thanks all for commenting on my image =c)
since some of you asked me for a quick walk through here it is:
using these 2 images http://pyroprints.smugmug.com/Competitions/DGRIN/5313762_5fmJE#628586253_GnrdU http://pyroprints.smugmug.com/Competitions/DGRIN/5313762_5fmJE#628586100_dYYYS
I created an hdr version, and in the same program (Dynamic-Photo HDR) did some toning adjustment, which got me sodecently vibrant colors and some of that "dark" look.
The rest was my "usual" routine, selective sharpening using Smart Sharpen (chain at 90%, lock at i think around 50%). Then adding some light vignetting using a brush and gaussian blur/opacity. and last but not least, my favorite selective color adjustment layer, through which i got the colors i wanted.
I was actually doing some wide angles of this gate, but then i decided to throw on my 50mm and get up close and personal with the lock.
thanks all for commenting on my image =c)
since some of you asked me for a quick walk through here it is:
using these 2 images http://pyroprints.smugmug.com/Competitions/DGRIN/5313762_5fmJE#628586253_GnrdU http://pyroprints.smugmug.com/Competitions/DGRIN/5313762_5fmJE#628586100_dYYYS
I created an hdr version, and in the same program (Dynamic-Photo HDR) did some toning adjustment, which got me sodecently vibrant colors and some of that "dark" look.
The rest was my "usual" routine, selective sharpening using Smart Sharpen (chain at 90%, lock at i think around 50%). Then adding some light vignetting using a brush and gaussian blur/opacity. and last but not least, my favorite selective color adjustment layer, through which i got the colors i wanted.
Much thanks for this! I have been trying to work on my color processing as I have found that it is a weak point for me.
Much thanks for this! I have been trying to work on my color processing as I have found that it is a weak point for me.
then i highly recommend the selective color adjustment layer. try setting several that way you can reset changes you don't like and keeping the ones you do.
then i highly recommend the selective color adjustment layer. try setting several that way you can reset changes you don't like and keeping the ones you do.
Will do! I've recently started using channel mixer layers, and I have been pleased with the results.
You DGRIN challengers submit such great work! Congrats to the winners, and thanks for all the cool submissions from all the runner ups, for sure. I love to follow a challenge going down.
Thanks to those that included me in their final 10.
You have impeccable taste.
How this was taken.
First off, all of my flashes have NO manual settings.
So when I use them off camera, I get the full flash power.
I have a flat panel flash in the book, with 4 or 5 yellow gels on it, plus some paper blocking some of the flash. LINK TO FLASH
I have a canon 420ex with a diffuser and a shoot through umbrella at her feet trying to put some light on the book cover.
Another canon 420ex behind her shooting at the background trying to get a glowing frame around her.
Note that her left hand is holding all the "stuff" in place in the book.
The biggest problem I had was trying to tone down the brightness coming off of the flash in the book.
With all the gels and paper on it, and I still had to shoot at f16 at 1/200 to keep from blowing out her hair.
I tried darker gels, blue and green ones, lets just say it didn't work well and leave it at that.
All the flashes had cactus v4 receivers, and the camera a cactus v4 transmitter.
If you try this, make sure your model doesn't have a double jointed thumb.
Half of the shots I took look like her thumb is broken.
This is more or less what it looked like straight from the camera.
(OK, it's not the same shot, but it is the same setup):D
Thanks to everyone for your comments before and after the challenge.
Thanks so much for the wonderful words and I'm still blushing from being picked by a judge... it's my first time being picked! Here's the full album from that morning... http://photos.thomasflock.com/Children/2009/Bed-Thieves/ The little buggers took over my bed in the night and they wouldn't wake up in the morning so I went and got the camera. It was almost a full 10 minutes of shooting before the little one finally peeked. heh
On taking the images, I used my D60 with my 18-55mm lens... I used my SB800 flash and was bouncing it off the ceiling. My only real goal was to wake them up... in the process I think I got a couple of frameable photos.
My two favorites from that I put below... the last one really seemed to speak this challenge to me.
