Dan Margulis book

AZsnapper

OK, I ordered Dan's book - Prof. Photoshop - wow, what a read!

So, I went back to a photo I had corrected before and I thought looked pretty good.

I'm posting the straight out of the camera RAW, no corrections at all, then my first go at it with traditional curves and levels, then finaly Dan's curves only method. Right now, I trying to get tone, contrast and balance figured out. I'm not working on the sharpening aspect yet.

So, can someone let me know what the new Dan method pic looks like - does it have good tome balance and enough contrast? Any suggestions for further improvements using Dan's methods?

Orginal RAW:



Dan's curves correction method:



My first attempt with correction:

anwmn1

Fellow AZ-

Okay I am by no means a pro- heck I don't even have photoshop yet, but here is my honest opinion.

What I like about the third photo is- the mountain in the distance, the blue sky and the rocky terrain and bush in the foreground.

However a few things really stood out.
1. What happened to the fence post? Did you clone it out but not the fence? The fencing is distracting with or without the post.
2. Both the Saguro and the cactus behind it took on a photo "chopped" look to me in the second photo and even worse in the third. They just really stand out as unnatural.
3. Though I like the lighting of the foreground it is starting to push the envelope as well- maybe back off just a tad.

Don't know if that really helped any

Aaron

jfriend

I like the last one

AZsnapper wrote:

So, can someone let me know what the new Dan method pic looks like - does it have good tome balance and enough contrast? Any suggestions for further improvements using Dan's methods?

I'd have to say that I like the last one better in most regards. The third one has deeper blue skies, much more interesting color in all the mountains and foreground terrain. In the distant mountains, you can see a lot more detail in last image.

The cactus itself looks better in the middle image, largely because the highlights and shadows are a bit too harsh in the last one. The middle image appears to have a bit of a green cast to it.

If I understand you captions properly, the last one that I like is NOT done using Dan's methods. If that's the case, then you've probably got some more learning to do on his methods. I'm half way through the book myself and have learned a lot. It will take a bunch of practice though before I feel proficient using new techniques.

AZsnapper

Image
Thanks for that. I pulled down the background a bit, and added more red in the forground. Again. using only curves.

And yes, I cloned out the fence post. I tried to take out the fence, but I could tell. I thought leaving the fence was the lesser of 2 evils

Thanks again

anwmn1 wrote:

Fellow AZ-

Okay I am by no means a pro- heck I don't even have photoshop yet, but here is my honest opinion.

What I like about the third photo is- the mountain in the distance, the blue sky and the rocky terrain and bush in the foreground.

However a few things really stood out.
1. What happened to the fence post? Did you clone it out but not the fence? The fencing is distracting with or without the post.
2. Both the Saguro and the cactus behind it took on a photo "chopped" look to me in the second photo and even worse in the third. They just really stand out as unnatural.
3. Though I like the lighting of the foreground it is starting to push the envelope as well- maybe back off just a tad.

Don't know if that really helped any

Aaron