| Author | Thread |
|
|
07/05/2005 03:57:33 PM · #1 |
I had the settings all wrong for this shot. The focus is soft and the color isn't great. I have PS7 and I've worked on it a little, but I'm way out of my depth. Can anyone help?
I used the Canon 20D with the Sigma 18-55mm lens.
Aperature 4.0
Shutter speed 1/25
ISO was 100
This was just a quick snapshot when I saw them together, but now my sister wants a copy.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Laura
 |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 04:09:21 PM · #2 |
I don't think that by itself the picture is really that bad. The soft focus works well IMO, and I ran it through a little bit more softening. Also brought the Levels in a bit, upped contrast a little, upped saturation a little, and made a small change in the channel mixer to lessen the red hue:
A sharper version, although it did start to get the edge-glow around her face:
Message edited by author 2005-07-05 16:18:09.
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 04:13:16 PM · #3 |
Try and apply the techniques on this tutorial to improve it a little bit!
Blurring to Improve a Mood
It makes a very nice effect! |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 04:15:00 PM · #4 |
I went another direction and sharpened a little (it seemed like that is what you were looking for)
Levels, saturation, sharpen, and sharpen edges.
Hope this helps.
 |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 04:37:28 PM · #5 |
here ya go, just a quick 5 min edit :-)
duplicated base layer
smart sharpen, with lens blur mode set
erased halo effect around edge of faces, whilst keeping the increased sharpness elsewhere, removed a little over-sharpening from the babys eyes (using the eraser again on the duplicated/sharpened layer to reveal the softer original underneath ;-)
copied the faces, using feather to blend edges more, then desaturated a little, esp the yellow.
added a light soft focus effect, 25% on a gaussian blurred copy of the original.
and finally a little level adjustment.
Message edited by author 2005-07-05 16:40:08. |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 04:52:41 PM · #6 |
Thank you all for your help. Your efforts look much better than my own, I gotta tell ya! :-)
I'm headed over to read the tutorial scuds recommended. Maybe I can make the blur look intentional. lol
This was my first plea for help in the forums. I can't believe how helpful you've all been so quickly. Thank you so much. Keep those suggestions coming!
Laura |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 04:56:20 PM · #7 |
my attempts...
just made it a contrasty b/w, made a duplicate layer and added a bit of Gaussian blur then faded the opacity of the blur layer and sharpened.
in this version i used Pedro's "muted colors" technique, dodged the mom's face a bit, then did the same thing as the other pic with the Gassian blur layer.
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 05:06:47 PM · #8 |
| I wouldn't change a single thing in the original shot. |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 06:16:08 PM · #9 |
 
Message edited by author 2005-07-05 18:45:41. |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 06:24:11 PM · #10 |
I think the original is good. It would be hard to improve on Brad's edit. Great job.
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 06:24:20 PM · #11 |
| I'll give it a whirl later with FocusMagic. But I wanted to chime in that I think both Brad's and Sher's images are great fixes. |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 06:32:33 PM · #12 |
| I couldn't agree more. All the edits are great. I really like Sher's b&w version and Brad's 'preservation'. It looks fantastic. I've played around with the b&w on a duplicate copy and it looks alright. I wouldn't even know how to begin to accomplish BradP's edit though. Would you mind sharing your secret? |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 07:03:03 PM · #13 |
thanks :) i think it's definitely a shot worth saving...i love it!
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 07:06:06 PM · #14 |
This is BradP's version run thru NeatImage.
 |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 07:34:49 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by sheapod:
Would you mind sharing your secret? |
Thanks.
I was dreading this question :)
No secrets. Always start with levels and check in options, adjust as necessary. Check basic feel in Shadows/Highlights. Make minor adjustments in brightness & contrast. I have been real happy with CS2's noise reduction filter and if used properly, keep away some of the plastic appearance by detail preservation levels adjustments. AT some point in my tweak, I selected the highlights (Ctrl-Alt-~) copied, inverted, new layer (Ctrl-J), layer blending mode to screen, pasted, flattened image. Go back into brightnes/Contrast and re-adjust. As for helping the blurryness of some of the edges, this is something no software can really do well. It involves zooming in to about 1200%, selcting the clone tool, airbrush, small pixel diameter around 2 pixels, 50% opacity, and slowly clone some of background over object blur and often vice-versa. Essentially it clones some of one area, up close to an edge, and will follow the edges, cleaning them up. Takes some practice. Smoothing of the skin typically involves zooming in to about 500-600%, using the manual blur tool set to about 20% opacity and lightly blur some of the skin and edges. Zoom back out and check progress, zoom back in and continue. A little bit of 2% white painting over teeth and whites of eyes.
I get so far out there often, I have no idea exactly how I got there, and to try and when going back to see what I did, the starting point is long past the 300 history states.
Kinda' becomes a quest, in trial and error.
Never a set recipe.
I could do this kind of help 100 times over, and never repay the debt I have to DPC and it's members for what I have learned here.
The Thanks is all mine!
Message edited by author 2005-07-05 20:01:02. |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 07:36:21 PM · #16 |
How sad! It never even occurred to me to run the photo through neat image. lol
Thanks for the tip aronyal.
I can't believe how much better the photo looks now.
Brad, your b&w copy is awesome as well. Thanks for posting it.
Laura |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 07:46:07 PM · #17 |
My secret is to let Brad do the hard work. Then I just come in at the end for the close. ;-)
Message edited by author 2005-07-05 19:46:28. |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 07:53:42 PM · #18 |
Thanks for posting your steps Brad --- at least the highlights anyway. :-) It's definitely going to take me a while to reach that level in PS, but I can't wait to get started. Now that I've seen first hand the difference it can make on one of my own photos I'm determined to jump right in and practice. The differences between my shot and the edits by everyone who posted are utterly remarkable. It looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me.
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 07:53:54 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by aronya1:
My secret is to let Brad do the hard work. Then I just come in at the end for the close. ;-) |
Looks to be an Escondido joint effort - unusual odds...
Message edited by author 2005-07-05 19:56:48. |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 10:46:22 PM · #20 |
Here's my version using Focus Magic to sharpen. Motion blur cleanup seemed to work better than out of focus blur. But then Mom's skin seemed to have some anomalies, so I did some cleanup, including using DCE skin portrait cleaner.
I think Focus Magic is great when it works. This isn't it's best work, but it does seem to really help bring the baby into sharp focus.
 |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 11:07:53 PM · #21 |
Here's my go at it:
 |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 11:22:22 PM · #22 |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 11:39:35 PM · #23 |
nshapiro, I'd never heard of focus magic so your edit was very interesting to me. I'm going to have to read up on it. It really did make the baby look much sharper.
I liked your take on it as well kyebosh. The color tone looks great.
ButterflySis, thanks for taking the time as well. I still can't believe how much better these edits look.
Laura |
|
|
|
07/06/2005 06:19:42 PM · #24 |
best of luck getting it how you want :-)
|
|
|
|
07/06/2005 10:22:15 PM · #25 |
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 08/24/2025 03:44:48 PM EDT.
