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Attn Lynn, shot from boy with the birds
ginger_55
Registered Users Posts: 8,416 Major grins
Original........... 100 ISO, S230 ELPH, 2048X1536 f 4.0 I couldn't tell but they smugmug reports this is probably equivalent to using a 51 mm in 35, 1/500th
I am going to go check again to make sure this is the original, if it is, I have to make a PSD copy, if it is, I will just leave it here, if it isn't, I will let you know, it should be said it was, but I thought I straightened the gazebo??
And this already is.
I am going to go check again to make sure this is the original, if it is, I have to make a PSD copy, if it is, I will just leave it here, if it isn't, I will let you know, it should be said it was, but I thought I straightened the gazebo??
And this already is.
After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
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I think this is better but I'm not sure. I like the shot but it looks a little faded out to me.. maybe it's the Elf. Or maybe it's a bit overexposed.. I'm not sure Ginge.
Lynn
Susan Appel Photography My Blog
Doug
Rich
but that's just me and my funky eye. Some of them (especially this one) may be too extreme.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
Ginger you need to create an overlay adjustment layer of 50%grey, and use a soft brush with WHITE in the foreground and paint over his face to lighten in however much you desire. Cletus taught me this and it is very easy to do .
Open your image in PS, and open the Layer pallette. At the bottom of the layers palette are a series of icons - a circle with an f, a square and a circle inside it, a folder, a circle half B&W, and a small square within a square, and the everpresent trash can. Press on the next to the right icon, the square within a square while you also press the ALT-key.
This will bring up the "NEW LAYER" box - here you will press on the drop down menu of the MODE menu and highlight the OVERLAY command - when you do this a new box appears in the "NEW LAYER" box that offers to 'Fill WITH OVERLAY-neutral color (50% GRAY) - check this box, and then click OK on the "NEW LAYER" Box
You will now see an adjustment layer added over the background layer in the layers palette.
Set you foreground color to white in the tools box - simply typing d and then clicking on the little curved arrow will bring up white as the foreground color - NOW YOU'RE READY TO GO TO WORK
Use a soft brush with the opacity set to 10 or 15% and begin to paint over the lads face and watch it brighten up - if you over do it , switch to black and paint out the over lightened area. If this does not seem to work, check the tool settings and make sure the brush setting is in OVERLAY mode.
The use of and adjustment layer to lighten or darken an image is a great tool taught to me by Cletus who deserves all the credit.
This will seem a little complicated at first, but just follow the directions step by step and you will be doing it in a fllash. You're are gonna love the control this gives you over your images.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Ginger - I agree that the grass is too bright and distracting - I took the liberty of downloading the first of the three images you posted above.
I cropped slightly on the left to get the child slightly off center and to remove the white building in the upper left corner. Then I created an Overlay adjustment layer like I descrbed - I used a soft white brush to lighten his face, his arm, and some of the under exposed pigeons. I then used a soft black brush to darken the grass, and the superior border of the image as well as the overexposed pigeons in the sunlight. While doing this I noticed that there is an elliptical area that is desaturated slightly inferior and to the right of the little boy in the origianal image I downloaded by right clicking. I have pointed to this area with a red arrow in the image I will upload for your comparison. I think this is an editing error in PS somewhere along the way - ya think?
Anyway - how do these two images compare?
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
shadows/highlights/contrast, Cletus/Pathfinder grey erase, USM, (Started over, couldn't make a lot of editing errors, didn't edit much, smile)
ginger
I desaturated the green and the yellow a bit, to tone down the grass. I have to get this done tonight. I could not log on tonight, took Bill about an hour. I backed up my photos again, I am really afraid that some time we are not going to be able to bring the computer up at all.
I like the composition. I don't see it as centered. I see it as heavy on the left in an L shape, to make a triangle on the left, including the boy the gazebo, and house and the birds. I just like it.
OK, I did some more stuff, took one of the photos off, I wanted the grass a bit less obtrusive. I think I like it now. (I even put a gradient filter on with soft light, the dark part at the top, at about 20% grey like fog) Brings the birds out, I think.
(I took RAW photos tonight. I am not sure how to put them on the computer, and I know they are safe while they are on the card, and the computer is not being stressed with large files.)
g
yes. it's hard to do, i know. try a bit less. not too much from the prior version, just lighten a bit if you can.
