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DPChallenge Forums >> Individual Photograph Discussion >> High Key Eye Edit
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09/28/2010 02:15:56 PM · #1
I have had several people comment on the eye edit on my high key entry. Some people loved it, others not so much. I thought I would go ahead and do a quick explanation of what I did and why I do it.

Here is a cropped version of my original. This is a straight conversion from RAW through Lightroom with no tweaks made to it.


My initial global edit was through Lightroom which gave me this -

I cant remember all that I did in there, but it wasnt anything super intricate. Bump up in exposure, tweak the fill light and blacks, some of the curves sliders and desat the blues. But still no spot editing on it.

From there I did a b&w conversion (bitchin b&w action from totally rad I believe). Plus some selective color tweaks to enhance the blacks and whites. Which gives me this.


After that I start doing my dodge and burn. I bring the image up tight on my screen and start painting with the dodge on highlights (around 10%) to start bringing out the detail that is already there. And the same with the burn tool. I burn to make the blacks a bit more crisp and detailed. That gives me this.


After that I just resize for web and finish out with an USM. For this image I masked off the sharpening from everything but the eyes. I may have gone back and done a slight bit more dodge and burn to the final edit, but most of the work was done on the full size.

So the progression of the image from original to conversion to entry is this -


Hope someone may find this useful
09/28/2010 02:55:32 PM · #2
Thanks for this post !
And congratulations for your blue !
09/28/2010 03:01:40 PM · #3
Thanks for the post. When this challenge was announced, I expected to see you on first page. Congrats on the blue!
09/29/2010 08:37:27 AM · #4
I'm not a LR user, so excuse my ignorance, but what is the 'tweak the fill light and blacks' stage? And is this something I could do in PS?

This seems to be the stage where a lot of the magic happens! I should point out that I am (hopefully) about to start doing a lot of newborn / baby shots (he is due in November!) and I really like this effect, it's not so much for DPC that I am asking. (Not trying to steal your secrets! ;O)
09/29/2010 09:32:27 AM · #5
Thank you Timfy...I am in the process of waiting for my LR3 to come in the mail...so I'm excited to see this post and see what I will be able to do...I've played a little bit in LR3 before but I will finally have it around to do more of this kind of stuff...like you said...it's pretty slick when you add it on to PS
09/29/2010 09:48:08 AM · #6
Originally posted by FrankRobinson:

I'm not a LR user, so excuse my ignorance, but what is the 'tweak the fill light and blacks' stage? And is this something I could do in PS? This seems to be the stage where a lot of the magic happens!


In LR there is a "fill light" slider (which I think there is one in PS as well) a "Blacks" slider. I believe both of these can be worked in a levels adjustment in PS. In LR there is also a "Tones Curve" slider group that tweaks highlights, lights, darks and shadows. I think the equivalent here in PS would be curves and shadow/highlight adjustments. I am not editing as much so most of my edit work is a bit on the haphazard side as I dont always remember what to do to get what I want. Lots of little tweaks happen within using these tools.

Originally posted by FrankRobinson:

I should point out that I am (hopefully) about to start doing a lot of newborn / baby shots (he is due in November!) and I really like this effect, it's not so much for DPC that I am asking. (Not trying to steal your secrets! ;O)


As for stealing secrets - I hope I have no secrets. Almost everything I have learned about editing and shooting was gained from the DPC community. I doubt I could ever give back all that I have gotten. So if you have any other questions shoot em out. If I dont get back to you quick its not because I dont want you to know how something was done - rather that my time is pretty full. I will do my best though.
09/29/2010 09:55:48 AM · #7
Originally posted by FrankRobinson:

I'm not a LR user, so excuse my ignorance, but what is the 'tweak the fill light and blacks' stage? And is this something I could do in PS?

This seems to be the stage where a lot of the magic happens! I should point out that I am (hopefully) about to start doing a lot of newborn / baby shots (he is due in November!) and I really like this effect, it's not so much for DPC that I am asking. (Not trying to steal your secrets! ;O)


You could also use the PS raw converter on jpg files (assuming you are not shooting raw) ... in the settings you can say open jpg's with adobe raw, then the fill light and blacks are available
09/29/2010 09:58:34 AM · #8
Thank you for posting this ! And congrat for the ribbons, two in row !
This week I'm planning to edit some old photos and this is going to help me.
09/29/2010 10:00:36 AM · #9
Tim, can you be a little more specific as to what and how you used the D&B...this is a tool that I'm a bit intimidated by and would like to get better at...as there isn't another B&W version before you did D&B I can't compare the "improvements"...how do you decide where to apply the D&B??? Alot of times people say they've used it but I don't really see where (and that is when it's being used properly)
09/30/2010 09:25:25 AM · #10
Absolutely gorgeous but I must comment that the original Lightroom edit seems to have wiped out almost every cute freckle ...

me
09/30/2010 09:46:32 AM · #11
my LR3 just got here!!! now lets see if I can bugger up the installation!!! and just in time for the FS!!
09/30/2010 10:27:26 AM · #12
Originally posted by Ja-9:

Tim, can you be a little more specific as to what and how you used the D&B...this is a tool that I'm a bit intimidated by and would like to get better at...as there isn't another B&W version before you did D&B I can't compare the "improvements"...how do you decide where to apply the D&B??? Alot of times people say they've used it but I don't really see where (and that is when it's being used properly)


Looking at the images I cant remember if I did a dodge and burn on the eyes before going b&w. I think the first b&w is with no dodge and burn.

But anyways. What I did on her eyes was dodge highlights at 10%. I use a wacomn tablet and pen which makes this fine detail work really easy and precise. So I dodge highlights slowly along at the low % so I dont get brush strokes. And I just basically follow the patterns within her pupil. Sometimes I will do a midtones swipe to lighten up the grays or if I dont want to blaze the highlights. As for the burning, I tend to use a 3-5% burn percentage. With this shot I did shadows with a very fine pixel. I focused on the rim of her pupil, the eyelashes and some of the detail in her pupil. I am looking for good contrasts in shades within her pupil to enhance the detail.

I use a decent amount of dodge and burn on her hair and more big brush dodging on her body. Hair work is using dodge on midtones and burn on shadows. Her body was a big brush, low %, midtone dodge to lighten up her skin.

Is this waht you were hoping for?

And yes - the lR edit did wipe out most of her freckles. I try not to get rid of them normally, but for this edit they just dissapeared without any spot work.
02/13/2013 10:45:32 AM · #13
one more reason DPC rocks. thanks timfy ;)
02/13/2013 10:48:15 AM · #14
Hah! I saw the thread title and was all excited that I might learn something else to add to my high key edit repertoire. But instead I got something even better. Thanks for the encouragement Chris. ;)
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