Bridge

Ann McRae

I took many shots of this bridge, and processed it many different ways. I really don't know if I got what I wanted....:dunno




Other versions in this gallery:
http://canadian-ann.smugmug.com/gallery/394852

I do like this one:


ann

Ann McRae

Critique, anybody?
Anything? please.

GREAPER

Sorry Ann

Not trying to ignore ya. Thanks for the bump.

I really like the scene in the first one. and I prefer it in color. I like the leading line of the bridge taking you back into the shot. When I first looked at it I didn't realize that there was a mountain in the background. It blended in with the mist.

I wondered what it would look like with the mountain darkened up a touch. I hope you dont mind.

It looks like a beautiful place.

Ann McRae

Hi greaper -

what did you do in order to selectively darken the mountain. Please don't say contrast mask - Dee has tried to teach me to do contrast masking for 2 years now, and I just cannot get it!!!!


ann

GREAPER

I dont know what a contrast mask is either,


I went to layers>adjustment layers>levels

click OK

adjust the levels so that the mountain is the darkness you want.

Make sure the adjustment layer is selected. Grab the eraser tool, and erase dark layer everywhere BUT the mountain.

Flatten it....

Done.

Dee

Ann and the contrast mask

Ann McRae wrote:

Hi greaper -

what did you do in order to selectively darken the mountain. Please don't say contrast mask - Dee has tried to teach me to do contrast masking for 2 years now, and I just cannot get it!!!!


ann

Just do a search in google.com for contrast masking and a variety of tutorials with step by step photos will appear. Luminous Landscape has a few, but there are more. Keep reading until one of them makes some sense. (I'm a visual learner so photos and step by step details are important to me. The minute I see pictures it becomes clear, but all the reading of words won't make any sense or else takes forever for me to learn, probably the fault of how I was taught to read, picture of duck, and D-U-C-K underneath, never taught phonics, show me a word I've never heard before, ask me to pronounce it, and you'll have the most fun laughing your head off!)

Just to make this more amusing, the new Photoshop CS has a built in contrast mask now, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to use it!

Going against what most people use, I prefer a large Gaussian blur, mostly because I'm shooting at the coast where there are hills contrasted with sky or sea and I always see a halo from the mask.

Also, everyone recommends this anti haze unsharp mask adjustment, 20, 50, 0 but while it helps, I see halos. And they do show up in prints, so I've become very halo conscious.

Once you learn contrast masking I think you'll love it. And, yes, you can throw a mask on the contrast masking and erase parts of it!

The purpose of all this is to increase your dynamic range!

So don't give up yet, just find a tutorial that makes sense to you. Try it step by step.

Maybe there's a video tutorial out there too... I only hit the first two google results.

Dee

Dee

Ann, the original contrast mask tutorial
http://www.outbackphoto.com/workshop/photoshop_corner/essay_06/essay.html

Here's the one I thought was the easiest to follow -- especially since I know where this photo was taken, really brought it home (so to speak )

Dee

And here's an action...
http://www.digicamhelp.com/contrast-masking/

This is a very brief explanation, but he's included an action to make it really simple. No excuses now, Ann...

Steve Cavigliano

Ann,

I like the first one too. I really like what Greaper did to bring out the mountain. It looks way more balanced now.

Dee has provided you with some helpful links. You'll have to get over your "contrast mask" mental block..... Maybe if you sit down and think about it, it will come easier to you. All a contrast mask does is place an inverted black and white duplicate of your image in a layer. So the blacks are white and the whites are black. Once you use Overlay blending, it will lighten the darks and darken the lights.

Same thing with trying to increase the dynamic range of a shot. You want to darken the bright spots and bring out the highlights. You know that adding a layer and using Multiply blending will make things darker. Conversely, using a Screen blend will make things lighter. Actions that "stretch" dynamic range are just using multiple layers to accomplish this. One layer to lighten the shadows another layer to darken the highlights.

There's a real nice action available at Action Central. It's called Stinson's Dynamic Range Action.

http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

It's pretty user friendly. Just run it on your image (it gives you a seperate image, so it won't mess up your edit) and play with the opacity sliders for the Screen and Multiply layers.

Anyhow, didn't mean to preach post processing to ya....lol I did like the first pic and, IMHO, it was helped through some minor post processing.

Thanks for sharing,
Steve

digismile

Ann,

I think your first photo is by far the strongest one. The reason it works for me is my eye is drawn down the straight right edge of the bridge to the only bit of extra colour in the photo. Like Greaps and others I thought the mountain should come out a bit more.

My version is a little different than greaps.

The 3rd photo is interesting, but I find the OOF log in the foreground overpowers the photo. Had it crossed only part of a corner to allow a larger "frame", I think it would have worked a lot better.

Regards,
Brad

Ann McRae

GREAPER wrote:

I dont know what a contrast mask is either,


I went to layers>adjustment layers>levels

click OK

adjust the levels so that the mountain is the darkness you want.

Make sure the adjustment layer is selected. Grab the eraser tool, and erase dark layer everywhere BUT the mountain.

Flatten it....

Done.

Thanks for sharing your protocal - I'll give it a try!

ann

Ann McRae

Hi Dee
Thanks for all the tips and links. I am doing a lot more editing now with the 20d and my actual need to get good photos (for those people paying me...) so I will force myself to be patient and learn this technique. Til now, my attemtps have always been lacking any dramatic improvements. And my perseverance has been lacking as well.


Thanks again - I will get it someday!

ann

Ann McRae

Hey Steve
Yep, I am slowly bashing through my PP blockage - your explanation is helpful - and you are right - I am only now starting to be methodical and thoughtful about what to accomplish and why.
Thanks
ann

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Ann,

I like the first one too. I really like what Greaper did to bring out the mountain. It looks way more balanced now.

Dee has provided you with some helpful links. You'll have to get over your "contrast mask" mental block..... Maybe if you sit down and think about it, it will come easier to you. All a contrast mask does is place an inverted black and white duplicate of your image in a layer. So the blacks are white and the whites are black. Once you use Overlay blending, it will lighten the darks and darken the lights.

Same thing with trying to increase the dynamic range of a shot. You want to darken the bright spots and bring out the highlights. You know that adding a layer and using Multiply blending will make things darker. Conversely, using a Screen blend will make things lighter. Actions that "stretch" dynamic range are just using multiple layers to accomplish this. One layer to lighten the shadows another layer to darken the highlights.

There's a real nice action available at Action Central. It's called Stinson's Dynamic Range Action.

http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

It's pretty user friendly. Just run it on your image (it gives you a seperate image, so it won't mess up your edit) and play with the opacity sliders for the Screen and Multiply layers.

Anyhow, didn't mean to preach post processing to ya....lol I did like the first pic and, IMHO, it was helped through some minor post processing.

Thanks for sharing,
Steve

Ann McRae

Hi Brad -

So, will you share what you did to bring out the colors? I like the green back in the trees.


The oof log on the 3rd shot is the first bracket of the bridge - I chose to focus on the next bracket, to hopefully give a sense of depth.

Thanks

Ann