Fall Color Missing its "POP"

a-baird-photograph

I'm finally getting around to going back through my October trip to Utah. In some of my images, the color really comes out flat (IMO). Below is a representative example of what I mean. I shoot in RAW, but in this example I haven't made any adjustments before converting to JPEG for you (exif embedded in the picture). With this image, there wasn't any flash, no filters, and an overcast day.



In this photo, the only adjustment I did was in Levels by moving the sliders in to the bottom of the curves on both sides, again exif is embedded.



So I start here in Finishing School to seek advice if its possible to "fix" the color to give some pop (I use PSE, Hue?, Saturation? of which I've tried and they look too pink or purple):dunno Or is there something in the field that I should have done differently (use a flash? different aperature? shutter speed?, filter?):dunno In which case I know this should probably in Technique.

As always, everybody's suggestions have made me better!:thumb And I thank you for any input. Happy New Year!

davev

I'm not sure what version you have, I use PSE4.

I used 2 layers of Gradient Map.

One set to "Color Burn", one set to "Overlay"

Color burn is at 10%, Overlay at 45%

On the shot itself, I increased the Saturation by 15%.
Used highlights and shadows to lighten the dark areas and darken the over bright areas.
Use levels a bit to brighten and add contrast.

Then I ran a smart blur at 1.1, 8.something to blur the background more
and make the leaves jump out.

Last thing was to do a light USM at 72, 0.3, 0.0

Before.


After.

pyrtek

A couple of curves (one for the white point and one for contrast), a selective
color layer (to give the reds a bit of oomph) and sharpening.

a-baird-photograph

Thanks
Dave and Bernard...

Thanks for taking the time to explain your processes. I love both and have now learned something new. Your help has been invaluable.

joshhuntnm

Too my eye, this is better, but a little over done. Great thing about using layers is you can tweak the opacity to taste.

Question: how does smart blur know to blur the background and not the leaves? Is that what you are saying it does?

pyrtek

joshhuntnm wrote:

Question: how does smart blur know to blur the background and not the leaves? Is that what you are saying it does?

Smart blur is not that smart, so you apply the blur to a separate layer
and mask out what you don't want affected.

jdryan3

pyrtek wrote:

A couple of curves (one for the white point and one for contrast), a selective
color layer (to give the reds a bit of oomph) and sharpening.

What version of PSE did they start adding Curves to? PSE5?

joshhuntnm

elements 5, but it is not the same as the real photoshop curves. I have never found a way to make good use of it. I don't have lightroom, but used a free version for a while. they really implemented curves well in light room imho

jhmjcm

Here's my take:

Curves - Medium Contrast
Brightness - +30
Flatten
Image Mode - LAB
Image Apply - b Channel, Blend Soft Light, Opacity 100%
Image Mode - RGB
Unsharp Mask - 85%, 1 pixel, Threshold 4
Fade Mode - Luminosity

davev

pyrtek wrote:

Smart blur is not that smart, so you apply the blur to a separate layer
and mask out what you don't want affected.

Smart blur does a pretty good job on it's own, as long as you use it in small amounts. No masking was done to my take on the shot.

Smart blur works almost like noise reduction, but better.
I first saw it used in a Russell Brown video for a scanned graphic.
Link to the RB vid: link
He used it to get rid of the artifacts in the background, yet it leaves the hard lines alone.
When I shoot birds in the sky at ISO 400, I use this to even out the blue.
Sometimes it works well on the blurred backgrounds also.

In the OP's shot, smart blur kept the hard lines in the foreground, but blended the background a bit.

My little example of smart blur.
The top version I did not use smart blur
The bottom one I did. (I just ran it on the other version)
Check out the brown areas below the eagles head and also to the right.
Much smoother and more uniform with smart blur, than without.
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/236547533-O.jpg

pyrtek

davev wrote:

My little example of smart blur.
The top version I did not use smart blur
The bottom one I did. (I just ran it on the other version)
Check out the brown areas below the eagles head and also to the right.
Much smoother and more uniform with smart blur, than without.
http://davev.smugmug.com/photos/236547533-O.jpg

Well yes, but look how much detail you've lost in the eagle's head and
in the feathers of its tail.

jjbong

jhmjcm wrote:

Here's my take:

Curves - Medium Contrast
Brightness - +30
Flatten
Image Mode - LAB
Image Apply - b Channel, Blend Soft Light, Opacity 100%
Image Mode - RGB
Unsharp Mask - 85%, 1 pixel, Threshold 4
Fade Mode - Luminosity

Very cool LAB move, and not immediately obvious. Increasing the color
contrast of the non-dominant yellow really makes the reds pop.