Photoshop Editting after a shoot

[aRcTiC sTaR]

May I know what are the basic things to do to enhance the picture after capturing it?

My usual practice would be auto contrast and auto colour. Auto contrast usually works well but the auto colour sometimes leave me wondering if I should have done it or not.

 

[aRcTiC sTaR]

Example pic:

Original Pic

After autocontrast only

After auto colour only

After autocontrast AND auto colour

Pretty new to photography so I'm not too sure on which editted picture looks better after the editting. Personally I think that after autocontrasting the colours look more natural. Veterans please help?

 

[night86mare]

You should not just use Auto settings.

Computers are not perfect, so programmes are not perfect. What you should learn would be to tweak Curves/Levels and Color Balance/Channel Mixer. Besides that there are only about 80,000 other things and more that you can do to your photo to "improve" it to your liking.

 

[aRcTiC sTaR]

Hmm okay so to say just leave them as they are for now?

 

[night86mare]

What program do you use?
What I meant is that if you're just a casual shooter who wants to adjust his snapshots and see if they can be improved, then yeah, auto would work fine.
If not, do a little more homework, it will go a long way with regards to processing your images. There's a lot, a lot, a lot to learn. =/

 

[aRcTiC sTaR]

Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Yup I'm pretty much a casual shooter. If I may ask, which of the above photo do you feel looks most realistic in terms of colour? The one with only auto contrast or auto colour?

 

[night86mare]

I won't know, I wasn't there. You should be the one who knows! =D

Play with curves and levels then, like I said, as well as color balance and channel mixer, I guarantee you'll get results much more tailored to YOUR personal liking.. Using AutoContrast and AutoColor is a waste of all the capabilities that your program has!

 

[theRBK]

getting CS2 and not using its features is a waste of resources...better to use Photoshop Elements...it has the tools that a casual user needs without a) being as expensive, b) being as complicated, and c) taking as much space on the harddrive.

adjusting the image is really up to you as the photographer...if a certain step seems unnecessary, then can just skip it...no need to die die follow some process...if it does not improve your image, then don't do it...

from what I see of your image, after the auto contrast, I think you just need to brighten it up abit...by how much, if at all, like I said earlier, is really up to you