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04/04/2007 09:27:29 AM · #1 |
I've been a part of DPC for a while now and one of the things I like the best (well other than great people) is the way you can learn from others. Both directly and indirectly.
So lately I have been playing a lot with various old images of mine, trying new things and seeing what I can do. I know some of this stuff I've done may be easy and lame to a lot of you but for me it is totally cool and a big leap in my PP'ing skills.
Tonight while looking for a totally different image I came cross this one I took back in 2004 and decided to see what I could do with it.
Other than maybe an increase in saturation and contrast this is pretty much the way I printed the image and thought I loved it....that is until I started playing with it tonight.
I did some selective color adjustments (on separate layers like I learned from here)...but then I took some advice from  idnic's Move the light tutorial and masked some of the adjustments back to normal to lessen the effect where it isn't needed, then I added a layer of hue/saturation adjustments, and finally a brightness/contrast layer (again masking where not desired). And finally came up with this:
What a nice difference, but then I decided to try a little gothic glow action...I've always liked that action.
I liked it so much I just submitted it for print review.
Well I should have stopped there, but I am also so often inspired by  bear_music's (and others) use of tone mapping that I decided to give it a try even though I don't have a registered version (hence the watermarkings...sorry).
Since this was not shot in RAW I just created a selective color layer off of the original and adjusted the Neutral levels. I saved different images at +20 +30 -20 and one at -20 with saturation increased too (just wanted to see what that would do). I love what it did to the detail in the distant mountain...didn't know I could see trees!
(I have GOT to get me a registered version of that soon lol)
and again wanted to see what gothic glow would do...
I am so stuck now cause I don't know which I like best.
I know this was probably a lot longer and more boring then it needed to be, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU! to all you people out there that are always willing to help us not so experienced people. You are what makes DPC great!
Message edited by author 2007-04-04 09:28:43. |
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04/04/2007 09:28:51 AM · #2 |
HAHA Photomatix watermark lines the top of the mountain.
Anyways i like that one.
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04/04/2007 06:53:35 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by RainMotorsports:
HAHA Photomatix watermark lines the top of the mountain.
Anyways i like that one. |
lol yeah I noticed that, almost exactly on it too. I was going to clone them out but that one would be hard since I really don't have anywhere to clone from, the trees would be easy. |
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04/04/2007 07:50:15 PM · #4 |
Scott, that's a terrific progression. :) Glad to see others are learning as much as I am!
Now, being the friendly constructive commenter I am, I can't just stop there.
I think the last couple are taking things too far, at least for my taste. As with any new trick, once we learn it, we need to learn when not to use it, or how to use it only partially. The last one, in particular, hits me as way oversaturated.
Try blending those very processed versions back on top of the original, varying the transparency.
Also, you can definitely clone out that photomatix watermark. I don't mean that it's worth it, or appropriate to abuse their trial that way, just that you could take it as another learning experience to try it in a couple of tough spots.
You don't have to go very far away for source material. Zoom way in.
Or, for small spots like that, just paint using pixels next to each letter and a small, not very hard brush. If there are really obvious paint strokes, soften the brush more. You can also use the blur tool to smooth transitions.
Finally, remember that no one knows what the "real" clouds look like, so as long as you make it passable, no one's going to know.
In about 5 minutes I produced this using a paint brush (ignore JPG compression artifacts; I saved at low quality to get the file size down):
Message edited by author 2007-04-04 21:58:25.
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04/04/2007 08:49:17 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by levyj413:
Scott, that's a terrific progression. :) Glad to see others are learning as much as I am!
...
Try blending those very processed versions back on top of the original, varying the transparency. |
I agree with both statements. Yay for you learning and isn't it great to go back to old shots like that? :-)! |
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04/04/2007 09:43:33 PM · #6 |
Thanks for the help Levyj413, I do appreciate it.
After looking at that last image I do feel it could use less saturation, luckily I have saved it as a psd so that layer is still available.
You did an outstanding job cloning that out, I have done it before in clouds and trees cause it is easier (yeah healing brush lol) but was worried about that mountain line...guess I know what I'm doing tonight lol.
Thanks again for taking the time to help out.
Message edited by author 2007-04-04 21:44:07. |
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04/04/2007 09:59:42 PM · #7 |
You're very welcome. For your second effort, clone out the watermark in the upper left in the leaves. Much trickier!
Then clone the power lines out of my shot:
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