Pet pics, how would these have done?

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

04/04/2005 01:33:29 AM · #1

I learned some new B&W and dodge/burn processing techniques over the weekend. How'd these turn out?

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

04/04/2005 01:48:57 AM · #2

The cat;s cute, prolly woulda done decently enuf. Yer doing some good work, since I can't "see" the dodge or burn.

Robt.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

04/04/2005 08:44:19 PM · #3

Originally posted by bear_music:

The cat;s cute, prolly woulda done decently enuf. Yer doing some good work, since I can't "see" the dodge or burn.

Robt.

Thanks! I'm doing my D/B on a 50% grey overlay, finding it's a lot more subtle than doing it directly on a copy of the image.

Here's one more, same technique:

bledford

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

04/04/2005 08:48:02 PM · #4

Originally posted by virtuamike:

Fantastic! Has a real filmy quality to it. Would love to see a human portrait in the same light and composition.

elsapo

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 50mm f1.2L

04/04/2005 08:48:54 PM · #5

both cat shots would have done great!

Tuckersmom

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1

04/04/2005 08:51:31 PM · #6

I really like the cat shot, would have given it an 8 or 9 - beautiful

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

04/04/2005 08:52:10 PM · #7

Originally posted by bledford:

Fantastic! Has a real filmy quality to it. Would love to see a human portrait in the same light and composition.

Thanks! That was the primary reason why I'm integrating the new D/B techniques into my workflow, supposedly it's very similar to how film is processed in the darkroom. One of the other things that helped was keeping the brushes big and keeping an eye on how the whole image looked. The problem I had before was that my brush size was too small, so it always looked unnatural.

LevT

OM System OM-1

04/04/2005 08:53:42 PM · #8

Originally posted by virtuamike:

Thanks! I'm doing my D/B on a 50% grey overlay, finding it's a lot more subtle than doing it directly on a copy of the image.

can you explain in a little more detail how you do it? Thanks!

(nice cats, by the way. The dog is not so much, especially the bright spot in the upper left and too shallow DOF)

bledford

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

04/04/2005 08:56:10 PM · #9

Originally posted by virtuamike:

Originally posted by bledford:
Fantastic! Has a real filmy quality to it. Would love to see a human portrait in the same light and composition.

Thanks! That was the primary reason why I'm integrating the new D/B techniques into my workflow, supposedly it's very similar to how film is processed in the darkroom. One of the other things that helped was keeping the brushes big and keeping an eye on how the whole image looked. The problem I had before was that my brush size was too small, so it always looked unnatural.

That's a great point for beginners in digital manipulation. The brush size for cloning and dodging should really be kept as big as possible and preferably at an exposure percentage no more than 50%. I have found, though, that bigger brush sizes can introduce a little more noise into the image than smaller incremental D/B strokes.

aerogurl

Nikon D300

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

04/04/2005 09:00:29 PM · #10

Originally posted by ltsimring:

I Agree I would love to see a "how'd they do that" on this technique. I love the coloring. Would be a great "action" for PS.

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

04/04/2005 09:10:21 PM · #11

Originally posted by ltsimring:

Originally posted by virtuamike:

Thanks! I'm doing my D/B on a 50% grey overlay, finding it's a lot more subtle than doing it directly on a copy of the image.

can you explain in a little more detail how you do it? Thanks!

(nice cats, by the way. The dog is not so much, especially the bright spot in the upper left and too shallow DOF)

Sure. Create a new layer with 50% grey and set blending options to overlay. It's up to you how to create the layer (new layer & fill with 50% grey, new fill layer -> solid color -> rasterize, etc) as long as you have 50% grey (#808080 or hue 0, sat 0, bright 50) and blending as overlay. That should give you a clear view of the image below your new D/B layer.

From there, do your D/B on the 50% grey layer. I'm keeping exposure around 10% and adjusting opacity on the layer after to get the effect I want. The biggest advantage is that since you're working on the grey layer, you're not altering the actual photo so the effect is a lot smoother. Also keep brush size as big as possible and make long sweeps instead of holding the mouse down in an area - that'll keep it even.

LevT

OM System OM-1

04/04/2005 09:18:57 PM · #12

Mike, thanks so much - very coincise and clear! One question:
do I understend correctly that 50% gray overlay layer is totally invisible? (I don't have PhotoShop in my work computer to check) - otherwise you would have to D/B through the entire image to eliminate "grayness"...

Message edited by author 2005-04-04 21:19:46.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

04/04/2005 09:23:47 PM · #13

Originally posted by aerogurl:

Originally posted by ltsimring:

Originally posted by virtuamike:

Thanks! I'm doing my D/B on a 50% grey overlay, finding it's a lot more subtle than doing it directly on a copy of the image.

can you explain in a little more detail how you do it? Thanks!

I Agree I would love to see a "how'd they do that" on this technique. I love the coloring. Would be a great "action" for PS.

The coloring is actually dual tone. After converting to B&W, I'm using a sepia color balance adjustment layer for highs & mids (+red +green -blue) and a blue color balance adjustment layer for shadows (-red -green +blue). The values you'll have to play around with to get the look you want. Then I change the blending options on the shadow layer to adjust where I want the layer to begin. Select blending options on the layer, then go to the blend if section and adjust the right slider for "this layer". That'll tell the layer where to start (I usually have mine a little to the right of 0). Then hold down alt and click on the slider, it should split into 2. That marks where you want the gradient on the blend to start, so move it to the left and adjust to your liking.

It's not my technique, I just learned it last weekend at a seminar:
Link

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

04/04/2005 09:24:15 PM · #14

Originally posted by ltsimring:

It's "invisible" because the layer is set to "overlay" and it will only "show" differences in relationship to the layer below. So you don't "see naythign until you start to work, and then everywhere you work, it shows the effect of the work.

Robt.