Behold the Power of Clipping Layers!
I just wanted to take a moment to share a few things that I learned recently while reading The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Layers Book by Richard Lynch (which I very highly recommend). I was super excited to be able to apply this info on my entry for #31.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p>
So excuse the noob exuberance (and please, anyone with a fair bit of Photoshop layers knowledge, skip to the next entry on this thread!), but behold the power of Clipping Layers!!!
<o:p> </o:p>
So, here is the my original image, RAW converted in LR with no changes other than overall sharpening, 50mm lens at 0.3s, f10, ISO 160, manual focus.
<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Here’s a screenshot of the layers window.
<o:p></o:p>
1) duplicate BG layer for cloning and healing
2) selectively sharpen the farthest lid (tall peach jar) to appearance that all jars were completely in focus. I tried to keep my aperture as large as possible to keep the BG slightly blurred while still keeping the jars in focus. Because of my setup and the lighting, I could not further distance the jars from the wall to accomplish blur during capture
a. used the lasso tool to manually select the lid
b. control+c to copy
c. control+v to paste, which adds the lid as a separate layer
d. on the new layer, unsharp mask
3) clone and heal in a separate layer the “foam” inside the strawberry jam jar. As above, the used the lasso tool and copied that jar to its own layer. Once in its own layer, I could control the opacity of the cloning and healing.
4) add a slight blur to the BG yellow wall. Again, I used the lasso tool to manually select the BG which I copied to its own layer.
5) duplicate yellow BG selection layer to apply an ever so slight blur
<o:p> </o:p> And now, the FUN part!!! <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
6) adjusted the color balance to warm the yellow BG by adding an adjustment layer above the duplicate yellow BG layer. With the adjustment layer selected, Ctrl+Alt+G makes the adjustment layer into a clipping layer, so that the adjustment applies to the yellow BG only, not the entire image!! (Again, sorry for the noob enthusiasm!)
7) similarly, I manually selected the crate and pasted it to its own layer
8) duplicate that layer using multiply to darken the wooden crate
9) apply color balance adjustment clipping layer to slightly warm the wood color
10) apply curves clipping layer to bring out the detail in the wood grain
11) add signature
<o:p> </o:p>
And though not perfect, here’s the final result after making a decision to crop once back in LR:
<o:p> </o:p>
So, although everything that I accomplished using clipping layers could have been accomplished using masks, I found this method to be more useful for this particular image. And though I’m happy with my final image, I think I’m even happier that I was able to learn a few things.
<o:p> </o:p>
Hopefully someone on Dgrin was able to learn something by this example – just trying to give back for all the great stuff I’ve learned here. I’m interested to hear if anyone might have used layers differently (or more effectively/efficiently) than I did.
I didn't even know about the theme for this challenge when I took my sunflower shot.
I was just riding around out in the hills and valleys of Northwest Georgia looking for whatever may catch my eye. I just happen to come around the bend and, Oh look! sunflowers!! So I turned around and saw that there was someone sitting on the front porch of the little old house next to the sunflowers. Rather than just getting out and start shooting, I figure I would ask if they mind if I took some photos. As I approched the front gate,this old man gets up and just as nice as can be says, "Pretty day, ain't it".
We ended up sitting on his porch and his wife joined us too. It was nice not to be in a hurry to get anywhere, and I could tell they were glad to have a visitor.
They said they planted sunflowers just because they like to look at them. He said it was actually their nephew that planted the sunflowers for them because they just couldn't do it any more.
They told me about there life. How he had built that house back in 1949 on 4 acers with money he saved working at the cotton mill.
How they had gotten married back in the great depression. I was surprised that they had both always lived in a house that had electricity. Not that common in the deep south back in the 1930's. They said it was because they both grew up in Mill houses. They told me about what is was like back then, and, to me, it was all just fascinating.
So I just had to ask, "Just how old are ya'll?"
He told me his lovely wife was 91 and that he was 95 and a half. They had been married for 75 years last month.
