First steps with grading filters in photography

S

Stelvium

Well-known member
Hallo guys,

as i'm a video guy and i use 98% of DSlr to shoot documentaries i ASk you if there are out there good / intuitive softwares with filters to Apply to My JPGs to Add (like Instagram or Magic Bullet looks for video)?
i'm trying to Give a little of life to My shots but.... As i said i'm a videoguy!
Thank you si Much for your suggestions! I really appreciate em!
 
Adobe Lightroom and PhotoShop.

Shoot RAW, not JPEG, if you plan to do any post processing for your still images. JPEG can fall apart fairly quickly with lots of image manipulation.
 
I agree RAW is a world of a difference but if you are used to grading video then you will be familiar with the limitations of JPG, it's very similar just less compressed (no 4:1:1, 4:2:0 color sampling, etc.)

Raw on the other hand is a whole other (beautiful) beast. It's essentially a 12bit image (think really flat image from a camera with wide dynamic range) that has a color profile (LUT in the video world) applied to it. When you take the pictures the profile is applied for preview purposes and when you open the RAW file in camera raw or lightroom, another different color profile is applied. That being said, all the data is still there so you can easily bring back highlights, change white balance, sharpness, etc. The RAW file is pulled from the sensor before any in camera processing is baked into it.

As for quick ways to throw on a "filter" to JPEGs, you can use the preset filters in photoshop, download an action in photoshop, or I believe that Magic bullet has plugins for photoshop as well.
 
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When I want a killer lens flare in a still, I just open a TIFF - even 16 bit (or hell, even a Raw file) in After Effects.

Then make a new comp of the still, 5 frames long or whatever the minimum is - length doesn't matter. AE will make a comp the size of your image (and I've used some big-ass images!)

Then do adjustment layers, effects, whatever ya need. Render one FRAME out as a Tiff. Open in PS and tweak some more. Save the project if you'll want to tweak down the road.

(Photoshop's lens flare filter is limited and unchanged for a decade or more now. But for advertising, a subtle flare can add a 'reason' for an area to be bright enough for text to read, etc... I'm no JJ Abrams but being able to design a flare is great for stills).
 
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