I just used Photoshop

[ukaskew]

Whenever I get back from a motorsport event I usually spend between 1 and 2 hours sorting out around 600-800 photos, including a few minor colour tweaks (not that I knew what I was doing) and maybe a crop, and that was it.

I shared a few pics elsewhere and somebody kindly did a 're-edit' for me, I thought the effect was too extreme but toned down his advice and spent 2 minutes on my favourite picture from Saturday...

Old:

New:

I overdid the sharpening a little for this one (but I wanted it for a desktop picture) but overall I'm thrilled, never realised it could be so easy to get photos looking pretty much exactly as I saw the moment with my own eyes.

This probably isn't news for anyone here, but I was amazed! Probably spend a bit more time on the editing process in future.

 

[Anim@l]

I try and only do the basics in PS. That pic is awesome btw. When I next see you, I'm gonna pic your brains a little bit, if that's ok? Took over 150 odd photos on Saturday at Jap Fest and although I was happy with a lot of them, I need to hone my motorsport technique! I might be there on Saturday at Prescott.

 

[Clart]

I hate to say this, but other than slightly more vibrant colours, i can't tell much difference :S

 

[Lagerlout]

Looks much brighter to me. Definitely an improvement!

 

[Beef-Mc]

Just makes the picture much more focused and brings out the colours, looks good to me.

 

[WilT]

Chris you should check out Adobe Lightroom or Apples Aperture, it will make sorting out all your photos from the days shoot a hell of alot easier!!
Are you going to Prescott on Saturday by any chance?

 

[ukaskew]

Are you going to Prescott on Saturday by any chance?

Saturday and Sunday, form an orderly queue


and see you there Steve if you go, happy to help in any way I can.

 

[samg1988]

i was watching that on the telly yesterday!

shame the guy you took a photo of had to drop out.

 

[ukaskew]

I hate to say this, but other than slightly more vibrant colours, i can't tell much difference :S

That was the idea Just a boost of the colours to make it more vibrant and punchy. Particuarly when printed it should look much much better than the original.

 

[planetx]

Ukaskew...are you a Mac or Pc user??

 

[spirez]

It's so sharp that it actually hurts my eyes!

 

[unofficialPete]

Photoshop is wicked, my camera parameters are set to neutral so its kind of essential although I hate it when I have several hundred pictures to do! :S

 

[mace¬]

Any chance of giving a few deatils on the PS work you did?

 

[unofficialPete]

I'm gonna guess at increased exposure, increased contrast and USM...

 

[ukaskew]

Ukaskew...are you a Mac or Pc user??

PC user, got Photoshop Elements 6.

As for the work I did,

Played with Levels, still not quite sure how this worked but as it was a perfectly white car in reality I used the white "dropper" and clicked on the car, this made the car white and all of a sudden everything else looked closer to reality as well, so I then just played with the Levels sliders a bit until it looked as I remembered it.

Then:

Unsharp Mask: Strength 20%, Radius 50px, Threshold 0


As I said, bit too sharp for viewing on the PC, but will be perfect for printing.

 

[Longy]

Ukaskew...are you a Mac or Pc user??

PC user, got Photoshop Elements 6.

As for the work I did,

Played with Levels, still not quite sure how this worked but as it was a perfectly white car in reality I used the white "dropper" and clicked on the car, this made the car white and all of a sudden everything else looked closer to reality as well, so I then just played with the Levels sliders a bit until it looked as I remembered it.

Then:

Unsharp Mask: Strength 20%, Radius 50px, Threshold 0


As I said, bit too sharp for viewing on the PC, but will be perfect for printing.

If your gonna use the white droplet to set the white point you should use the black one to set the black point - getting good blacks is pretty important also.

Make sure you click the darkest point on the picture though - otherwise it goes horribly wrong

Also on sharpening - an old trick is to convert the photo to Lab mode - select the lightness channel in the channel pallet and just sharpen that channel.

 

[Leeshez]

Wow that looks stunning.