progress? - DPChallenge Forums

06/01/2006 10:57:41 PM · #1

Here is the original straight from camera

Here is what I knew before DPC

Here's with a little more DPC help

And now you guys are showing me layer masks

Am I at least on the right track? Anything I'm missing (at my level that is)?

(also note that pic was taken before DPC also, lol)

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

06/02/2006 02:08:26 AM · #2

ok, getting frustrated with these images :) I took them as practice (mostly in a stock photography sort of way) but can't seem to make them look good even as practice photos:

This last one was my last attempt, but the black shadows are too black and I'll need a miracle to make the strawberries not look dry, yuck...

You can see the comments on the first one and the second I'm not sure about, maybe too much cyan?

any PS wizards out there? Anyone willing to give it a try and show me how you did it, please PM me and I'll send you either or both the untouched files.

Thank you!

Falc

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

06/02/2006 03:42:49 AM · #3

Heres my attempt at the strawberries image.

Processing in PS:
First duplicate the layer, to protect the base image.
On the duplicate layer sharpen using USM at 300,0.3,2
Add a curves layer and steepen the middle section, by pulling down the left quarter point and pushing up the right quarter point - this give added mid tone contrast
Add a selective colour adjustment layer. In the reds, reduce the cyan, slightly increase the magenta, add some yellow. In the cyans, drop the cyan by -48% (gets rid of the blue pots), push up the yellow (+12) and black (+66) content.
Add a new layer, set to soft light mode. With a large soft black brush darken the corners and dodge/burn the straberries you want the user to focus on.
Add new Hue/Sat layer. Boost saturation, and move hue slider slightly right to bring out a nice warm red.

Finally and this will be controversial ... go back to the duplicated image layer and apply a very very slight radial zoom blur to subconciously take the eye to one particular strawberry. Don't over do this, the object is to just pull the eyes away from the edges of the image.

Hope that helps

dahkota

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

06/02/2006 06:38:06 AM · #4

I don't know if this is an improvement, just different:

I often find shiny red difficult to look at so I try to tone it down. One thing that might improve this as Falc suggests - work with the depth of field. If reshot, you might go with a much deeper DOF so that the strawberries in focus are less random.

06/02/2006 09:58:09 PM · #5

wow, awesome, thank you Falc and dahkota! I didn't expect anyone to make such a good looking pic from the already messed up small files I had in my portfolio... also, dahkota, for some reason, the pic is not coming up for me, so I'm just going by the thumbnail, still looks a helluva lot better than mine... I will try to duplicate both of those.

here's what the original looked like, a lot of cyan and dull, but I'm surprised the pic even came out, it was getting dark and we were at farmer's market and I darted over and took two shots before the guy behind the stand could make me feel bad for taking pictures of his fruit without buying anything... lol

Thank you so much for responding and helping me out, I know it's a boring pic, but I think that working with the not so fascinating super good photos forces me to learn more about post processing and also in camera what not to do stuff

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

06/02/2006 10:00:44 PM · #6

oh yeah, and the other one

pcody

Canon PowerShot G6

06/02/2006 11:22:19 PM · #7

I did a duplicate layer and changed it to sepia. Then blended in screen mode, merged and adjusted curves.