Lions - Post Processing

Azz & Phil Voiced interest of my post processing on my Lions set of photos. I'll try & cover all the steps I took & generally take on a lot of photos.

Original unedited photo




Step #01 - In RAW processing software, ADjust exposure +.35, increase black to 8, Clarity to 68 & Vibrance to 18. Open the file in CS5.

Step #02 - Use the dodge tool set for 20% to lighten the yellow parts of the lion's eyes, I made two passes for a total of 40%.

Step #03 - Perform a levels adjustment moving the outer sliders in until they just barely touch the histograph. Flatten the layers at this point.

Step #04 - Use the noise filter to reduce the noise, Strength 8, preserve details 0, reduce color noise 52%, sharpen details 25% & remove jpeg artifact.

Step #05 - Use Unsharp Mask filter set to 250%, Radious 1.8 & threshold set to 40. Repeat these settings twice.

Step #06 - Apply OnOne Software's Golden Hour Enhancement Filter at 40% strength and return to CS5

Step #07 - Use Retangular Marquee Tool about 1/2" inside of outer edges all the way around the photo. You should have a rectangle box with marching ant border at this point. With cursor inside of this box right click & choose feather. Set feather for 150 and press enter. Select Inverse from the pull-down menu. Perform a levels adjustment moving the bottom right slider to a value of 165. Flatten Layers again.

Step #08 - Select All. Edit Stroke, 10 enter, Select Deselect.

Step #09 - Perform one more levels adjustment to bighten to taste and merge all layers.

Step #10 - Save at highest quality.

Finished photo

Thanks for sharing Bob

Thanks for that Bob.

I really must get my software sorted out.

I've got a PC in the boot of my car which may or may not be 'better' than the one I'm using right now so the first job is to work out what's what hardware wise.

My full version of Photoshop is very long in the tooth now. I downloaded the month long free trial of Elements 9 which to be honest seems to do most of what I need so I may go with that.