He told me he quit smoking when he was 90, because it darn near killed him. They were quite a couple, but they broke my heart.
See, I asked if I could please take there photo, and he said he didn't think that was a good idea, and she said absolutely not!
Oh, I so much wanted too. The photographer in me was just dying to get a shot of them together. But it was not to be. They would have none of it.
So you will just have to imagine them sitting together on their porch swing, both of them holding an old wooden cane, with the American flag hanging off the porch behind them and the sun shining behind those beautiful sunflowers in the background. That picture would have composed itself.
When I got back home and looked at the sunflower pics on the computer, I knew what I had to do. I printed out an 11X14 on Canon plus glossy. Went to Hobby Lobby and got a frame and a mat. Got it all put together and went back to there house a few days later.
I told them, now you can look at your sunflowers all winter too.
So if you are ever on Hwy 48, just outside of Trion Georgia, and you see about 300 sunflowers next to a little white house, feel free to stop. They will be glad you did.
I just wanted to take a moment to share a few things that I learned recently...
Very good work Christopher, thank you for sharing.
I was wondering if you pp-ed your beautiful background color or re-shoot and used a different background...
- wow, you really did a lot of work, with a very good result
Very good work Christopher, thank you for sharing.
I was wondering if you pp-ed your beautiful background color or re-shoot and used a different background...
- wow, you really did a lot of work, with a very good result
Thanks Tatiana.....I just LOVE layers!! Again, sorry for noob enthusiasm! I can't tell you how highly I recommend that book. I think I am going to purchase it because my copy is due at the library.
I just wanted to take a moment to share a few things that I learned recently while reading The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Layers Book by Richard Lynch (which I very highly recommend). I was super excited to be able to apply this info on my entry for #31.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
So excuse the noob exuberance (and please, anyone with a fair bit of Photoshop layers knowledge, skip to the next entry on this thread!), but behold the power of Clipping Layers!!! <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/rolleyes1.gif" border="0" alt="" >
<o:p></o:p>
Thanks for the reference on the book. I'll add it to my list. Nice work on the process.
In the "from start to end theme" the picture was very hurriedly snapped. I had about a 20 second window from camera bag open to ice cream was gone. My camera was still in manual mode from an earlier exercise w/ flash, so the pictures started off very underexposed.
Thankfully, I shoot RAW as default, so I was able to bring this into lightroom and adjust the exposure by +1 stop, shift the white balance to cloudy (which worked better than shade for this image), selectively desaturate the orange stuff in the lower right, and then take it into CS4 to clean up the noise from the underexposure, and get the remnants of the hand off the top of his head. I ended up with an additional layer to selectively extra-sharpen the droplet of ice cream.
Based on the feedback and just learning over the past couple of weeks, I should have selectively dinked with the exposure to not have brought the background along for the ride (as much). I'm going to see what a tweaked workflow will yield.
Thanks again for the feedback and the kind words for the final product.
Since everyone seems to be doing some before and after explanations, I'll go ahead and throw mine in the mix! I hope someone finds it helpful.
Here is the shot I started with:
I propped the guitar up in it's case and set it on my bed in the bedroom. I then opened the shades to get some natural light in. It took a few tries in various locations on the bed before I got the lighting I wanted.
My first move was to crop in a little tighter to put focus on the f-hole. I then selectively brought down the exposure in a few places that were bothering me.
For the B&W conversion, I used a B&W adjustment layer. Because of the sunburst color dominance in the photo, I chose to use the red and yellow sliders to dominate the appearance and really give it good contrast. I ended up with red at -150% and yellow at 150%. From there, I made minor tweaks to the rest of the colors until I was pleased with the result. I felt that the black and white was a little cold, so I decided to give it a very slight tint. 50 degrees at 10% saturation did the trick. I then boosted the contrast very slightly using a curves adjustment layer.
My last step was to dodge some of the spots that still seemed a little bit bright and distracting. And, the result:
Thanks again to all the great input that helped me get to that result. Good luck to all of the finalists!
