RAWprocessing help

[Spotter]

I am new to digital photographing, and also to postprocessing. I would really like to know what you guys do with photoshop7/elements2 (the programs I'll be using) to get from a raw picture to a very nice picture here on the site.

I am a really really really photoshop newbie (well I can find sharpen and resize ) so please be informative. Thank you very much in advance .

[Steve Paluch]

One of my favorite commands is Ctrl+Shift+L (auto-levels). It automatically adjusts contrast and colors.

Take this washed out photo from an A-380 interior mock-up (from Airbus' own website) for example:




BAM! Auto-levels!




Some photos will not respond well to this, but I found that most of the time it does the trick on the first try, unless you feel like taking to time to tweak it further.

Enjoy!

[JeffinDEN]

Steve do yourself a favor. Don't use "auto" anything. Take the time, read a book, do it right. There is no "Photoshop Magic" command. Each picture demands it's own tweaks.

[Steve Paluch]

Steve do yourself a favor. Don't use "auto" anything. Take the time, read a book, do it right. There is no "Photoshop Magic" command. Each picture demands it's own tweaks.

Can't argue there. However, I wasn't implying that's the only thing you should do to a photo. Most of the photos I shoot don't need any work at all (other than resizing). However, on photos that are unintentionally color washed or lack contrast for some reason, I found that I get very nice results with the auto-level feature, which is why I recommended it as a starting point. Keep in mind that most of the time I use the auto-level feature, I end up tweaking it with other things anyway just to see how much the photo can be improved.

Trust me, I bought Photoshop 7 for more than one feature.

P.S. Love the Monte Python-themed sig line, I haven't seen that in a long time!