What's the one thing...

...you do to make your shots really pop?

I'm looking for a bit of a discussion thread here folks. Ideas and tips.

Now, let's assume we all do some mangling to ensure we present our shots at their best. I still put a little border around my final screen jpeg version (if nothing else, it makes it easier for me to tell apart from the TIFFs) but what else do you do?

We can talk in detail about the actual software we use if you like, but just in general for those who don't have the latest Lightroom or whatever.

• Most shots will benefit from a bit of a saturation boost. But do you know that if you whack the slider right across to 100 per cent (where it looks silly) and then pull it back slowly, you'll stop at a higher point than if you started in the middle and moved upwards.
  
  
• Often winter shots will take a little warming using a colour temperature or 'photo filter' tool.
  
  
• Make shots boost their contrast and pop a bit by pushing the levels inwards at either end a bit, especially a mono

Anyone?

Good call. I was being old fashioned.

Back in the day we didn't have "vibrancy" but for those with the slider on their mangler of choice, that is absolutely the way to do it folks.

I try to get the best shot I can in camera,i don't do RAW now just Jpeg and let the camera tweak things a bit,a lot of clever men in white coats go to a lot of trouble and expence to make cameras as good as possible for the masses look at mobile phones and the cameras they have now some have greater pixels than my camera,this also is the reason as mentioned in Oys thread saving this forum.I still prefer to use a camera as I like to think I am a photographer.Re making my shots Pop as you put it I have a pre set in Unsharp mask which I use on some shots I also use the shadows and highlights thingy on a pre set and use Elements9 which I have had a long time simply to re size for web viewing and posting on here,i also depending on a shot use lightroom 5 to help with noise reduction and the cropping/scewwiffing sorting tool.I don't cherish every shot I take if its not right when it comes off camera it goes in the bin,i also don't take loads of shots maybe 20 max as I only take shots that to me catch my eye and look interesting/different,i suppose I treat my camera like a film camera working on the principle get it right in the field.Re mono,s I learned a lesson from Oy take it in colour and convert which I do in Elements9 using the pre sets in there.

My approach is very similar to Oy's. I also use NIK's filters for contract and detail enhancements

I don't like to do anything in one step to make a shot "pop". With a non-bracketed image, it will often leave ACR looking worse because I have reduced the contrast to prevent blocking and blowing. Then it tends to be subtle stacking in Nik, followed by adjustment layers. I never apply any one thing to the whole image, unless it's colour correction. In Nik I add lots of negative points as well as positive points. In the adjustment layers I tend to take away for everything that I add. I will do a subtle reduce contrast/brightness vignette, before adding another layer with increased brightness/contrast over just the subject - always a larger 50% mask before a smaller 100% inside. Same with saturation, if you only boost it in a small area, you can generally get away with more than if it's plastered over the entire image.

I light my new Lightroom, but have been struggling with the sliders. My instincts tell me to not pull them too far and yet blended exposures often require just that. I think I'm getting better.

The one thing that I've probably done from day one is to reduce the mid-tones. I watch the histogram like a hawk, so it tends to end up touching at both ends, so taking the mid-tones down to 97 ish is my alternative to clipping

Elements 14 for me and topaz lab denoise 5 ,being a bird photographer in the main and out in all weather high iso is a problem topaz helps that but never too much denoise,also I like to compose my crops and regularly use the rules of thirds on the eye of the bird etc ,I also like to crop stranger than others with bird shots ,sometimes even letterbox with the bird small at one end looking into the picture. I also use de-haze on most shots and some selective blurring of background, and also I like to make sure when I take most of my best shots that the background is nice ,so the eye goes straight to the bird rather than a log in the background. I still use Picassa to catalog my stuff for easy finding as it was always great for that ,even though its gone now ,so as you can tell I use a 8 year old laptop with windows 7 ,and never really bother to update unless I need it .
I use in the main a Nikon D7200 + 300 pf f4 vr and tc 1.7 for my bird photography , and Lumix gx80 for other stuff ,I think the thing that helps my pictures in the main is subject knowledge which I think is the same for all types of photography ,know the subject well and your half way there .

I only use Jpegs and CS2,shadow/highlights.contrast,sometimes saturation and smart sharpen,Layers are still Black Magic.

Bloody Nora, that has left me cold. I have the Nik collection, but rarely use it especially for my wildlife shots. Am I missing something here? Basically, all I have is LR 6.14 and DeNoise. In answer to @jon_t all I can say is that your shots are really good, but would be better if they were not so cropped too tight.

Nik was probably the best PS plugin on the market and even though it hasn't been updated in years, I couldn't live without it

I'm also a Nik fan. I start with my Raw image & adjust contrast, highlights, vibrancy, noise & chromatic abberation, then into Nik where I have numerous saved 'recipes' which I use to dependent on the image.
Like Zooey some apply to sections of the shot only. Then de-noise again with Nik and smart sharp. Done.

A good discussion.

I know it has been frowned upon that people may just click an Action in Photoshop to get a picture enhancement or effect. I wonder what's the difference to using a package like Nik or is everyone creating their own 'recipe' in there like @Shirlm (superb term that, 'recipe').

I don't think there is " A one size fits all " recipe. To me each image is different as in light, colour, exposure, type of subject etc and therefore has to have it's own different tweaks in the processing and each image has to be treated in a different way. Even different makes of cameras will take the same picture and the image of each will be slightly different. I therefore don't have a set processing for all different images but treat each as individual.
I open the RAW image in DXO do what processing is necessary and then save in TIFF . Sometimes I do a few tweaks in CS6 but this is not always necessary.

Totally agree.

Does anyone else get that feeling of "I know what will be needed here" or "I know which filter or action I'll be going for" the moment they open a photo?

I know from fellow Nutters that it's not often (but really valuable) when I post what I think is a finished shot and someone here offers an idea or spots something I've missed. And yes, usually it's an actual spot. Naughty sensor!

I agree - one size "recipe" does not fits all (that's a Nik term not mine )
However the great thing about Nik is you can save numerous filter combinations - recipes, I have about 20 if not more
saved over the years .
When I open a shot in Nik I can see the effect of each recipe applied to the shot in a thumbnail on the left.
I go down looking at all the effects until I see one that more or less suits the shot being edited.
I can then apply that and do minor tweaks to suit and job done - I find it saves hours.
I then leave it for a day or so before going back for a second look - sometimes I have to wonder what I've been thinking .
Posting here is where I really appreciate suggestions as to what could be improved or if I've hit it right.
Like Oy SilverEfex is my favourite mono conversion.

Well, I've been playing with Nik a bit more this week as a result of the discussion so far. Thank you.

Within NIK, do you use Vivaza or Colour effects pro?

I mainly use ColorEFex pro which has a huge range of filter effects of which I only use a few.
Viveza I think is more for contrast/lightening/sharpening of specific areas of your shot. I'm not too keen on this as have noticed it increases noise substantially.
Be interested if anyone has any different views.

Just seeing if anyone else has thoughts or ideas to share on here?

Keen to hear more about the Nik set many of us got a freebie of a year or three back...?