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ginger
It is the actual latest.
Last night, Andy thought the one I had decided on needed more contrast and the face needed to be a tad lighter.
??????
ginger
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Well, could you all help me, please. I think I have settled on a face color, but i could be wrong.
I did put it on the challenge when I didn't hear anything.
Could you please help me work this through, and I will go away again, please.
ginger
Lynn
Before I went to bed, I don't feel well, but before I went to bed, I changed it again and realized that I no longer knew much of anything as far as which ones were there.
I don't like this all in a row thing, whether you are bored or not the other way. I sat here for an hour, before I went to bed hoping that someone would come "back". All I need is a bit.
So, which one are we talking about? I will go look at the challenge myself, but I will haunt you..............drive everyone more nuts, if I need feedback and can't get it.
ginger
6:55 PM Tuesday. Note that the grass, with using curves and all, it has become a different color than it used to be, so everything has to be rebalanced. I have 21 copies of these all together. AT least 13 were made since 3 AM this morning. Please........ ginger
a)
b)
c)
d)
The color is different in Adobe, here, smugmug and on The Challenge. Is the one on the challenge too red, or is it finally right?
ginger, thank you for checking
I added a bit of yellow.............. the red didn't look natural to me, but I don't know. Right now this one is on the challenge. I can still see the red, too, and a bit of glow on the cheek. What do you all think? Lynn, Andy? Anyone, everyone?
ginger
I hear you Lynn, I haven't changed the Challenge at all, but when I came in here this morning, the face looked kind of dark, I took out a tad of saturation, but the color is different here than it is there, so I have to bring things here to look at them. If you see it, you can tell me what you think. ginger
(Is anyone else having a problem with the colors being one thing on photoshop, and another on dgrin? It does make it more difficult for me.)
Lynn
Here's a help section/tutorial on
display color which has a pointer to why Photoshop sometimes (more like usually) displays the color differently than you see it through a web browser (like on smugmug or dgrin).
Now for the really easy part: skin tones. Skin tones intimidate almost everyone because they seem so subjective. But there's a very simple trick to see if you're in range. It doesn't matter how your monitor is calibrated or whether Photoshop is displaying things differently or even if you're color blind. It doesn't even matter if you don't know the true skin tone of the subject.
Sound too good to be true? It is. But it's true anyway.
Here goes: Open your photo and pick the eyedropper tool. Also open the info window that shows colors (see pic below). Hover the eyedropper over the skin tones and look at the magenta and yellow values.
The screen shot doesn't show it, but the eyedropper is hovering over the boy's cheek. The magenta (M) value is 54%. The yellow (Y) value is 40%.
If it's skin, yellow must at least equal magenta. If they're equal, that implies very fair skin, like a baby's. 2-3% more is usually about right for caucasians. Olive-skinned people can be as much as 15% higher.
That's it.
You can reduce magenta by going to hue/saturation --> red channel --> desaturate by 7% or so. You can increase yellow by going to levels --> blue channel --> slide the center so it goes from 1 to .9 or so. Or use curves.
Piece of cake.
But...but...but... What if his *actual* skin is not the color you just made it? Doesn't matter. He wants his skin to have more yellow than magenta. All caucasians do. He wants to believe that's what his skin looks like even if it doesn't.
But...but...but... Who cares what he wants? I want truth! Doesn't matter. Every magazine on earth uses this guide so they all change the skin tones to have more yellow than magenta, so when we see skin that has more magenta than yellow in a photo we don't believe it anyway, even if it's true. Deal with it.
Clear as mud?
Thanks,
Baldy
Also, Andy suggested I lighten, and then I was really up a creek, lol. Do caucasions have a specific preference as to a shaded face, a sunlit face, etc?
Anyway, thanks, I am going right UP to CS to check this out. My only fear is how to find the info window that shows colors.
I will PM you, or something, if I can't.
Thanks again, ginger
PS, at this point, shhh, don't tell Andy, but I don't care what the boy wants, hehe, all I care is what Andy and other judges want. No principles here, ain't got none.
I am very glad for the information, though, as I was eavesdropping on your discussions, that meant I had a "Little" information, a little bit of anything is worse than none.:D