Photoshop 7

[fishman256]

Hello,

I have been finding it difficul to clean up my photos to get them to a much higher standard. Please can anyone offer some tips that will make my use of photoshop much easier?


Thank you in advance.

[Chaitika]

What do you mean when you say "clean up" your photos? Give us a little more info and we'll try to point you in the right direction. :)

[fishman256]

Hello,

I find that when I use a high ISO on my Nikon D40, the image looks a little grainy and I am also having trouble compensating for the fact that I just have one tube lighting the aquarium. Please see below for the type of images that are produced from my lighting.

[phishphorphun]

The most popular tools to get familiar with are those that help with color and white balance, cleaning distractions, and moderate sharpening.

Use the cloning tool to get rid of most of your small spots (watermarks, micro bubbles, floating debris, etc).

Adjust the colors using the levels tools. The simplest way to get it right is to take the black eyedropper and place it over the closest thing to black in the composition. All the levels will relate accordingly to that color. You can also use the sliders to get your desired results too.

Using the curves tool is my favorite step in tuning up color and white balance.

After you have reduced the size of the photo (I recommend 800 pixels wide), you need to do a Unsharped Mask filter to sharpen it. I normally have the settings at amount=40, radius= 0.5, and threshold= 25. You can run the USM more than once to get the desired effect.

Almost all photos need these basic post processing adjustments. Btw, I never took any classes on Photo Shop and pretty much just kept my ears up when other members here were talking about their techniques. After getting some of the basic stuff down, start experimenting. The neat thing about Photo Shop is that you can have five different users take five entirely different routes to get to the same result.

The most important thing to remember is to know when to stop. Too many people get over involved with playing in photo shop and destroy the natural beauty of an image.

Remember, you can take a good photo and make it better in photo shop, but you can't take a bad photo and make it good.

[phishphorphun]

Simon, if you have browsed the site for a while, you must have noticed that we prefer to use a flash setup for aquarium photography.

Until you start using the flash, you will have to provide additional light over your tank to get better results. The example you provide here is the main problem when you don't have sufficient light. The subject looks "oof" (out of focus). To stop the movement of the fish, you need a faster shutter speed. To get adequate exposure and stop the fish, more light is needed. Bumping the ISO up is not the only solution. Basically because of the grainy and noisy results you demonstrate here.

Bottom line is you need MORE OVERHEAD LIGHT or FLASH.

I strongly suggest you read through the site. Almost every question that needs to be asked to get better results, has already been asked.;)

[maddog10]

A lot of the entry to mid level DSLR's do not handle noise at high ISO very well. Be using more overhead light and/or flash you will be able to lower the ISO. It would be best to try and stay at 200 or lower, if possible.