On Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:59:01 -0500, MWB wrote
(in article ):
I'm gonna try that setting.
I've never used PS Elements.
I'm sold on it. The latest version of Elements does much of what Photoshop
did "back in the day"!
I'm curious....what did you do with PS Elements in this beautiful shot???
Not much, actually! First I resampled the large image down to 1600x1067. Then
I hit "Smart fix" to see what it would do. I have found that one of the most
useful functions of Elements is "Undo"!!
In this case, I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Next, I removed
Gaussian blur. I added my name, flattened, saved, and posted.
Why did you need PS Elements???
If you don't do some post processing, you're stuck with all the mistakes you
made! Post processing with an image editor is light years beyond taking your
film to the drug store and paying for whatever comes back (including
scratches they put on the negatives!!).
My general work stream is as follows (note that I do what's necessary and
don't do what isn't!):
If the picture is crooked, I rotate it until it is straight. Then crop off
the four skinny triangles that result.
If the shot was taken at night using a high ISO setting, I use Neat Image to
remove noise.
Since most of my shots are taken to be posted on the Usenet, I resample the
image down to 1400xwhatever (I resampled to 1600 on this image). I may crop
out parts to give a more pleasing framing or aspect ratio for the particular
subject.
I look for dust bunnies on the sensor (I use a DSLR) and clone those out. If
I can remove other distractions (trash on the ground, wires, poles, people,
whatever...) I clone those out, too. This can take time, so the picture has
to be worth it!
I experiment with lighting - brighten up shadows, darken the sky, increase
contrast to cut some haze, etc.
Lastly I do either an Unsharp mask or Remove Gaussian blur to sharpen the
image. If the focus is particularly fuzzy, I do both! Then I add 20 pixels
at the bottom and type in my caption (I didn't do that with this picture!),
flatten and save.
The above is what I do. YMMV... If you're learning, read the instructions!
Beyond that , to see what a particular function does, click it and see what
happens!
I'm trying to learn here.
Mark
-Vlad
--
Vlad & Genny Kedrovsky
Edina, MN, USA
vjkedrovsky at gmail dot com
Some of Vlad's train & car pix can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vjkedrovsky