I've been working on some new techniques and pulled this picture up from back in September. I've been working a lot on learning Bridge, getting better sharpening results, and have even been playing with a logo.
One of the biggest struggles I've had understanding is how the RAW image of a file can appear so, um, not sharp. I just thought with high quality cameras and lenses, your picture should look wonderfully crisp (as long as your exposure was right, of course), but it's just not the case. And because I have really struggled with finding a good sharpening work flow, I have had this small feeling of disappointment with my images. [Read More...]
Thankfully the other day I made a breakthrough. While trying to learn about Adobe Camera Raw Presets, I came across this video in YouTube. This video taught me how to sharpen in ACR. I then stumbled across this article that helped explain how ACR sharpening was based on Bruce Fraser's teaching of a three-pass sharpening technique. The first being a lighter sharpen to "restore any sharpness that was lost in the capture process." Just doing some reading on how digital photography lends itself to a little loss of sharpening during capture time made all the difference in the world — I realized it wasn't me!
When I began looking at ACR as a way to restore that lost sharpness, my whole work flow changed. I now feel like I go into the intense post processing work with my absolute best Raw file, and that makes editing my file in Photoshop much, much nicer.
I don't know if that makes sense to anyone, but it has made all the difference to me for where I am in my knowledge of this "digital darkroom" stuff.
The picture above was my first try in intentionally creating a duotone image. It also follows my new sharpening work flow. I also turned my new logo into a brush, which has been great.
2 comments:
Hm. Interesting! What camera+lens do you have? And what expose does this photo have?
Wow, what an "a ha" momment. Just last night I was grumbling to myself working on a photoshoot I just had. I hated how the images were just so blah. Grainy and needed so badly to be sharper. Although I have decent lenses, my camera is just a starter DSLR, the Cannon 450. So I just thought my work would just have to suffer until I could get a better camera. But wow! After reading your post, and watching that video, reading those articles. It totally helped! Thank you so much! What a huge difference.
Marci Cheesebrough
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