop and Compose ( R )
Choose the desired print proportion from the Presets menu in the Tool Options palette or do a manual cropping. (If not visible turn on: Tool Options: View > Palettes > Tool Options) You may or may not want to Lock the Ratio, e.g. 4:3.

6.a. Sharpen the Image: Adjust > Sharpness > High Pass
Sharpening with High Pass Filter has less chance of creating the unwanted contrast halo often associated with unsharp mask.
or Adjust > Sharpness > Unsharp Mask Try PSP’s defaults first: radius: 2; strength: 100; clipping: 5.

Optional Adjustments

7. Noise Reduction Adjust > Digital Camera Noise Removal
Don’t bother if the picture was taken in normal lighting with a low ISO setting. But for night shots, long exposures, or ISO above 400, then there might be noisy pixels in your image.
Adjust > One Step Noise Removal easier but less control
Download for free from Imagenomic “Noiseware Community Edition Standalone”

8. Chromatic Aberration Adjust > Chromatic Aberration Removal
Incorrect colour captured often along edges of objects

After you’ve taken these initial steps, you can always make other changes, such as adjusting the colours. You might also want to add filters, perform special effects, or do some composite work by adding layers, etc.

8. Metadata: After editing & saving photos, load the files into a photo organizer and add keywords so they’ll be easy to find. – Palettes > Organizer (Ctrl+b) You might add Copyright info as well.

[Author]

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