Comments
It is applicable at any age. None of us are getting any younger and we won't look better in 10 years than we do today.
I hope it works better than it does with my kids.
Great story! Thanks for sharing.
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
What a wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing.
thanks all for commenting on my image =c)
since some of you asked me for a quick walk through here it is:
using these 2 images
http://pyroprints.smugmug.com/Competitions/DGRIN/5313762_5fmJE#628586253_GnrdU
http://pyroprints.smugmug.com/Competitions/DGRIN/5313762_5fmJE#628586100_dYYYS
I created an hdr version, and in the same program (Dynamic-Photo HDR) did some toning adjustment, which got me sodecently vibrant colors and some of that "dark" look.
The rest was my "usual" routine, selective sharpening using Smart Sharpen (chain at 90%, lock at i think around 50%). Then adding some light vignetting using a brush and gaussian blur/opacity. and last but not least, my favorite selective color adjustment layer, through which i got the colors i wanted.
I was actually doing some wide angles of this gate, but then i decided to throw on my 50mm and get up close and personal with the lock.
pyroPrints.com/5819572 The Photo Section
Much thanks for this! I have been trying to work on my color processing as I have found that it is a weak point for me.
My Photographic Adventures
Nikon D7000 | 10-20 | 50 | 55-200
pyroPrints.com/5819572 The Photo Section
Will do! I've recently started using channel mixer layers, and I have been pleased with the results.
My Photographic Adventures
Nikon D7000 | 10-20 | 50 | 55-200
You have impeccable taste.
How this was taken.
First off, all of my flashes have NO manual settings.
So when I use them off camera, I get the full flash power.
I have a flat panel flash in the book, with 4 or 5 yellow gels on it, plus some paper blocking some of the flash. LINK TO FLASH
I have a canon 420ex with a diffuser and a shoot through umbrella at her feet trying to put some light on the book cover.
Another canon 420ex behind her shooting at the background trying to get a glowing frame around her.
Note that her left hand is holding all the "stuff" in place in the book.
The biggest problem I had was trying to tone down the brightness coming off of the flash in the book.
With all the gels and paper on it, and I still had to shoot at f16 at 1/200 to keep from blowing out her hair.
I tried darker gels, blue and green ones, lets just say it didn't work well and leave it at that.
All the flashes had cactus v4 receivers, and the camera a cactus v4 transmitter.
If you try this, make sure your model doesn't have a double jointed thumb.
Half of the shots I took look like her thumb is broken.
This is more or less what it looked like straight from the camera.
(OK, it's not the same shot, but it is the same setup):D
Thanks to everyone for your comments before and after the challenge.
Basking in the shadows of yesterday's triumphs'.
* sniff * that was so sweet! thanks so much for sharing. you just made my morning.
Spread the love! Go comment on something!
On taking the images, I used my D60 with my 18-55mm lens... I used my SB800 flash and was bouncing it off the ceiling. My only real goal was to wake them up... in the process I think I got a couple of frameable photos.
My two favorites from that I put below... the last one really seemed to speak this challenge to me.
http://photos.thomasflock.com
I just wanted to take a moment to share a few things that I learned recently while reading The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Layers Book by Richard Lynch (which I very highly recommend). I was super excited to be able to apply this info on my entry for #31.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p>
So excuse the noob exuberance (and please, anyone with a fair bit of Photoshop layers knowledge, skip to the next entry on this thread!), but behold the power of Clipping Layers!!!
<o:p> </o:p>
So, here is the my original image, RAW converted in LR with no changes other than overall sharpening, 50mm lens at 0.3s, f10, ISO 160, manual focus.
<o:p></o:p>
<o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Here’s a screenshot of the layers window.
