Apples or Berries?

Ann McRae

Or try again?

VisualXpressions

Hi Ann,

Are you going to join our friendly little competition? The first Berrie shot or the third apple shot cropped square like the one above are your best shots out of these... A good title is needed, I think to tie the shot to the theme... I really love the apple shot... are you aware of a technique called painting light? it could help to really "shine" up those apples!

Glad you decided to play! I know I'm having great fun! Good luck!

Winston

Ann McRae

VisualXpressions wrote:

Hi Ann,

Are you going to join our friendly little competition? The first Berrie shot or the third apple shot cropped square like the one above are your best shots out of these... A good title is needed, I think to tie the shot to the theme... I really love the apple shot... are you aware of a technique called painting light? it could help to really "shine" up those apples!

Glad you decided to play! I know I'm having great fun! Good luck!

Winston

Hi Winston

Yeah, I am a random competitor, but with soccer season done (well for a few weeks) I have time on my hands and need to push beyond the usual.

I am not aware of 'painting light' except as used at night. Can you share info?

Thanks

Ann

richtersl

Ann,

I learned about that here on Dgrin and tried to find the tutorial/post in which I found so that I give you a link. I could not find it. :cry

But essentially, these are the steps you need to follow in Photoshop:

1. Select Layer > New > Layer. The New Layer dialog displays.
2. Name the layer Dodge.
3. Select Overlay from the Mode drop down.
4. Place a check in Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray). It'll look gray on the Layers tab but notice that your photo looks fine. Make sure the Dodge layer you just created is selected.
4. Choose a soft brush from your brush palette.
5. Select the Dodge tool from your Tools palette. The Dodge tool looks like a stick with a round ball on top of it.
6. Set the Range to Midtones.
7. Set the Opacity to a value between 25%-40%.
8. Go to your photo and just paint over the apples with your cursor.

You may need to play with the Opacity a bit. If you don't like the results, just delete the new layer you created and create a new one.

Pssst....you can also do the same with Burn.

Ann McRae

Thanks, Linda. I've tried this out - pretty simple. Are the results supposed to be dramatic? (Hoping I've got it right.)

ann

richtersl wrote:

Ann,

I learned about that here on Dgrin and tried to find the tutorial/post in which I found so that I give you a link. I could not find it. :cry

But essentially, these are the steps you need to follow in Photoshop:

1. Select Layer > New > Layer. The New Layer dialog displays.
2. Name the layer Dodge.
3. Select Overlay from the Mode drop down.
4. Place a check in Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray). It'll look gray on the Layers tab but notice that your photo looks fine. Make sure the Dodge layer you just created is selected.
4. Choose a soft brush from your brush palette.
5. Select the Dodge tool from your Tools palette. The Dodge tool looks like a stick with a round ball on top of it.
6. Set the Range to Midtones.
7. Set the Opacity to a value between 25%-40%.
8. Go to your photo and just paint over the apples with your cursor.

You may need to play with the Opacity a bit. If you don't like the results, just delete the new layer you created and create a new one.

Pssst....you can also do the same with Burn.

Ann McRae

Alright, reshot some today and tried the painting light recipe:




Possible title: All that glitters is not gold
Could also try for a reference to forbidden fruit, but that is probably stretching it.

A few other perspectives:

richtersl

Ann McRae wrote:

Thanks, Linda. I've tried this out - pretty simple. Are the results supposed to be dramatic? (Hoping I've got it right.)

ann

You can make the change as subtle or as dramatic as you want by changing the brush opacity. If it's too dramatic, you can adjust the opacity of the Dodge layer too. For example, if you dodged a bit too much, just move the layer's opacity setting lever to the left until it begins to look more pleasing.

VisualXpressions

Ann,

another technique for painting light is to create a new layer, if you hold the alt button when you create new it will give you options, choose mode: soft light it works well for this application, and check the dialog box that says "fill overlay-neutral color (50% gray)" then simply paint with the paint brush tool like you would with a layer mask... white to lighten and black to darken... you can use different modes and as many layers as you want to get desired results... It doesn't really look like you have done anything to the apples at this point...

here is a quick example of one of you shots...

Ann McRae

Linda, Winston

Thank you both for taking the time to teach me something new. I've applied it and entered the challenge. Now I need to sort out if this is on topic enough - I can argue both polished and/or weathered but I am still not sure that there is enough texture showing.....

ann