Hi everyone!

This is my first post on this forum.
I'm not very good in postprocessing, so I want to ask if someone can give me some tips how to make colours in my picuture more pastel and sharpen as they are now. I use Nikon D200 with old CCD so my colours aren't so good. And when I try to saturate it in Photoshop CS3 I can't come to effect, that pictures in 1x have. So please, can someone help me?

Greets
Nejc

Here's a nice article about color adjustments and levels in Lightroom based on RAW files:
http://www.slrlounge.com/2010/01/how-to-color-correct-with-lightroom/

In my experience toning (brightness, contrast, clarity, etc.) and colour temperature are far more important than the actual "level" of saturation.
Playing with saturation is only meant for increasing or decreasing the amount of colour, not toning the colours themselves (in my experience).

Related to sharpening (for web), here's also a very nice article:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/726816

Good luck,
Johan

Nejc, you have an excellent camera and sensor in the D200, you just need to learn how to achieve the results you are after. How do you generally expose an image, do you rely on the camera's suggested exposure setting for example. I usually under-expose what the meter tells me by about -0.5 to -1 EV when metering in spot mode and manual. For my tastes the D200 and 300 metering errs on the side of bright scenes which are not really for me as I like a deeper saturated colour and contrasts. I also set my camera up to give slightly increased saturation and contrast and max out on Sharpness, the RAW files straight out of camera are often very close to what I want to achieve but I usually convert to TIFF and selectively enhance them a touch in Elements 5 by selecting certain areas and adjusting the levels for local contrasts, I never have a need to adjust saturation, if anything I sometimes decrease selectively in certain parts.

I have very limited skills in Photoshop though and often I see images here that combine beautiful pastel shades but with a rich intensity about them and I don't know how they are achieved, maybe some of the blending layers such as soft light with differing opacities are used, who knows? Photoshop is a black art to me.

JP

Hello Nejc,

in your camera set up you will find some interesting features like picture optimization and so on. Try VI-mode! Works well and photograph with ISO 400 for more vibrance!
As for the RAW processing i suggest you Capture NX2! After this you can use PS!!

Robert

Thank you all very much for suggestions. I will try them. If they will be successful, I think you will see it :)