<o:p></o:p>
1) duplicate BG layer for cloning and healing
2) selectively sharpen the farthest lid (tall peach jar) to appearance that all jars were completely in focus. I tried to keep my aperture as large as possible to keep the BG slightly blurred while still keeping the jars in focus. Because of my setup and the lighting, I could not further distance the jars from the wall to accomplish blur during capture
a. used the lasso tool to manually select the lid
b. control+c to copy
c. control+v to paste, which adds the lid as a separate layer
d. on the new layer, unsharp mask
3) clone and heal in a separate layer the “foam” inside the strawberry jam jar. As above, the used the lasso tool and copied that jar to its own layer. Once in its own layer, I could control the opacity of the cloning and healing.
4) add a slight blur to the BG yellow wall. Again, I used the lasso tool to manually select the BG which I copied to its own layer.
5) duplicate yellow BG selection layer to apply an ever so slight blur
<o:p> </o:p>
And now, the FUN part!!!
<o:p> </o:p>
6) adjusted the color balance to warm the yellow BG by adding an adjustment layer above the duplicate yellow BG layer. With the adjustment layer selected, Ctrl+Alt+G makes the adjustment layer into a clipping layer, so that the adjustment applies to the yellow BG only, not the entire image!! (Again, sorry for the noob enthusiasm!)
7) similarly, I manually selected the crate and pasted it to its own layer
8) duplicate that layer using multiply to darken the wooden crate
9) apply color balance adjustment clipping layer to slightly warm the wood color
10) apply curves clipping layer to bring out the detail in the wood grain
11) add signature
<o:p> </o:p>
And though not perfect, here’s the final result after making a decision to crop once back in LR:
<o:p> </o:p>
So, although everything that I accomplished using clipping layers could have been accomplished using masks, I found this method to be more useful for this particular image. And though I’m happy with my final image, I think I’m even happier that I was able to learn a few things.
<o:p> </o:p>
Hopefully someone on Dgrin was able to learn something by this example – just trying to give back for all the great stuff I’ve learned here.
My Photos - Powered by SmugMug!
http://danielplumer.com/
Facebook Fan Page
Very good work Christopher, thank you for sharing.
I was wondering if you pp-ed your beautiful background color or re-shoot and used a different background...
- wow, you really did a lot of work, with a very good result
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
Thanks Tatiana.....I just LOVE layers!!
My Photos - Powered by SmugMug!
Thanks for the reference on the book. I'll add it to my list. Nice work on the process.
Who is wise? He who learns from everyone.
My SmugMug Site
20090816-203.jpg
Thankfully, I shoot RAW as default, so I was able to bring this into lightroom and adjust the exposure by +1 stop, shift the white balance to cloudy (which worked better than shade for this image), selectively desaturate the orange stuff in the lower right, and then take it into CS4 to clean up the noise from the underexposure, and get the remnants of the hand off the top of his head. I ended up with an additional layer to selectively extra-sharpen the droplet of ice cream.
Based on the feedback and just learning over the past couple of weeks, I should have selectively dinked with the exposure to not have brought the background along for the ride (as much). I'm going to see what a tweaked workflow will yield.
Thanks again for the feedback and the kind words for the final product.
Who is wise? He who learns from everyone.
My SmugMug Site
Here is the shot I started with:
I propped the guitar up in it's case and set it on my bed in the bedroom. I then opened the shades to get some natural light in. It took a few tries in various locations on the bed before I got the lighting I wanted.
My first move was to crop in a little tighter to put focus on the f-hole. I then selectively brought down the exposure in a few places that were bothering me.
For the B&W conversion, I used a B&W adjustment layer. Because of the sunburst color dominance in the photo, I chose to use the red and yellow sliders to dominate the appearance and really give it good contrast. I ended up with red at -150% and yellow at 150%. From there, I made minor tweaks to the rest of the colors until I was pleased with the result. I felt that the black and white was a little cold, so I decided to give it a very slight tint. 50 degrees at 10% saturation did the trick. I then boosted the contrast very slightly using a curves adjustment layer.
My last step was to dodge some of the spots that still seemed a little bit bright and distracting. And, the result:
Thanks again to all the great input that helped me get to that result. Good luck to all of the finalists!
My Photographic Adventures
Nikon D7000 | 10-20 | 50 | 55-200