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05/16/2003 12:23:33 PM · #1 |
hehe
Ok, so I played with the levels slightly, very minor saturation, lots of sharpening, and then tinkered with some layered blurring... fo' the ladies!
here's a befo' 'n aftuh shot!
hehe... so I added a little bug... ala Jacko style... that'll get a a ribbon!
Message edited by author 2003-05-16 12:32:19.
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05/16/2003 12:10:27 PM · #2 |
TerryGee and carolee: Feedback is exactly what I wnted. Through this thread I have found that my monitor badle needed calibration, as I wa seeing an entirely different background than everyone else. I will shoot some more after I finish voting and making a couple of critiques. I hope to have a better slant on things then.
Thanks for your help.
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05/16/2003 12:03:04 PM · #3 |
Autool: I saw your photos and agree with the others that there's something just not quite IT about them. I think that the background is an issue for me, because the rose you are photographing is so light and the background is so dark. The difference in Sonifo's rose is that the yellow has lots of dark shadow to compliment the black, so it works for that photo.
Right now, your photos feel like a rose taken from where it belongs and put into an alien environment. They "feel uncomfortable" to me somehow. I think Gordon's right -- try a paler or more complimentary background. The composition on all of them looks good to me!
(just my two cents -- if you'd asked "are these nice" instead of for feedback, I'd have said "yes, they're nice!") :)
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05/16/2003 11:35:57 AM · #4 |
autool
Your first shot is pretty good. The amount of the vase showing is too much and/or not enough. Either loose it altogether or show us more.
The next shot is too close. It is to soft on the focus and too close to give enough interest.
The other two shots are good. I just think there should be less light hitting the background. It should be dark enough that we don't notice it.
Hope this helps a little.
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05/16/2003 11:29:22 AM · #5 |
| eloise...try PaintShopPro 7 or 8. Easier to work with than PhotoShop. Free trial down load for 30 days also.//www.jasc.com |
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05/16/2003 11:23:55 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by eloise:
Unfortunately, GIMP doesn't do 90% of the things I do to the images I need to tighten or adjust. Or, at least, it doesn't have a good suite of dead-easy user-friendly tools for me to use. I've actually seen Photoshop (on someone else's machine); the sheer array of mind-bogglingly confusing and powerful things it could do made me flee in terror. I just need to fudge gamma, despeckle, adjust hue and saturation, and so on. |
So all of the programs I posted do these things, and usually with a really simple interface/ reduced selection of tools.
The gimp will do all the stuff that you'd need, in much the same way as it is done in photoshop. The main things missing are colour management/ print process related stuff |
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05/16/2003 11:19:50 AM · #7 |
| Unfortunately, GIMP doesn't do 90% of the things I do to the images I need to tighten or adjust. Or, at least, it doesn't have a good suite of dead-easy user-friendly tools for me to use. I've actually seen Photoshop (on someone else's machine); the sheer array of mind-bogglingly confusing and powerful things it could do made me flee in terror. I just need to fudge gamma, despeckle, adjust hue and saturation, and so on. |
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05/15/2003 04:42:23 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by eloise:
Do you have a solution for those without the $700 to buy Photoshop with? |
For Windows systems, I believe the freeware program the GIMP (gimp.org) offers most of the functionality of Photoshop -- other DPCers who've used it could advise you better. I use another freeware program called IrfanView as a previewer/browser -- if you click and hold the mouse, the color values will display in the image window's title bar with both RGB and HTML (Hex) values.
For Mac (or PC) your best bet is probably Adobe's Photoshop Elements...it has most of the PS features you need for photography (except Curves). Download the 30-day demo from Adobe, and if you like it you can get it for $49-99 depending on where you get it. |
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05/15/2003 04:34:24 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by eloise:
Do you have a solution for those without the $700 to buy Photoshop with? |
Any of these will probably do it too. |
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05/15/2003 04:32:25 PM · #10 |
| Do you have a solution for those without the $700 to buy Photoshop with? |
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05/15/2003 04:12:54 PM · #11 |
In Photoshop, just put up the Info window and it will display the color of the pixel under the cursor, regardless of which tool is selected. Use the palette options to determine which color model you want to use -- it can display two sets at once.
I usually set the first to display Grayscale, which gives me a read on the absolute darkness of the area. I usually set the second set to CMYK because I'm used to interpreting those values as colors, but it can also be RGB, LAB, total ink (good for duotones), etc.
When you put up an adjustment layer (e.g. Curves) the Info window will display both the Before/After values. |
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05/15/2003 11:20:08 AM · #12 |
Sonifo; Your rose is superb. This whole thing is more about me finding out what others think about my attempt at the picture. I have found out a whole lot with this post and I certainly appreciate all of the feedback. I know I will improve after this experience.
Pinback; Thanks some more! Oh by the way if you have any machine shop questions.... I have about 45 years experience there. |
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05/15/2003 11:13:57 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by autool:
You guys are making me feel pretty ignorant, but, I am willing to learn! I also realize that I have done extremely well on this site for as little as I know about editing.
GenerlE; Thanks for steering me and others to the curves tutorial.
Pinback; Thanks for explaining the numbers, I will have to search PS to find where I can see this information.
I think I will change my name to Dumb and Dumber, both of us are having a new awakening!
Thanks....Maybe |
No problem. And not knowing something is nothing to worry about - I know nothing about machine shops :-)
The 'Color Sampler Tool' is the PS thing you want - you get it by right-clicking on the eyedropper. It gives you RGB and CMYK values for the pixel you're over.
