Glow (and other things) can save a pic

09/01/2005 05:01:51 PM · #1

Here's an interesting object lesson in using extreme PS to more-or-less salvage a failed grabshot. The water tower was shot upsun at dawn, just to see how it would look, and the answer was "not very good". So I decided to play with it.

Sky, tower, water and grasslands were all made into selections and hue/sat /levels were used on all selections separately. Gothic Glow was applied to the result, copied and layered onto original, faded to 50%.

Selective color was used on the layered image to bring color into the brightest areas, and a duplicate layer was made so I could apply top and bottom gradients and fade them.

Final image was flattened and USM used.

It's not a gfreat shot regardless, but it was instructional.

R.

09/01/2005 05:04:35 PM · #2

Don't lie bear..... those are two completely different shots! ;-)

09/01/2005 05:10:37 PM · #3

Hey bear, if I send you an original to this

, do you think you can save it?

I'm sick over this picture. It's my son right after we brought him home from the hospital. He was so tiny (just over 4 lbs) and I absolutely love this shot. The composition was exactly what I was going for, but the lighting was terrible and my wife had to take the shot so there was a fair amount of camera shake. I've tried (unsuccessfully) to salvage it. I'm afraid I just don't have the PS skills to do it justice.

You game for the challenge?

09/01/2005 05:14:48 PM · #4

I can't make it look sharp, but I can make it look "better" maybe. Let me see the original ok?

Reference DPC in subject line of e-mail pls. It's in my profile.

R.

09/01/2005 05:19:59 PM · #5

Originally posted by bear_music:

I can't make it look sharp, but I can make it look "better" maybe. Let me see the original ok?

Reference DPC in subject line of e-mail pls. It's in my profile.

R.

I'll send it tomorrow. Thanks Robert!

gloda

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/01/2005 06:49:34 PM · #6

How did you pull those startingly different green, yellow and red colour tones out of a plain green meadow?

jemison

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

09/01/2005 07:11:51 PM · #7

Originally posted by ldowse:

Hey bear, if I send you an original to this

, do you think you can save it?

I'm sick over this picture. It's my son right after we brought him home from the hospital. He was so tiny (just over 4 lbs) and I absolutely love this shot. The composition was exactly what I was going for, but the lighting was terrible and my wife had to take the shot so there was a fair amount of camera shake. I've tried (unsuccessfully) to salvage it. I'm afraid I just don't have the PS skills to do it justice.

You game for the challenge?

I hope you don't mind my giving this a shot. I tried a technique I got from someone here and copied the original to a duplicate layer, then used the emboss filter on it. I used overlay as the method and about 60% opacity. This can sometimes sharpen badly out of focus shots to an acceptable degree. I also cropped the shot a bit.

th3ph17

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

09/01/2005 07:29:29 PM · #8

bear, have you tried any of the "Lomo" or toy camera scripts and actions floating around? great for totally blasting an "almost" image into a whole other realm.

09/01/2005 08:55:49 PM · #9

Originally posted by jemison:

...
I hope you don't mind my giving this a shot. I tried a technique I got from someone here and copied the original to a duplicate layer, then used the emboss filter on it. I used overlay as the method and about 60% opacity. This can sometimes sharpen badly out of focus shots to an acceptable degree. I also cropped the shot a bit.

Hey, thanks for taking a stab... That's an interesting technique I'm going to have to experiment with. I appreciate you working with my shot. The reason it was originally cropped a little larger was to show the wedding band (we like the significance of that) ;-)

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

09/02/2005 11:55:48 AM · #10

Originally posted by gloda:

How did you pull those startingly different green, yellow and red colour tones out of a plain green meadow?

Those colors are all there waiting to be brought out. To see them, download the original version, open hue/saturation, and slide master saturation adjustment all the way to the right; that's what you have to work with.

R.

SJCarter

Canon EOS-7D

09/02/2005 12:52:53 PM · #11

Bear - you're quite the master of your domain... Nice work.

scuds

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

09/02/2005 12:55:31 PM · #12

and

It works wonders for sum images (I've posted these a couple of days ago)

But it's basically the same thing as Robt's shots!

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/02/2005 02:31:22 PM · #13

Please forgive me for having a try at this. I am trying to spend more time learning editing on baby photos, and wanted to have a go at this one.

Curves, slight levels, USM,layer-slight gaussian blur, drop opacity to about 40%.

Linda

09/02/2005 02:50:14 PM · #14

Originally posted by lhall:

No need to apologize.... This is a shot I'm pretty anxious to save... feel free to have a go at it! ;-)

gloda

09/02/2005 02:52:42 PM · #15

Originally posted by bear_music:

Those colors are all there waiting to be brought out.

All I get is a green-yellow mess if I push the saturation. I can get red tones in with a hue shift, but how can I increase the difference between these colour tones?

09/02/2005 02:58:31 PM · #16

Originally posted by gloda:

Originally posted by bear_music:

Those colors are all there waiting to be brought out.

All I get is a green-yellow mess if I push the saturation. I can get red tones in with a hue shift, but how can I increase the difference between these colour tones?

You can't... bear_music posted two separate images taken with two different cameras on two different days in two different states of two different water towers... He's just pulling our collective legs!

;-)

Bebe

09/02/2005 03:19:33 PM · #17

Bear, you are a genius. It's inspiring to think that some images can be saved, even if I don't yet have the skills. Thank you for sharing!

09/02/2005 05:19:12 PM · #18

Originally posted by gloda:

You can see all the colors "push" with the "master" channel. Certainly, if that's all you do you get what you described. I just shove master over to take a peek at what dominates, then send it back to zero and move to the individual channels.

You can adjust each color range separately (yellow, red, green, cyan, blue, magenta) for hue, saturation, and value (light/dark) by using the drop-down list on the arrow by "master" to expose the individual channels. Using Hue/sat in conjunction with levels generates some dramatic shifts.

R.

gloda