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11/09/2004 04:22:57 PM · #1 |
Fisrt let us take a cursory look at the Zone System. It attempts to group the tonal values into 10 groups. The 10 has no texture and it is a complete burn-out. The first is also textureless and totally black. This leaves us with 8, yet we can understand that the second althought very dark has a semblance of texture, not very well defined, but present. The ninth is very bright but with a strong hint of texture. This leaves us with six. The third, shadow areas with texture very evident and the eight, very bright but all texture present. The balance are the most prominent, that is four to 7 and the one that you see most in the average photograph. I suggest you read on this system because it can make your life easier. We will use the above for reference.
Like I said earlier, levels adjustments are a pre-requisite and curves will take you further. Once these adjustments have been made you can begin to balance the zones, but be very careful because it is very easy to lose sight and contaminate the zonal values, producing a grotesque end result. An emphatic word of advise is to use adjustments by tiny increments. Never overpower to lift adjustment into attention.
Let us start with the burn tool. There are different modes to apply it, but we will stick with the direct manner. make a copy of the background. Now look at the image and seek out those tonal values which are in about the 3rd and 4th zones. Always use a soft brush that is about the size of the area in width. Adjust the strength to about 5 and on shadow. Before you apply consider the direction you will use. You may have to repeat the application. One stroke with a tiny overlap and then stay away from the borders. Do all the areas that are in the immediate foreground. Avoid burning distant areas because you will get in trouble. detail of tone and color is always lost in the distance.
Now reach for the dodge tool set it to highlights and on 7. You are going to do a back and forth motion, just enough to bring oit the highlights, but do not over do it. These are the areas from the 8th zone up. Squint your eyes and look at the image. Look at the transitions and see if any od the 5th to 6th zones need a little help. Be careful now and it is best to male another copy in case you screw up. The major scew ups occur in the mid range. Use the midtones on both the burn and the dodge tool. The secret is to work slowly so as not to introduce a wrong tonal value unto the wrong place. Employ the dodge in typical manner.
Once you are certain that you have balanced the colors, you may want to consider the sponge. Again, low values, 5 or so in saturation mode. Select areas in the foreground and after making another copy saturate only the areas that you feel will help the image, but be caredul because this rool affects tonal values. Sometimes the color jumps out of the shadow area. You do not want this. Be careful when sponging distant objects. If you gave a color which looks too strong and distracting, use the sponge to desat.
Do not attempt to do large areas with the burn tool. If you have an area that is almost burnt out near the 9th zone (consider the 10th zone as gone, we will treat it later) make a selction with about a 5 pixel feather copy it and paste it in multiply mode. This will have the effect of closing the lens one stop down. Always examine the paste for the border and feel free to adjust the opacity of this multiply later.
Areas that are in 10th zone only have one remedy and that is to select around the area in question make a copy and fill this copy with a solid color to match it. If you have a blown light and it is incansdecent, then use a pale yellow and fill the selection. Then reduce the opacity to make it as pleasing as possible, then grab the erase tool place it at about 20 percent and erase slightly in the center to imitate the hot glow of the filament. Then reduce 10 5 percent and cricle the area slowly to blend in results.
If your image suffers from strong contrast try a copy in screen mode and then take it from there.
There is also another and more effective manner to achieve the sharp state which is fully adjustable. Go to filters and then to others and then to hi pass. Keep the radius to just a tad above what you would use with the regular um. Girst make a copy and then invoke the hi-pass filter and then apply it in overlay mode. The beauty here is that you can select the strength by adjusting the opacity.
To conclude, the secret is to always go lightly with any adjustment and to always compare what you are doing against the rest of the image. Avoid dodging extensively eyes that fall into shadow areas. Too much and you will end up with vampire eyes. Be careful with the dodge tool on eyes in shadows. With the exception of metallic surfaces, the highlight values in shadow areas is always less than when in the 5th and above zones. In short, be careful of areas that jump at you from the shadow areas. Sometimes the lighting produces undesirable effects and you have to select an area, make a copy and apply levels and then maybe hue-sat. Always blow up your working imahe to 300 percent for examination and check closely for imperfections.
For those of you ahead of the curve there are also different manners to apply the above tools. Uoi can use different modes other than normal, but that is another story.
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11/09/2004 04:26:06 PM · #2 |
you might want to look at using a new layer, filled with 50% grey, on an layer with overlay blend mode.
Then just paint it white or black to dodge/ burn. After that, filter it, blur it, sharpen it to your hearts content until you get the dodge/ burn you want. Do it heavy handedly to see how it works.
Dial back the opacity to get the final result, all while never once touching any of the underlying pixels and all perfectly undo-able or modifyable.
Multiple layers can be used to obviously extend the control you have. It is a whole lot easier than bothering with the basic dodge/ burn tools.
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11/09/2004 04:32:39 PM · #3 |
Daniel, thank you for taking the time to get this in print.
I don't use dodging & burning, mostly because I make it look worse, probably because I don't really know how to do it. Guess I need to do some practice in this area, and learn to use and work with layers (which I also don't do).
OK, I've admitted it openely - I have no idea what I am doing half the time, but I sure am having a blast not knowing what I am doing! LOL
Thanks again!
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11/09/2004 04:52:49 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by BradP:
Guess I need to do some practice in this area, and learn to use and work with layers (which I also don't do). |
NO, NO, NO! Basic editing only for you! Oh, and turn your monitor off while you're editing, OK? Thanks! |
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