A few pics taken with my 400D

[Treacle44]

Go easy on me, I'm still learning! Taken on auto and haven't done anything with them.



My 30th Birthday cake (wish I'd moved the empty plates out of the way first!



The little man:



What do you think?

[Guest]

ahhhh you got the new camera then
Lovely photos... your DS is soooo cute
Elaine

[rusty30]

I love that one of your little man - absolutely stunning! Id be inclined to give it a tighter crop, a slight sharpen and a tiny bit of saturation boost...and Id get a canvas print done of it! Lovely work!

[Treacle44]

Originally Posted by rusty30

I love that one of your little man - absolutely stunning! Id be inclined to give it a tighter crop, a slight sharpen and a tiny bit of saturation boost...and Id get a canvas print done of it! Lovely work!

See more...

Erm what?! I haven't done anything with it as I don't really know how. That's why I need to go on a course. Can you please explain in laymans terms if you have time?

Thanks hun.

x

[rusty30]

...this took literally 30 seconds in photoshop. Its not perfect, but you can see what can be done with little to no knowledge



Crop out some of the distracting backround (Id say nearly 95% of my photos require a crop!), gave the photo sharpen (just one click of the "sharpen" filter"!) and had a little play to bring out the eyes and very slight tweak of saturation in the Hue & Saturation slider (I like my pics to be quite vivid, so this maybe over done for your tastes).

Given more time, Id clone out that distracting gap top on the right as well!

[Treacle44]

Originally Posted by rusty30

...this took literally 30 seconds in photoshop. Its not perfect, but you can see what can be done with little to no knowledge



Crop out some of the distracting backround (Id say nearly 95% of my photos require a crop!), gave the photo sharpen (just one click of the "sharpen" filter"!) and had a little play to bring out the eyes and very slight tweak of saturation in the Hue & Saturation slider (I like my pics to be quite vivid, so this maybe over done for your tastes).

Given more time, Id clone out that distracting gap top on the right as well!

See more...

Oh I see! Thanks so much! His eyes aren't that bright normally but the whole thing just looks lovely!

Think I'll have to invest in photoshop then, is it very expensive?

T
x

[rusty30]

You can pick up Photoshop Elements 5 for around £60-£70 I think. Its a great investment if you are serious about photography.

Post Processing is a very personal thing - as you say, your son's eyes arent that bright in "real life" so you probably wouldnt have brightened them as much as I did. Some people prefer to desaturate an image (i.e tone the colours down) rather than boost them up!

These days, almost without exception, every photo we see in a newspaper or magazine has had at least SOME work done on it, and its harder and harder to make "straight from the camera" images look as good as you might expect without any post processing. Im not sure thats a good thing or not, because it can make you lazy when you take a picture, knowing you can adjust so much of it later on!

I really think in this day and age, you will struggle to produce 21st Century images without some PP knowledge, so Id make the investment into some software. Ive never been on a course, I just bought a good book and worked through it - plus a lot of photography mags come with great video tutorial DVDs to teach you some of the basic lessons in PP.

Its rare I will do more than a crop, sharpen, levels and hue / saturation adjustment (occasionally a clone or healing job on something) on my pics. These things take very little time to learn really.

Oh and just to add, I personally find that the Canon cameras take pictures by default that NEED a sharpen as they tend to come out soft, regardless of what lens or conditions the picture was taken in. I know you can activate in camera sharpening but Im sure there is a reason why this isnt a good idea...AndyJ or Davie will probably be able to tell us why...

[Treacle44]

Thanks so much, that's really helpful, I will def look into it. I'm happy to tweak things but don't really know what I'm doing so have been a bit wary.

DH got me a copy of Digital SLR User magazine, can you recommend any others please?

Thanks again, very helpful.

x

[rusty30]

I like Digital SLR User and also Digital Camera mag. I have a ton of back copies - I dont think you are far from me, so If you would like them, you are more than welcome to collect them. Most of them have the CDs and DVDs with them as well .

[gala]

Great photos Tracey. The camera is mightily impressive.

Margaret