Editing Help.

Candid Arts

So I have this picture:



*Sorry for the watermark, I tried removing it to post the picture here but it's not letting me, don't know what's up.

It was originally taken in color and in RAW. I've made it B&W and done a little editing to the version you are seeing, but not much. I'm trying to make the ground more contrasty, but at the same time not making the corner of the roll of film not TOO black and the bend in the film at the top as well.I'd ideally like the film to stay, for the most part, as is, but bringing out the detail in the ground. I've done this by adding black in LR2, but like I said, it makes the film and stuff too black. I'm really new to editing, and don't know much about it, yet. So any help would be great.

Oh and p.s., if you're using fancy shmancy terminology, try dumbing it down best you can. I know a little about editing, but not much.

Thanks everyone...

pathfinder

It is easier sometimes to get your contrast correction done in color before switching to B&W.

To increase the contrast of the grass in this image without affecting the films contrast will require creating a mask, because they are so similar in tone. If you cannot use the green color in the original in channel mixer, then you may have to select the film with one of the selection tools like the magic wand or the quick selection tool. You might even find you need to use the pen tool to get the precision you need.

A previous thread I have written about B&W conversion might be helpful

Travis

In your post, you said that you were using LR2. I don't know if you have photoshop (if so, follow pathfinder's advice). In LR2, you have some options. This is starting with the color image. First, maximize your histogram by setting your Highlight and Black points so that they use the full range without clipping (you may need to play with the Recovery and Fill sliders as well). Now on to the fun stuff....

In the HSL/Grayscale panel, select Grayscale. This will change the image to B&W although it will look a bit flat. To add some life to it, you will need to begin adjusting the color sliders on the Grayscale panel to alter the lightness/darkness of converted color area. This is not always intuitive because with something like grass, you may think the green slider is key color to adjust when it actually may be the yellow slider or a combination of multiple sliders. There is a helpful tool though.

In the upper left corner of the Grayscale panel is a wierd little circle thingie (technical term). Click it and your cursor changes to resemble the circle thingie. Simply drag your cursor over the areas that you want to alter (dragging up will lighten/down will darken) and the corresponding color sliders will adjust. Pretty cool.

You may run into an issue where the film canister and the grass share similar colors and therefore both are darkened when the adjustment is made. To workaround this, click where the little circle thingie was in the Grayscale panel to put the control back. Now select the Adjustment Brush tool from the Tools panel. This will turn your cursor into a brush and open a series of sliders (exposure, clarity, saturation, etc...)

If you want to lighten (dodge) the film canister, drag the Exposure slider all the way to +4 and then paint the dark area of the canister. Whoa! This was too light but it will help you see where the effect is. All you have to do is return to the Exposure slider and dial it back down to where it looks the way you want it.

Hope this helps!

edgework

Any chance of seeing the original?

Candid Arts

Travis wrote:

In the upper left corner of the Grayscale panel is a wierd little circle thingie (technical term). Click it and your cursor changes to resemble the circle thingie. Simply drag your cursor over the areas that you want to alter (dragging up will lighten/down will darken) and the corresponding color sliders will adjust. Pretty cool.

Hope this helps!

Wow. Amazing. Totally helpful. Worked great! Thanks!

Here's the result: