digital darkroom assignment #13

lynnma

ginger_55 wrote:

That is a really pretty picture, Lynn. The one with the boats and birds. I love it when there are birds all over.

(Smile, kind of obviously considering all the pigeons and the kid. But I also love boats and seagulls, I can sit here and imagine the noises they make.)

Thanks for the "tutorial" photo. I have clicked on the locks many times, trying to get them to do something. Never noticed it making any difference.

This is a problem with me, it has been true whether it was Elements, PS 7, or CS.

The bottom layer I can understand why it would lock. That would maybe keep the photo safe, "intact", so to speak.

But to not be able to control it on up the line, well, I need to be able to know what I am doing wrong. What are you doing with the locks? Is it difficult to say? Do you click on what to do what?

ginger

Also, I really like your entry in the "time" category. I am not going to work on it anymore. I will be surprised if I do another photograph on it. One, it is supposed to rain for the next year or so. Two, that category is driving me nuts, thinking of the past and all.......... With the trip to DC coming up a week from tomorrow (Sunday), and I don't travel much, this will be the first time, except Charlotte, in a year, so I have alot of stress......

I like the way you sized your entry, too. I like the slave cabin I did, but I think the prayer book is a more personal entry, and since neither is going far, I should enter the personal one. But I am torn between the prayer book by itself, the square one, towards the end of my thread, or the prayer book with a toy wooden doll. Could you look at those two and see which one you like?

thanks,

me

To lock a layer just click on the layer you want to lock and then click on the little (tiny put ya glasses on) lock. A little lock appears in the layer. To unlock just click on the lock again. For thing like this I've found if you go to "help" then "index" and just look under layers... and then lock.. the explanatins are pretty short and easy to stomach.. hope this helps.. I'll check on your shots in a sec.

ginger_55

Assignment taken to another level,
I did go to help..............well, I have no memory of what it said, except I think the solution is so obvious that no one has written it down. I went to help a few nights ago. And did it again. And did it again today for something else.

I want to post my challenge creation, in case anyone misses it. It was made using the knowledge from this tutorial. It may not be WOW, it may just be an OH, MY God, but give me a tool, just gotta play.........

I took this:





and this:





That face is frightening, isn't it. Anyway, I got this:





and this:





g

Andy

one reply to ginger on your posts here ..
hey wow!

you did very very well on all of them, except for the one where you asked if it looked fake. well, it does - very fake but you knew that. it's good to know where the limits are.

good work, g, and i applaud your attitude!

wxwax

Below is a composite of 8 different exposures from the single RAW image. Here's the original image.





I made separate exposures for: the lit logs in the foreground; the unlit logs in the foreground; the water; the green trees on the right; the ridge on the left; the slope of Mount St. Helens; the brighter parts of the sky; and the darker parts of the sky. I'm not crazy about it, but it's a start.

jwear

better than the original each is a layer [no raw exp. as yet]?

DavidTO

wxwax wrote:

I'm not crazy about it, but it's a start.

Curious, wxwax, what do you not like about it? Looks pretty good.

The mountains on the left could use some more detail?

wxwax

jwear wrote:

better than the original each is a layer [no raw exp. as yet]?

Yes, that's right. Each exposure is a layer. Then you use a Mask to eliminate the part you don't want. If you shoot in RAW (as opposed to jpeg), the technology allows you to change your exposure after the fact, by as much as 2-3 stops (I'm told.) I just move the sliders around to get stuff looking better.

RAW can be a lifesaver. But in truth, I think it's better to bracket with multiple shots. More control that way, and you're more likely to get a good result. As I was in a moving helicopter, I couldn't accurately bracket, so I shot in RAW and kept the exposure dark enough to not burn out the highlights. I was counting on RAW to allow me to bring up the exposure for the dark bits when I got home.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

Curious, wxwax, what do you not like about it? Looks pretty good.

The mountains on the left could use some more detail?

Hi David. Yes, the ridge to the left could use more detail - I did the best I know how. Maybe Curves could do a better job. Ditto with the slope of St Helens - the haze defeated me. Also, I'd sure like to see more detail of the trees in the water, especially in the darker area to the lower right. I guess I'd need a big print to make that possible. And finally, I'm not crazy about the composition. Ah well!

landrum

Okay, I gave this a shot. This photo was taken on vacation with my Minolta A2 (which is a SUCKY camera that I no longer have!) I only had a jpg of it to work with.

BEFORE:


AFTER:



I ended up using 3 layers. The first was corrected for my subjects. The second was corrected for the water. The third was the original lightened a bit and set to 50%. I used the third because the edges of my subjects were really blown out with the corrections, and even only erasing with 10-25% I still couldn't get it to look right. The overlay just seemed to even things out. Did I do this right? Was there an easier way? What do you think???

Thanks!
Laurie

wxwax

Nice job, Laurie! The water looks good, and so does the women to the right. To my eye, the one to the left looks slightly artificial - too sharp a contrast against the water background. That's where Andy's technique comes in handy... the one where he uses different size brushes with gradually changing opacities, in order to smooth the transition in a mask. .

wxwax

Reviving an old thread... here's another shot where I made different exposures in RAW and combined them.

In this case, one exposure for the sky, one for the helicopter, one for the ground and one for the pilot. Plus a generous amount of the Cletus Method to lighten the guy's face and darken the sky around the edges of the chopper.

This was shot on the valley floor beneath Mount St. Helens (it's cloud shrouded in the background.)