Cheers
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05/15/2003 11:08:09 AM · #14 |
I am going to be totally honest autool. You might want to get a different rose. That one is not very pretty. The black in the back ground goes from black to grey near the bottom. The angle is not very interesting .
Here is a picture of a rose I took awhile ago. //www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=15494
I think that you must first find an interesting flower or it will ruin the shot. I think you are doing a great job. keep trying.
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05/15/2003 10:58:36 AM · #15 |
You guys are making me feel pretty ignorant, but, I am willing to learn! I also realize that I have done extremely well on this site for as little as I know about editing.
GenerlE; Thanks for steering me and others to the curves tutorial.
Pinback; Thanks for explaining the numbers, I will have to search PS to find where I can see this information.
I think I will change my name to Dumb and Dumber, both of us are having a new awakening!
Thanks....Maybe |
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05/15/2003 10:46:08 AM · #16 |
Originally posted by autool:
Originally posted by Konador:
Make sure it's #000000 for black. Yours is #1D1D1B in places, and in some places even lighter. |
I am getting lost. Where did you find this information. Boy am I getting into something I don't know anything about?
Bear with me, please
Thanks |
He's read the pixel colour values using his photo editing package. Most of them have a function which will display the colour value of the pixel under the cursor as you scroll around.
The funny numbers refer to the red, green and blue values in each pixel. In the RGB (red, green, blue) colour model (which is what computer displays generally use) each true-colour (24-bit) pixel is comprised of an eight-bit value for each of the red, green and blue colour components in the pixel. So you'll sometimes see colours expressed as a triple of numbers between 0 and 255, e.g. 192,192,192 (which is a mid grey). The numbers are between 0 and 255 because 256 is the maximum value you can represent in an eight-bit value (aka a byte).
The numbers Konador quoted are in a number system known as hexadecimal which uses base 16 instead of base 10 (as in the 'normal' decimal system). In hex, you have the digits 0-9, plus the letters A-F to represent the values 10-15. An eight-bit byte can be represented by a pair of hex digits (in hex, 255 is represented as FF), so our triple of colour values from earlier becomes C0,C0,C0 (C represents 12, so C0 is 12x16+0x1 = 192) or more usually C0C0C0 - the # prefix indicates the number is in hex.
True black is represented as 0,0,0 which is 000000, your background was reading as 1D1D1B in places which equates to 29,29,27 which is pretty dark, but not black.
Hope this makes sense
Oh, and I almost forgot: 'Practice rose shot' looks a little soft to me - I'm not certain it is, but that was my first reaction. I agree with KarenB's comments.
The close crop really does look soft to me. The other two look much sharper, but I don't really like the vases.
Rose shots which seem to work well are intimate close-ups which concentrate on the complexity of the petals in the flower. Soft lighting usually goes well with this. I think they're a difficult subject just because they're so often photographed.
But keep 'em coming!
Message edited by author 2003-05-15 11:00:41.
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05/15/2003 10:30:38 AM · #17 |
| GeneralE, merci, thank you. |
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05/15/2003 10:28:58 AM · #18 |
Originally posted by Konador:
Make sure it's #000000 for black. Yours is #1D1D1B in places, and in some places even lighter. |
I am getting lost. Where did you find this information. Boy am I getting into something I don't know anything about?
Bear with me, please
Thanks |
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05/15/2003 10:26:45 AM · #19 |
Originally posted by uabresch:
Related question - would anyone know of a good tutorial on "curves and levels"? I can't make sense of that. TIA |
From another thread:
Originally posted by magnetic9999:
hello :)
Here is a tutorial in Using Curves.
And here is something you may want to read first, that will lay the groundwork to understand what you're doing when you adjust Levels or Curves, or when you use your digital camera's histogram :
"Understanding Histograms" |
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05/15/2003 10:26:14 AM · #20 |
It could well be just me, but I really don't get a lot from these sorts of shots of flowers in a really dark background/ studio sort of environment. The black always ends up feeling really oppressive/ heavy and getting good even lighting is a challenge.
Have you thought about taking this outside and shooting in daylight, with a more natural coloured background ? If its cloudy the light is perfect, if it is sunny, a shade/ diffuser helps to get more even lighting, and you can use natural vegetation etc for an out of focus backdrop.
A couple I took at the weekend to illustrate the point (click for larger versions):
1/ shooting upwards, using the sky and some clouds for a complementary coloured background
2/ shooting straight down to use some surrounding leaves for background
For both the light was hazy/ diffused sunlight, taken with a tripod, mirror lock-up and a cable release, Canon D60, 100mm macro and the saturation on low with custom white balance. |
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05/15/2003 10:23:28 AM · #21 |
Make sure it's #000000 for black. Yours is #1D1D1B in places, and in some places even lighter.
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05/15/2003 10:21:58 AM · #22 |
| Related question - would anyone know of a good tutorial on "curves and levels"? I can't make sense of that. TIA |
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05/15/2003 10:18:04 AM · #23 |
I likely is a monitor issue. Open the image in your editor and check the values of the pixels as you scroll around...they will probably be changing a bit. Also, open up the Curves or Levels controls and compress the range extremely (posterize) and you'll probably see splotches in the background.
I will play around with it when I get back from work. |
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05/15/2003 10:15:19 AM · #24 |
To see the background as pure black I have to turn my monitor brightness down to 20%-ish
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05/15/2003 10:14:08 AM · #25 |
I see the background as mid-light grey with a lot of noise. The photo also looks washed out colour-wise. I guess its a monitor issue.
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