Dgrin Challange #17, Advice needed!

Rewen

I love this photo, its of my kitten, Orrie, I have no title for it, and its not edited at all yet.

What do you all think I should try? I am a little new to photoshop.
Orrie1.jpg

Velvet-Art

1st of all, welcome to Dgrin Rachel

With regards to editing in PS here are a few things I'd try.

1st off, Levels ( ctrl-l in windows), you can try hitting the Auto Levels button or you can do it manually. ( best do a Dgrin or Google about a Levels Tutorial )

2nd, "Remove Color cast" (find it under "Enhance / Adjust color /" ). Click on a part of your image that you know should be a neutral grey or white.

3rd, I'd apply a little mid-range sharpening, UnSharp Mask ( find it in "Enhance / Unsharp Mask ")with the values of 16-20 %amount, 150-180 Radius and 0 on the others. (you can play with the amount and radius while clicking the preview button to show the differences of before and after. )

4th, if there are any little spots or blemishes use the Heal tool ( Ctrl-j )to get rid of them. I try and zoom in to 80-100% to examine the pic to do this.

Then the final step you do should be output sharpening, I use the Unsharp Mask tool that you just used in step 3, but this time change the values to 150-250% amount, 0.6-1.2 radius, and 0-3 threshold to stop any High ISO or dust noise sharpened.


These are some basic steps that I do to most of my pics, see what you can come up with, have a play barb


Hope this helps and isn't too long-winded (just long-winded enough :D)

Rewen

Velvet-Art wrote:

1st of all, welcome to Dgrin Rachel

With regards to editing in PS here are a few things I'd try.

1st off, Levels ( ctrl-l in windows), you can try hitting the Auto Levels button or you can do it manually. ( best do a Dgrin or Google about a Levels Tutorial )

2nd, "Remove Color cast" (find it under "Enhance / Adjust color /" ). Click on a part of your image that you know should be a neutral grey or white.

3rd, I'd apply a little mid-range sharpening, UnSharp Mask ( find it in "Enhance / Unsharp Mask ")with the values of 16-20 %amount, 150-180 Radius and 0 on the others. (you can play with the amount and radius while clicking the preview button to show the differences of before and after. )

4th, if there are any little spots or blemishes use the Heal tool ( Ctrl-j )to get rid of them. I try and zoom in to 80-100% to examine the pic to do this.

Then the final step you do should be output sharpening, I use the Unsharp Mask tool that you just used in step 3, but this time change the values to 150-250% amount, 0.6-1.2 radius, and 0-3 threshold to stop any High ISO or dust noise sharpened.


These are some basic steps that I do to most of my pics, see what you can come up with, have a play barb


Hope this helps and isn't too long-winded (just long-winded enough :D)

I have been trying to do the 'remove color cast' step you recommended, but I can't seem to figure it out. I just got the CS4 version, so I am a little lost. Is there another way of doing the remove color cast?

Velvet-Art

Rewen wrote:

I have been trying to do the 'remove color cast' step you recommended, but I can't seem to figure it out. I just got the CS4 version, so I am a little lost. Is there another way of doing the remove color cast?

I dont know if I can help, I only have PS Elements 5, but if you want I'll send you my elements if you send me your CS4 roflrofl

In Elements all I have to do is select the Enhance / Adjust Color, then click on an area that should be a neutral shade of grey or white, and then click ok and that's it.

If you shoot RAW I find it easiest to correct any color cast in PS's raw converter ACR.


Tim

KevXman

Rachel,

Welcome to Dgrin! Here's a link that might help.

http://www.layersmagazine.com/photoshop-remove-colorcast.html

Here at Dgrin, we all enjoy helping each other so don't be afraid to ask. (Make sure you check out the other forums (Technique, Finishing School, etc.) also.

— Kevin

Rewen

Velvet-Art wrote:

1st of all, welcome to Dgrin Rachel

With regards to editing in PS here are a few things I'd try.

1st off, Levels ( ctrl-l in windows), you can try hitting the Auto Levels button or you can do it manually. ( best do a Dgrin or Google about a Levels Tutorial )

2nd, "Remove Color cast" (find it under "Enhance / Adjust color /" ). Click on a part of your image that you know should be a neutral grey or white.

3rd, I'd apply a little mid-range sharpening, UnSharp Mask ( find it in "Enhance / Unsharp Mask ")with the values of 16-20 %amount, 150-180 Radius and 0 on the others. (you can play with the amount and radius while clicking the preview button to show the differences of before and after. )

4th, if there are any little spots or blemishes use the Heal tool ( Ctrl-j )to get rid of them. I try and zoom in to 80-100% to examine the pic to do this.

Then the final step you do should be output sharpening, I use the Unsharp Mask tool that you just used in step 3, but this time change the values to 150-250% amount, 0.6-1.2 radius, and 0-3 threshold to stop any High ISO or dust noise sharpened.


These are some basic steps that I do to most of my pics, see what you can come up with, have a play barb


Hope this helps and isn't too long-winded (just long-winded enough :D)

Ok, so i followed your tips, this is what I came up with, I did adjust the brightness just a bit, because the white was almost too overpowering. But let me know what you think.
Thanks for all your help!

Velvet-Art

Rewen wrote:

Ok, so i followed your tips, this is what I came up with, I did adjust the brightness just a bit, because the white was almost too overpowering. But let me know what you think.
Thanks for all your help!

Well, what a great difference!! Well done !! Much better dynamic range, deeper blacks, whiter whites, much greater "pop" than before.

If you think your whites are overpowering too much, make sure that your monitor is not set too bright. I read a tip once about setting the brightness set on your monitor, it said to get a pure white document opened up in PS, hold up a piece of white photopaper up beside the monitor and adjust the monitor brightness until the white screen is the same brightness as the photopaper. That should make sure that your monitor is not misleading you into thinking the image is too bright.

That being said, you've got it ok on this image, it is hard to keep the detail in white fur without making the fur look like light grey. The paw at the bottom seems to have lost the details of the fur though.

Perhaps when adjusting the Levels, hold ALT down while adjusting the "White Point" to see where/if you are losing any details. ( they will show up in white to show that that area has "blown out" or lost all detail.) (you can also do that for setting the "Black point" to see the same loss-of-detail effects )

Hope this may help, you've come on great from that 1st image, keep up the good work


Tim