Best Street & Astrophotography Lens

Hi Norman,

thanks for sharing these details. You flick set is excellent. I have a few additional questions:

what do you mean with tone ?

I begin in ACR and most of my adjustments are done in the first tab. Starting from the top with white balance and then tone. I set out with the intent of getting the color right - even if I switch to b&w later. I don't generally have a vision early on and a picture at this point may either remain color or later in the process I might think the color is a bit off or just adds nothing to the shot - then I'll run it through Silver Effex Pro and if the b&w treatment looks better I'll pursue that direction.

With that first tab in ACR I'm really making adjustments that flesh out more detail but also keep within the parameters of the histogram. Doing this does tend to make the image a little flat looking but I think it important to retain as much of the image as you can early on so that the filters have more to work with.

I also tend to deliberately under-expose when shooting in order to allow me to keep the highlights if I feel they add to the shot

Import to photoshop and then Silver Effex Pro.

Which sliders do you usually adjust or any specific presets as starting point for the above posted pictures?

The sliders on the first tab of ACR should be worked from the top down. I'll usually raise the brightness slighter and settle on a level where the subject is better lit but not looking 'high key'. This will often cause some highlights such as sky etc to blow out.

If the image looks flat then I'll increase contrast. The highlight slider I nearly always reduce. Sometimes just a little, sometimes lots. This is to bring back the blown out highlights but bear in mind the white slider is further down and that will help too. I tend to work highlights and white slider in tandem and if I'm struggling to retain highlights I'll reduce the contrast slider.

Likewise you can work shadow and black in tandem to lift the shadows and if you are struggling then adjusting contrast will help with that too.

I'll often leave the clarity slider alone but if I've really nailed the focus on the subject I may reduce clarity if it looks pleasing. If the light is behind the subject then reducing clarity can help soften harsh shadows on the face or stop blonde hair from blending into the highlights of the sky for example.

Camera defaults tend to be oversaturated so I'll often reduce saturation by around -10 or so. I'll bring a little color back with a +5 or so using the vibrancy slider. This gives the image more pleasing skin tones whilst still retaining good color for the rest of the image.

I generally remove noise reduction. This day and age sensor noise is much better and a little noise actually adds a little texture to the image - kind of a false sharpening. I'll take a slightly different approach with other genres but for street I think controlled noise is a good thing. Sometimes with filters I'm often adding noise.

Then I usually run it through Color Effex Pro and apply one of their film effects and maybe a vignette filter. If the image looks a bit coarse I might also soften it down with a glamour filter - though recently I'm liking a sunlight filter that does similar but with more control. Resize to fit my monitor (1920x1200). Sharpen with Sharpener Pro (output sharpening). All this done in Adobe RGB 16 bit so I then convert to sRGB 8 bit and save as a jpg.

I was not aware the sharpening to the output medium is important .

Sharpening is a complex debate and opinions vary wildly. If your image is sharp to begin with you do not need to apply any. However if you reduce the size of the file you will inevitably soften it a little in the process. So output sharpening allows you to restore what you lost and also add more depending on the output medium. If you are printing the file the sharpening you apply can and should be a lot more than if you were just viewing the file on a monitor. I don't personally print that much but my misses likes prints of the grandkids and so I have to rework an image knowing it is for print. I won't resize and my output sharpening is matched to the dpi resolution of the printer used.

Also does not flick does this job if you upload full resolution

I'm not sure. I tend to resize for many reasons. As I mostly view my images on a monitor I don't need full resolution. Resizing helps reduce noise and provides a good point to sharpen the image a little if needed. With Sharpener Pro I can make some final judgments about the level of sharpening, contrast and detail. I may reduce contrast and detail a little if I feel I've overdone it when applying filters.

thanks again!

Your welcome. I should add that I'm by no means an expert on post work. You could say that anyone who relies heavily on Nik software is a rank amateur when it comes to pp. Those really in the know can emulate Nik software and more from their knowledge of photoshop alone. You could say plug-ins are a bit like adding stabilisers onto your tricycle!