help find the rainbow!

DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
edited July 4, 2005 in Landscapes
been a while since I posted a photo, eh? And it's not much of a winner, either.

Anyway, I was riding home last night when a couple drops started hitting me. My immediate and usual reaction was to look for a rainbow. Sure enough, there it was. Very faint, but I saw it clearly. I pulled over the bike, reached into the saddlebag and pulled out the trusty S100. Snapped a couple and crossed my fingers.

Didn't cross hard enough, this was the result:
26737704-L.jpg

There really is a rainbow in there. If you squint you can see it, it goes basically from the peak of that house up to the top right corner, or where the tree branch cuts it off.

I've tried all sorts of stuff in PS to make it more apparent, nothing worked. So I challenge anyone to bring it out more. I'm not going for a print here, this is more of a photoshop challenge. It all boils down to math, and to somehow make the information in those pixels pop better, right? So the rest of the photo can be blown out, fuzzy, whatever, I just want to make it obvious there was a rainbow there.

Suggestions/attempts welcome - have at it! :D
Erik
moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]

Comments

  • ginger_55ginger_55 Registered Users Posts: 8,416 Major grins
    edited July 1, 2005
    Do you have a link to the original, if not, do you have a larger photo?

    I see the rainbow, faintly. At first I thought I would need arrows pointing it out.

    ginger
    After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited July 1, 2005
    its barely worth the trouble, from my wee 2.1mp 5 yr old Canon S100 - but here you go anyway:

    http://doctorit.smugmug.com/photos/26740848-O.jpg
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]

  • ginger_55ginger_55 Registered Users Posts: 8,416 Major grins
    edited July 1, 2005
    I have a dr appointment in a sec, so will get to your photo later. My dr appt seems funny in light of your signature. (Dermatology, those daily photos without sunscreen)

    ginger
    After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited July 2, 2005
    wow, this one bit the dust quick?

    should I put this in photoshop challenges or something? No one wants to play? ne_nau.gif
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]

  • behr655behr655 Registered Users Posts: 552 Major grins
    edited July 2, 2005
    I tried to play but got nada.


    Bear
    http://behr655.smugmug.com/
    http://behr655.smugmug.com/gallery/2514206#132038106
  • ajgauthierajgauthier Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins
    edited July 3, 2005
    found it!
    not sure if this is anything that catches your eye, and honestly I can't remember what I did since I kept fooling around with it! But, I got the rainbow to stand out a bit...and it looks like the tone of sky after a late afternoon thunderstorm when you get the sun coming through all the dust kicked up by a tornado or high wind.

    Oh - and I shrunk it...looked better smaller.

    anyhoot:
    http://ajgauthier.smugmug.com
  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,949 moderator
    edited July 3, 2005
    I don't know that this one's better. But here's what I did.

    Using color range, create a new layer (I selected the sky). Then
    using levels adjustment, I pinched things until the rainbow starts to
    show. Next, adjust the midpoint. Poof, there it is.




    Ian
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited July 4, 2005
    Interesting approaches - AJ, I'm really surprised at how much it stood out in your toned sky. When I was playing, I kept trying to make the sky color lighter so the rainbow would stick out. Ian, I tried similar approaches with a new layer, but instead of levels, I was trying to oversaturate the rainbow colors. In hindsight, that's a pretty silly idea since the rainbow covers the entire spectrum. 11doh.gif

    so it was definitely a weak rainbow, but thanks for playing :D
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]

  • ajgauthierajgauthier Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins
    edited July 4, 2005
    DoctorIt wrote:
    Interesting approaches - AJ, I'm really surprised at how much it stood out in your toned sky. When I was playing, I kept trying to make the sky color lighter so the rainbow would stick out. Ian, I tried similar approaches with a new layer, but instead of levels, I was trying to oversaturate the rainbow colors. In hindsight, that's a pretty silly idea since the rainbow covers the entire spectrum. 11doh.gif

    so it was definitely a weak rainbow, but thanks for playing :D
    hiya,

    I can't remember exactly what I did - I was playing with it and the tv was also on. From what I do remember of my reasoning, I believe I got the rainbow to stand out using the Color Balance and taking away RGB from the highlights and possibly the midtones. The theory was that I wanted to take the blues & greens out of the sky...I bet if you had shot with a circular polarizer it would have helped, so, I was trying to duplicate that in PS...also played with the magenta. I wanted the red/orange and purple to come out in the rainbow.

    From there, I think I did play with saturations, and ended by blurring things to get rid of the splotchiness that happened whilst playing.

    thanks for the opportunity to play!
    Adrienne
    http://ajgauthier.smugmug.com
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