Editing Question - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

01/14/2009 03:12:35 PM · #1

I'm editing one of my possible Best of 2008 photos, so the rule set is Advanced editing.

It's a landscape shot, so what I did was duplicate the layer, edit one layer so that the land looks good and edit the other so that the sky looks good. Then I selected and deleted the ground in the layer where the sky looks good and flattened the image. Legal?

Are there any easier/smoother ways to do this? I'm assuming something to do with masks, but I've never tried masking before. I'm using CS2, but usually use GIMP, so if the tips are transferable to GIMP too, that'd be even better!

Thanks!

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

01/14/2009 03:22:01 PM · #2

IMO, that's legal, and I'd probably do it the same way, which isn't saying much as I'm no PS wizard.

Ann

Olympus OM-D E-M1

Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro

01/14/2009 03:26:28 PM · #3

Single exposure? Legal.

Here's a tutorial for creating layer masks. Instead of deleting the ground, you just mask it out. It makes it easier to undo things later.

citymars

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

01/14/2009 03:41:13 PM · #4

I don't work with layers, so I haven't kept up with the rules, but isn't there something about duplicate layers needing to be adjustment layers only? Would the process as described by the original poster ( geinafets) qualify as an adjustment layer?

Never mind, that was Basic Editing I was thinking of. :-/

Message edited by author 2009-01-14 15:42:40.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

01/14/2009 03:59:28 PM · #5

Thanks for the replies! I'm glad my method is (probably) legal. Now for figuring out how to make it a bit less crude... : )

Thank you for the link to the tutorial Ann. I got lost on the first step : / Paint a mask? What do I paint with? I didn't see anything in the menus about painting masks, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot?

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

01/14/2009 04:25:15 PM · #6

The methodology is 100% legal in advanced editing. The suggestion that you use layer masks is a no-brainer; you can choose what to reveal and what to hide and you can alter it to your heart's content as you progress through the editing. A number of people CHOOSE to operate this way in lieu of using HDRI applications; DrAchoo, for one, works like this a lot.

Here's another tip for you: cntrl-alt-tilde (tilde : ~) will make a feathered selection of the brighter end of the image, and cntrl-j will create a new layer with just that portion of the image loaded. Going back to the base image and doing cntrl-alt-tilde again, then inverting the selection with shift-cntrl-i, followed by another cntrl-j layer gives uou a second layer with a feathered selection of the darker portions of the image. You can then use layer modes on these layers to affect the rendering of the selected portions: making the highlights layer multiply mode will mute the highlights, and making the shadows layer screen mode will open the shadows, to name two possibilities...

R.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

01/14/2009 04:28:26 PM · #7

Originally posted by geinafets:

To add a layer mask to the active layer, look at the bottom of the layer palette and see the circle-in-a-square icon; click that and you have a layer mask, a white one, which means it has no effect on the image. Now you can paint on that with a black brush, and whatever you paint is hidden. If you feather the brush, you soften the edge of what you're painting. If you decide you've hidden too much, switch to a white brush and paint over the black, and it reveals again.

R.

Ann

Olympus OM-D E-M1

Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro

01/14/2009 04:31:20 PM · #8

Originally posted by geinafets:

edit: Robert beat me to it, and did a better job of explaining.

Message edited by author 2009-01-14 16:32:01.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

01/14/2009 05:13:11 PM · #9

Thanks Bear and Ann! I never messed with the buttons below the color squares, so no wonder I couldn't find it!

One last question: is squishing the photo legal? Say the photo is 1500x1000 and I resize it so it's 1500x800. No-no or fair game?

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

01/14/2009 06:00:43 PM · #10

Originally posted by geinafets:

Thanks Bear and Ann! I never messed with the buttons below the color squares, so no wonder I couldn't find it!

In the LAYER palette, sweetie. The one that stacks all your adjustment layers? At the bottom of THAT, just make a layer active, click the mask icon, and it has a mask. Shows up as a white square in the layer palette view of that layer.

Originally posted by geinafets:

One last question: is squishing the photo legal? Say the photo is 1500x1000 and I resize it so it's 1500x800. No-no or fair game?

A little bit of squishing is fine, a LOT of squishing might not be, kinda depends what's being squished and how it affects the perception of the image, I think.

R.