Can these be un-blaa'ed?

DigiEyEDigiEyE Registered Users Posts: 75 Big grins
edited July 9, 2006 in Finishing School
I went into the city the other day and took a couple of nice shots but 2 of them really earked me. I know they could have been better. Is there anything I could do with these or should I scrap em?

79022609-L-1.jpg79023110-L-1.jpg
http://www.eg-photography.com:shay

Comments

  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited July 2, 2006
    Just shows how important it is to get the right kind of light on your subjects. Nice compo but you're right, neither of your subjects is well lit. Good lesson, really. I do this all the time!

    If you really want to save them, play with curves, maybe a toning layer, levels - stuff that will bring them out.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • firedancing4lifefiredancing4life Registered Users Posts: 550 Major grins
    edited July 2, 2006
    wxwax wrote:
    Just shows how important it is to get the right kind of light on your subjects. Nice compo but you're right, neither of your subjects is well lit. Good lesson, really. I do this all the time!

    If you really want to save them, play with curves, maybe a toning layer, levels - stuff that will bring them out.

    and maybe play with some black and white along with contrast?
    Kevin
    www.rightangleimages.com
  • DigiEyEDigiEyE Registered Users Posts: 75 Big grins
    edited July 4, 2006
    Thank you for the help guys, I tried playing with the brightness/contrast and some toning layers but did not achive what I wantedne_nau.gif. Like you said wxwax...Lesson learned. I ran into another problem now however. I was back in the city at night and took a few shots, all of the pics however came out grainy, blurry or had weird artifacts? Everything was shot on a tripod w/remote, 100 Iso, at around f/6. I dont know if its me, the cam, lens etc...eek7.gif

    I made a temporary section for them, maybe some of the experts can clue me in. http://digieye.smugmug.com/gallery/1580154

    Appreciate it guys thumb.gif
    http://www.eg-photography.com:shay
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited July 4, 2006
    DigiEyE wrote:
    Thank you for the help guys, I tried playing with the brightness/contrast and some toning layers but did not achive what I wantedne_nau.gif. Like you said wxwax...Lesson learned. I ran into another problem now however. I was back in the city at night and took a few shots, all of the pics however came out grainy, blurry or had weird artifacts? Everything was shot on a tripod w/remote, 100 Iso, at around f/6. I dont know if its me, the cam, lens etc...eek7.gif

    I made a temporary section for them, maybe some of the experts can clue me in. http://digieye.smugmug.com/gallery/1580154

    Appreciate it guys thumb.gif

    Looks like a couple of possibilities to me.

    The first is your aperature. It's at 5.6, and I think you've missed the focus. I'd set a narrower aperature, to give yourself more depth of field. And I'd play with setting the focus at or near infinity. Focusing at night is extremely difficult.

    It also looks like it might have been a hazy night, but that's just a guess. ne_nau.gif
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • DigiEyEDigiEyE Registered Users Posts: 75 Big grins
    edited July 4, 2006
    It was a very hazy night, but these past few weeks have been horrid in NYC, maybe its just the pollution?rolleyes1.gif
    http://www.eg-photography.com:shay
  • Duffy PrattDuffy Pratt Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins
    edited July 8, 2006
    I wouldn't give up so fast on these. This correction took me about 2 minutes. It could stand some sharpening, but the low res copy I have didn't tolerate USM very well, so I left that step out.

    I'm not sure what the rules are here for editing other peoples stuff, so if I've stepped on any toes, I will be happy to remove the attachment. I'm new here.

    Duffy
  • DigiEyEDigiEyE Registered Users Posts: 75 Big grins
    edited July 9, 2006
    I cant speak for everyone, but I dont mind what you did. I tried working on this photo a bit but Im not very advanced at PS so this idea is helpful to me. Thank you for taking the time to help out :D
    http://www.eg-photography.com:shay
  • Duffy PrattDuffy Pratt Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins
    edited July 9, 2006
    What I did is a straightforward application of what Dan Margulis calls "The Man from Mars Method."

    You convert the picture to LAB and open a curves adjustment layer. Find a point that is in the quartertone area and lock it by control clicking on it. Then move the dark endpoint of the curve halfway between zero and the point you chose. (This will darken the picture and increase contrast in the dark areas. It will look like too much for right now. You can play with this as you like.)

    Then on the A and B curves, you select a control point that is off neutral, somewhere in the mid range of the dominant tones you want. On this picture I think I used something like -4 on the A and -2 on the B, but I don't remember exactly. Now make the curve look like an extremely steep, almost vertical straight line on both the A and B curves. This will make extreme color shifts which look ridiculous. It will also shift some of the greens into red, and some of the blues to yellow. (Vice versa if your control point is a positive instead of a negative number.)

    Now take this ridiculous looking result, and reduce the opacity on the adjustment layer until it looks good. For this picture, I think that was somewhere around 15%.

    This formula often does nice things for extremely flat images that need some interesting color variation.

    I hope this helps.

    Duffy
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