A oldie but a goodie (I think)

thoth

Hey folks. I took this one a while back (same day as the horse in the cart shot) and re-edited it today. I don't think I ever posted it here so, since I'm having no-feedback-jitters, I'll stick it up. Enjoy!





Thanks for looking!

rutt

Very nice composition and interesting subject. It's a little abstract for me. Pictures of art are kind of a thing in and of themselves, since the artist has done so much of the work.

I'd like to be able to read the book title. I'd like a more dramatic sky. Both things might be addressable in post. Usually great skies live in the red channel. Just the right kind of sharpening can do wonders for readability of text.

thoth

rutt wrote:

Very nice composition and interesting subject. It's a little abstract for me. Pictures of art are kind of a thing in and of themselves, since the artist has done so much of the work.

I'd like to be able to read the book title. I'd like a more dramatic sky. Both things might be addressable in post. Usually great skies live in the red channel. Just the right kind of sharpening can do wonders for readability of text.

Thanks for the critique, Rutt. I was really hoping you'd reply to this one with some words of wisdom for the conversion. The first time I processed it I left it colored and bumped up the saturation which had a nice effect on the clouds. On the heels of my horse and man shot, though, I really wanted a good B&W conversion. I didn't think I had nailed it.

I will revisit the red channel and a new conversion to see what I can do about that sky (thanks for that tip). I know you've written some guides on sharpening but can you, at a glance, predict what might be needed and give me a push in the right direction? I can provide you with the RAW file, as well, if you would need a closer look.

This sculpture, and the other I linked to, are displayed at a wonderful sculpture park owned by the University of Missouri. This artist has a dozen pieces strewn about the place and they are all fantastic. I would really like to do this piece justice as well.

Thanks!

rutt

Sharpening to make text more readable is technically complex. Let me brush up on it and think about how to explain. Might be outside the scope of this thread and indeed of this forum. Buy Dan Margulis' Professional Photoshop if you want a real postprocessing sufferfest and proportional improvement in your skills.

The channels thing is easy to explain. Make two layers, and get the red channel in the topmost layer and the green channel in the second layer. The blending option of the topmost layer should be "Darken". That's about it. You may find the red channel to be noisy in the sky. Try surface blur to cure this.

thoth

rutt wrote:

Sharpening to make text more readable is technically complex. Let me brush up on it and think about how to explain. Might be outside the scope of this thread and indeed of this forum. Buy Dan Margulis' Professional Photoshop if you want a real postprocessing sufferfest and proportional improvement in your skills.

The channels thing is easy to explain. Make two layers, and get the red channel in the topmost layer and the green channel in the second layer. The blending option of the topmost layer should be "Darken". That's about it. You may find the red channel to be noisy in the sky. Try surface blur to cure this.

Great, thanks Rutt. I have done some sharpening based upon the technique I've seen you post several times and it has helped quite a bit. I've considered beating myself in the head with that book once or twice so maybe I'll spring for it and enter a coma for a while.

I'm working on the conversion now so hopefully I'll get my results up soon. Thanks!

rutt

The section you want starts on page 165 of PP5E and is called "Niccolo the Magnificent.". It follows a complete treatment of Machievelli's tomb into B&W complete with fussing over the readability of the inscriptions. Should be just the ticket after a significant sufferfest.

If you are going ti buy PP5E I'd also but the LAB book at the same time. It's actually easier and you might awaken from you coma sooner.

thoth

rutt wrote:

The section you want starts on page 165 of PP5E and is called "Niccolo the Magnificent.". It follows a complete treatment of Machievelli's tomb into B&W complete with fussing over the readability of the inscriptions. Should be just the ticket after a significant sufferfest.

If you are going ti buy PP5E I'd also but the LAB book at the same time. It's actually easier and you might awaken from you coma sooner.

Thanks, again, for pointing me into the right direction.

thoth

Ok, here's my non-coma-inducing reproduction of the original. This one is much better. Thanks for the tips, Rutt. What do you think?

Flyinggina

Wow Travis. That really worked out well.

Even though this is a picture of someone else's art, I really like this one. The crop works really well.Love the way the man in the chair is framed against the clouds. Love what you did to the clouds. Rutt's suggestions really paid off.

Maybe a black border though? rofl

Virginia

thoth

Flyinggina wrote:

Wow Travis. That really worked out well.

Even though this is a picture of someone else's art, I really like this one. The crop works really well.Love the way the man in the chair is framed against the clouds. Love what you did to the clouds. Rutt's suggestions really paid off.

Thanks, Viriginia, Rutt's advice did pay off for sure. There's so much emotion in these sculptures that I really can't help but try to give them good representation. I almost posted this shot in Other Cool Stuff, where some might argue that it belongs, but I felt as though the emotion was a great match for this forum.

Flyinggina wrote:

Maybe a black border though? rofl

As you can see in the first image, black was my original choice. I felt like it was a bit overpowering, though. Perhaps white has the same effect in a different way.

Thanks for the comments!

rutt

I can read the title on the book this time as well, which is good. Together with the better sky, it makes this a winner.

I do think you need a more sophisticated sharpening technique. In the original the white halos are pretty visible.

thoth

rutt wrote:

I can read the title on the book this time as well, which is good. Together with the better sky, it makes this a winner.

I do think you need a more sophisticated sharpening technique. In the original the white halos are pretty visible.

Thanks, Rutt, for the additional comments. I was was back and forth so much on the Radius and Amount sliders, trying to get rid of the halos, that I could have been DJ'ing a rave.