Pic to play with

GraphyFotoz

I did this a while back the an old shack.

Well I stuck the ole lens out my back window for this shot.
Gives people a chance to play with snow pics in PS/CS2.

Pic looks soft for 2 reasons
#1 it was snowing while I shot this at 1/60 ISO100(75-300mm)
#2 DSLR shots 98% of the time need some sort of USM.

Do what ever you want.....fix...sharpen....cut and past something into it...whatever.
Use any plug-in ya have....anything goes.:D


Original to work with

GraphyFotoz

I'll start off with my fix/project
Used CS2 USM then Nix Color Efex Pro 2.0 Traditonal Filters Graduated Blue for the sky and then the Pro Contrast.

CS2 for sig and Mikes Framer for frame.

rutt

This image looks soft because it lacks contrast and color, not becaue it needs sharpening. I attacked it with sharpen/highlight in RGB mode to recover some highlight detail in the snow and generally darken and add contrast:



Then I took to LAB and used the Man from Mars method to add color and contrast. (See: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=21859 for a description of the Man from Mars approach.)

Here is the final product (no sharpening at all. You can go on and try. Usually USM is most effective if you do it last.)



Here are the MFM curves:



I used blending options on the MFM layer to keep it away from the snow and preserve whatever detail there was there. I also added a color blend layer and used curves to push to blue and blending options to apply only to the snow to cool it a bit. Snow in shadows is slightly blue.

GraphyFotoz

Great Rutt!
That's what's what I wanted for everyone. GREAT step by step.
I dunno how to do that but it's VERY informative for others!!

Sorry it's not a better subject but this time of year and most of the country being covered in snow.....practice and info session.


Stupid me.....

What is LAB and MFM? :bash

rutt

Looking at it again, I'm not in love with what I did, but you get the idea. The big point it the softness is lack of contrast and color and needs to be addressed by attacking those issues before USM.

If this were an important image, I'd take to CMYK and try to get the blacks cleaner and maybe get some of the yellow out of the tree trunks.

GraphyFotoz

rutt wrote:

Looking at it again, I'm not in love with what I did, but you get the idea. The big point it the softness is lack of contrast and color and needs to be addressed by attacking those issues before USM.

If this were an important image, I'd take to CMYK and try to get the blacks cleaner and maybe get some of the yellow out of the tree trunks.

When I find a better subject I'll be doing this again.:D

jfriend

A more traditional approach

GraphyFotoz wrote:

I did this a while back the an old shack.

Well I stuck the ole lens out my back window for this shot.
Gives people a chance to play with snow pics in PS/CS2.

Pic looks soft for 2 reasons
#1 it was snowing while I shot this at 1/60 ISO100(75-300mm)
#2 DSLR shots 98% of the time need some sort of USM.

Do what ever you want.....fix...sharpen....cut and past something into it...whatever.
Use any plug-in ya have....anything goes.:D

This one was done with the more conventional LAB enhancements (since that's what I know how to do):

• Highlights from shadow/highlights to try to recover some detail in very bright areas though the foreground snow is completely blown
• Levels to set black point (could also do with curves)
• Convert to LAB
• L curve for contrast, but mask off the curve on the snow
• Push in the ends on the A channel 15% each end (brings out green in the tree on the left)
• Push in the ends on the B channel 30% on one end, 35% on the other end (brings out browns in the trees). I had to go assymetrical here because a blue color cast appeared with a symmetrical push.
• Mask off the B channel curve on the snow (too much blue appeared there)
• Convert back to RGB
• Slight bit more contrast enhancement with "paint with light" (color burn and color dodge layers), again masked off the foreground snow.
• Smart sharpen.

If anyone wants to see the actual curves, let me know and I can post them later.

edgework

Here's a quick shot.

I used a blue channel overlay in luminosity mode, then darkening the the shadows. The luminosity blend seemed to bring out detail but lightened everything.

Instead of MFM curves, I started with straight symmetrical curves, a la Chapter 0ne, but while it brought out the interesting reds and yellows in the dead trees, it turned the green leaves neon, so I forced the green end of the A curve back down towards neutral.

Some stiff sharpening followed by a cast move to try an take the blue out of the pile of sticks in the foreground.

Last, I cheated. I used a trick that we haven't discussed yet, from further on in the book. I blended the inverse of the B channel into the lightness channel in overlay mode. Inverting it darkened the reds, yellows and greens while leaving the neutrals alone. I like the detail enhancement.

I'd love to be able to work on a full-size version of this image. There's a lot going on here.

GraphyFotoz

edgework wrote:

I'd love to be able to work on a full-size version of this image. There's a lot going on here.

That was the original uncropped.
I could get a wider angle but there is all kindsa stuff to clutter the shot.
Hybiscus bush to the fore ground......my feeding station to the right.
Not to mention my yard has a slight pitch to it.

warszawski

late night edit (1am)
late night edit (1am), within LAB : adjustment curves with blend=multiply",
then some sharpening and lastly compositing on the bottom with filter =motion blur

please see my curves in next post
(why am i limited to enclose only 1 image by post ???)

warszawski

.... please see my curves from previous post
.... please see my curves from previous post
(why am i limited to enclose only 1 image by post ???)[/QUOTE]

GREAPER

My take

edgework

warszawski wrote:

.... please see my curves from previous post
(why am i limited to enclose only 1 image by post ???)

I believe that the "Manage Attachments" button is available for more than one attachment (that's the way it works on other forums that appear to be based on the same software as this one.) After you go through the process for uploading an attachment, just do it again. You should see the next image appear in the list. If you have storage access elsewhere, enclosing the URL inside [img][/img] tags in the body of your text gives you greater control and allows larger images, I do believe.


I'd be interested in the thinking behind the color curves you came up with. It's certainly an interpretation from an unexpected quarter.

geanmichaels

Just a quickie: