Andrewuber From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2528 posts, RR: 50 Posted (8 years 2 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1788 times:
Several people have asked me about my workflow, so I thought I'd create a thread about it, and hopefully get some ideas to improve my photos! It's taken me a while, but I'm starting to get good results, even in overcast conditions - sometimes even in very low light conditions as well! The 300D is very capable of taking acceptable shots on less-than-perfect days. Here are some examples:
I currently use the PhotoShop Elements CD that came with the Digital Rebel. Chad Thomas encouraged me to try it out - I was a die hard PaintShop Pro user. I've not touched PSP since he got me hooked on PhotoShop! (Thanks Chad!!!) Anyway, this is my typical workflow:
1. Fill Flash - ONLY if the image is dark and maybe even backlit, I'll increase the "Lighter" bar to between 1 and 5... don't go much more than that as it will distort the image.
2. Alignment - These screeners are starting to be hell on alignment, so I will zoom out and drag the window down to make sure the horizon is touching the bottom of the window on both sides. If not, I'll rotate in increments of .2 or so until it's level. Do this BEFORE you crop!!!
3. Crop - Composition is everything. Looking back at my older images, I wonder how some of them made it into the database. Eek. I start by dragging the crop tool over the entire image, then press SHIFT and drag one corner down to 'eyeball' the size. You can then drag the cropped area around to perfectly center the aircraft, then crop it.
4. Resize - 9 times out of 10 I will size to 1024 wide (usually 683 tall from the Digital Rebel)... but on rare occaisions I go to 1600 wide.
5. Brightness / Contrast - I will tweak these until I'm happy with how the image looks. No real science here. Don't go too crazy on it, or it will look "doctored", and you'll get a rejection.
6. Unsharp Mask - Awesome tool. Mine is set for 33 / 0.3 / 0, and I'll hit it until jaggies appear, then undo twice.
7. Saturation - I personally like vivid photos, so I'll sometimes crank up the saturation a few clicks to bring out the colors. Again, don't go crazy on it or your photo will look like it came from cartoon network. If you have an image that has a purple or orange background, it may help to use the Color Cast feature on PhotoShop. My night shots often get painted yellow by ramp lights... use Color Cast to pick out a black spot on your photo and all that color distortion just disappears. Colorwasher is also good at this, but it's 50 bucks, and can make images a bit contrasty if you're not looking.
8. Fine tuning - Sometimes I'll remove unwanted objects if they are really in the way, but it's rare. You can also use the soften brush to go over the sky if it is grainy. Use the sharpen brush over small details to bring them out - but don't let it go jaggy on you.
9. Save as JPG - Go max quality (typically anywhere from 400k to 900k), and use an extremely specific file name (I use my name, date, airport, tail number and an identification number on my files).
10. Upload to airliners.net and begin praying. Just for convenience I will save my files into a folder called "airliners.net uploads", then drag them into a subfolder inside it called "uploaded" once they're sent. This makes it easy to manage my images, and easy to find a file when I get a request. I always ALWAYS save AS a new filename, and keep the original file that came from the camera in a separate directory. That way if it gets rejected, I can start over if I have to.
I'm still an amateur, and I certainly do NOT know it all. What I do know is that I like the quality of the images that are coming out of my Digital Rebel, and this site is FULL if Digital Rebel / 300D users. All of the shots are great. Just learn what works for you, and stick to it. We all make mistakes (like those 120 shots I ruined while spotting at ATL in overcast weather with a circular polarizer installed - UGH). Learn from them and pass it on!!!
Speaking of - I was recently able to repair one of my ATL 747 shots with Colorwasher, and it was accepted into the database last week:
I think the original (horrible) version is on myaviation.net.
If anyone reading this has some better ideas, or things I may be doing wrong, please do post your comments and suggestions here, as I want to learn all I can about shooting and post processing!
Andrewuber From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2528 posts, RR: 50 Reply 4, posted (8 years 2 months 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 1628 times:
Here are the settings, straight from my camera for this image:
File Name.....IMG_1620.JPG
Camera Model Name.....Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Shooting Date / Time....3/18/2004 3:12:45 PM
Shooting Mode.....Aperture-Priority AE
Tv ( Shutter Speed ).....1 / 320
Av ( Aperture Value ).....5.0
Metering Mode.....Evaluative
Exposure Compensation.....+1
ISO Speed.....100
Lens......75.0 - 300.0 mm IS USM
Focal Length.....80.0 mm
Image Size.....3072x2048
Image Quality.....Fine
Flash.....Off
White Balance.....Auto
AF Mode.....AI Focus AF
Parameters.....Contrast Normal
Sharpness..... +2
Color saturation..... Normal
Color tone..... Normal
Color Space.....sRGB
File Size.....1817KB
Drive Mode.....Continuous shooting
Owner's Name.....Andrew Uber
Camera Body No......0960308948
Image Stabilisation.....On
Auto Focus.....On
Conditions outside were far from perfect. It was overcast with drizzle, and the cloud layer was thick enough that there was no direct sunlight at all. I added some Exposure Compensation to make the image brighter, but I still needed to lighten it in PhotoShop. Be careful with Exposure Compensation as it will overexpose a white fuselage even on an overcast day.
Someone on this forum told me to always shoot in ISO 100, and they seemed to be right. I was worried that my images were too dark, so I shot about a dozen photos that day in ISO 200, with Exposure Compensation set to 0, and a lot of them were slightly overexposed (which is difficult to fix in PhotoShop).
I went into Parameters and turned Sharpness up to +2. There's been a bit of a debate on this setting here in the forum... everyone says to set it at -2 to be on par with the 10D. Maybe someone can explain that to me! I found that when I set my Sharpness to -2, the images weren't as sharp. Does this mean I would have better post-processing sharpening capabilities if I leave it on -2? Is that why it's better to do that? Let me know!
All of my images from that day were taken without a tripod. That IS lens is a tremendous asset when shooting in rotten conditions. I only use my tripod at night when I'm going for shots longer than 1/10 second.
Andrewuber From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2528 posts, RR: 50 Reply 5, posted (8 years 2 months 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 1570 times:
Liamer From Netherlands, joined Dec 2003, 34 posts, RR: 3 Reply 6, posted (8 years 2 months 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1564 times:
How do you rotate with the measure tool?
Rightclick on the eyedropper tool and choose the measure tool
then select a line which you know has to be level in your photo
i.e. a lightpole (vertical) or the runway (horizontal)
Then click Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary
if all went well Photoshop filled in the angle of rotation, just hit OK
and your horizon should be level.
Sleekjet From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 2044 posts, RR: 28 Reply 8, posted (8 years 2 months 1 hour ago) and read 1471 times:
For those of us who are getting our 300D in the future, a big word of thanks. I'm saving all these discussions and will apply the knowledge when I actually have the camera in hand.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2528 posts, 
From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 1049 posts, 
.
From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 610 posts, 
From Netherlands, joined Mar 2002, 839 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
){kind=link}