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Do you Photoshop images for the wow effect


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I have seen  many online photo suppliers images that look very enhanced and played with beyond realistic capture.

 

My take is, i would rather images look more natural when presented and let the buyer jazz up the colors, enhancements etc.

 

Maybe i am an old head, i get a little tired of seeing imagery that has lost it's natural look.

 

So do you photoshop your images for the wow effect?  if so how much trouble do you go to!

 

 

Paul.

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As a rule I do but to different extents.

I shoot RAW so I have to increase contrast, some vibrance, saturation, blacks and whites.

If I want some effect, I make more enhancements. After all, why not to give a photo some style, but it does not mean, that I change 'the weather' of the photo.

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I tend to keep mine natural unless I feel that they particularly lend themselves to jazzing up. The buyer is always in a position to jazz up the image if that suits his style. IMO there is no correct answer - it is a matter of personal taste and style. What sells best? I am all ears.

 

dov

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It is impossible to tell what sells best. Photography is a matter of highly sibjective perseption.

Yes, there are photos, subjects, topics, themes of universal acceptance, but...

One mictostock site rejects a particular image because it "has no commercial value and technically weak", the other accepts the same image and the image becomes frequently downlodable and popular... )

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It goes both ways - sometimes to give Wow and sometimes to take away Wow.  Much of it has to do with in camera settings.

 

I have some images that I have actually had to de-saturate to tone down straight out of the camera.  Generally this happens with the "Landscape" setting in my Canon cameras or with the "Velvia" setting in my Fuji cameras (I shoot in those two settings about 99% of the time).  I've also been known to reduce contrast at times.

 

I shoot in RAW, then I convert to the in-camera preset and synch all images via Lightroom, then if necessary I adjust color balance, white point, black point, and clarity.  If I'm shooting portraits (especially women), I find I need to de-saturate either the red channel or the orange channel.  I have one model I work with where I need to de-saturate the yellow channel. Aside for cropping when necessary to refine the composition, that's about it.

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Too much saturation, too much overall Photoshopping in general, can give the image a cartoon look . . . but most of my RAW images are flat if left alone. This is something I always do: In CS5 I click on Auto contrast . . . and most of the time I'm surprised at the overall improvement that one click gives me.  ;)

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It goes both ways - sometimes to give Wow and sometimes to take away Wow.  Much of it has to do with in camera settings.

 

 

Ditto.

 

Allan

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As others have said you need to do something with raw files, usually moderate changes using levels, curves and saturation adjustment layers. I normally try to match the image to what I felt that I saw at the time.

 

Wouldn't know how to give Wow factor, perhaps I need to learn....

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I have some images that I have actually had to de-saturate to tone down straight out of the camera.  Generally this happens with the "Landscape" setting in my Canon cameras or with the "Velvia" setting in my Fuji cameras (I shoot in those two settings about 99% of the time).  I've also been known to reduce contrast at times.

 

Ed Endicott,

 

Thanks for your tip, i might try the landscape setting, i have always shot Raw in natural setting, hence leaving a lot of pp, however like Bryan i also like to keep my images as natural looking as possible.

 

Paul.

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As others have said you need to do something with raw files, usually moderate changes using levels, curves and saturation adjustment layers. I normally try to match the image to what I felt that I saw at the time.

 

Wouldn't know how to give Wow factor, perhaps I need to learn....

 

I wouldn't know how to achieve the "WOW factor" either.

 

BTW, I think it's called the "OMG factor" nowadays.

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Mine tend to be pretty basic as to what I saw. I shoot RAW, so I use contrast, correct white balance if needed, sometimes a bit of a curve. Then a bit of vibrance and clarity.  I don't like landscapes that look garish. It's a fine line between saturated and garish.

 

Betty

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I have some images that I have actually had to de-saturate to tone down straight out of the camera.  Generally this happens with the "Landscape" setting in my Canon cameras or with the "Velvia" setting in my Fuji cameras (I shoot in those two settings about 99% of the time).  I've also been known to reduce contrast at times.

 

Ed Endicott,

 

Thanks for your tip, i might try the landscape setting, i have always shot Raw in natural setting, hence leaving a lot of pp, however like Bryan i also like to keep my images as natural looking as possible.

 

Paul.

 

Possibly a case of grandma and eggs, but you can choose any camera setting during raw conversion as Ed E indicated above. I used to use DPP with my Canon and there it is very easy to choose landscape or whatever during PP. The same is also true of Lightroom, but I only have the Sony and some other settings that Duncan once pointed out. Presumably you can download the Canon presets, or maybe they come automatically?. From memory Canon landscape gives a very warm (and possibly saleable?) view of the world.

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Mine tend to be pretty basic as to what I saw. I shoot RAW, so I use contrast, correct white balance if needed, sometimes a bit of a curve. Then a bit of vibrance and clarity.  I don't like landscapes that look garish. It's a fine line between saturated and garish.

 

Betty

I agree.  I have always hated the Maxfield Parish look in photography, but it catches the eye of the unsophisticated viewer and therefor sells better.  I shoot raw and try to give my pix some "punch" in ACR and PS, but I go very easy on vibrance and almost never use saturation.  I think this puts me at a disadvantage, especially on sites like FAA.

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I do enjoy playing with images and often it involves combining multiple shots together + styling to get what I want.... I'm also a cheapskate and use myself as a model to avoid additional costs  :D

 

Here is one advantage of being able to control your camera via an Android app.... very useful when you can change speed, aperture, iso, focusing and alike from your phone... my wife is convinced I just spend my day ar**ing around, this series of images didn't help to dispel the myth  :unsure:

 

E0ER0K.jpg

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