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Degrees of abstraction.
Postprocessing techniques using the Monochrome Masterclass
mingtheinstore.outthink.us/photoshop-videos/22-m-monochro...
Trying to get a new perspective on a well-photographed subject. Update: J e n s had the same idea almost 4 years ago).
I like this because the postprocessing makes it almost look like a painting. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the volcano in the background. It could be Tacora.
I used Photoshop CS3 to create extra pampas grass at abstract angles, then changed color and mood with a gradient layer.
My best friend and I shared this amazing cupcake we bought at the mall. It was generously sized and sprinkled and so moist. I miss it! And I miss you, Nicki <3
Canon Rebel xs 1000d
Shot in Raw
Processed in Digital Photo Professional
and in Gimp
And of course I have a copy of the bare photo, without the extra text/border/etc but I uploaded this one because it was pretty ^-^
Theme of the week: hair
My hair is very short so I went looking for collars with very hairy fur. And then probably processed the pic to death...
Here's a "window" showing the final version of a picture I posted a couple of weeks ago superimposed on the image as it came from the camera.
The original image looks pretty dull. That's because when shooting landscapes, I always set the camera up to produce an extremely subdued original on the theory that doing so increases the amount of detail captured by the sensor.
Accordingly, I set the camera up for minimum (1) contrast, (2) sharpness, (3) saturation, and (4) noise reduction.
(1) Minimum contrast helps to prevent blown-out highlights and blocked shadows, two of the most common causes of ruined pictures.
(2) Minimum sharpness let's me optimize sharpening parameters in postprocessing (using Photoshop's "Smart Sharpen" method) rather than relying on simple, clumsy in-cam sharpening that can ruin an image beyond repair. (This picture is unsharpened, and most pictures don't need sharpening at all if the overall mechanics are good and if you take care to maintain good midrange contrast. But that's another topic.)
(3) Minimum saturation allows me to use a saturation brush to increase saturation locally rather than relying on whole-image, in-cam saturation boost (which often produces a garish effect in one or more regions of the image).
(4) Minimum noise reduction allows me to rely on a genuinely good noise reduction program like Noise Ninja rather than on the camera's ham-fisted algorithm which works mostly by desaturating shadow regions. (This image has no noise reduction.) In-cam noise reduction is irreversible, and it ruins almost as many images as in-cam sharpening. Best to turn both of them off.
There's no arguing that the foregoing choices produce a dull, somber and uniinteresting original, but that's what I want to see when I look at the LCD after shooting! When I see that flat-looking image, I can be sure that I've captured as much information as the camera's sensor can manage.
Even though my little Panasonic ZS7 doesn't allow shooting in RAW format, I still open the JPEG in Adobe Camera Raw and perform basic exposure and contrast adjustments before loading it into Photoshop. In this case, all I did in Camera Raw was to increase the exposure by 3/4 stop to bring the intentionally underexposed original back to a more reasonable level.
Why would you intentionally underexpose the original? It's because there's usually no way to rescue an image that has overexposed, blown-out hightlights without cloning stuff in from another image, whereas it's trivial to rescue an underexposed image if you're shooting at base ISO (ISO 80 on the camera used to make this image).
(As an aside, if the contrast range is so high that you have to choose between blown highlights or blocked shadows, you need to make two separate shots at different exposure levels and combine them in postprocessing. Photomatix's HDR and exposure-fusion software makes this pretty easy to do, even aligning the two images to take care of minor differences in framing. I didn't need to do this in the image above.)
One trick I use in almost every landscape is what I call "split dodging and burning" using Photoshop's dodge and burn brushes. The dodging brush allows you to lighten too-dark areas of an image and the burning brush darkens areas that are too light.
Almost every image processing package allows the following refinements to the basic dodge and burn brushes. You can dodge or burn (1) shadows (2) midtones or (3) highlights. I almost never use the midtone brush (which is usually the default).
Here's the trick. The lightest regions of an image contain dark pixels. For example, a cloudy sky may be the brightest region of a picture, but it contains dark cloud edges. Conversely, the darkest regions of an image contain bright pixels, often in the form of refractions or specular reflections.
Split dodging requires brightening the highlight pixels in the darkest areas of the image. In the image above, split dodging makes the water droplets on the grass stand out so that the grass looks as wet and three-dimensional as it looked when I shot the image. Split dodging brings out the colors in the budding trees in the distant background and makes the daffodil blossoms pop out from the darker grassy background. Split dodging makes the pond's banks and surface glow a little bit, just as they appeared to the eye when I made the shot.
Split burning (darkening the shadow pixels in the lightest regions. of the picture) brings out the cloud patterns in the sky, so that the flat, homogenous sky of the original image shows the clouds that I saw when I made the picture. Very slight split burning darkens the tree trunks in the background to give depth to an area that would otherwise appear static and flat. Somewhat heavier split burning darkens the tree branches against the sky, making them appear sharp and clear.
Unfortunately, when you're done with split D&B, one or another region of the image is likely to have undergone a color or saturation shift. In the image above, the clouds were way too blue after split burning, so I selected the sky region (with Photoshop's lasso and color range tools) and applied enough amber filtration to bring it back to the neutral gray color that I saw when I took the picture.
The grass was much too green after split dodging, so I used a desaturation brush to bring it back to a more realistic saturation level.
All of this took about a half-hour, which is typical of the amount of time I spend postprocessing a landscape. For those who are still with me (both of you!), that's how I usually shoot landscapes.
Here are links to the full-frame original and postprocessed images.
This's gone through several different renditions at least. Cooked within an inch of its life, but I had a blast! :D HSS, all!
Give it a shot on black. Mmmblack.
16.01.89
Dragon.
The Dragon is one of the most powerful and lucky Signs of the Chinese Zodiac. Dragons possess a certain natural, charming charisma that ensures they can always influence their peers and often find themselves the center of attention in social situations. The Dragon's friends are always keen to hear what this firebrand has to say and when it comes to dispensing advice, the Dragon has the floor.
Its ego can get in the Dragon's way, but even so, this larger-than-life creature has a knack for initiating projects and keeping the troops motivated. As lucky as they are, Dragons have a good chance of achieving considerable material wealth during their lifetimes, although it isn't mere money that's this Sign's main motivation. Power is what the Dragon wants and truly believes it deserves. Dragons are quite the opportunists, forever searching for ways in which to consolidate their considerable power. Contrary to all this strength and fire, a weakened Dragon is a sad sack, a creature that refuses to take defeat with even a modicum of grace.
The role of leader is the only one the Dragon wants, the better from which to give orders and be king of the hill. Crossing the Dragon is never a good idea -- this beast can singe! If Dragons can learn to balance their quest for success with an appreciation for the little things, their life will be more than worthwhile.
....or maybe it's all yada yada.
The pale yellow hanging clusters on the tips of bare woody branches are flowers of the medicinal tree known as the Sterculia villosa, commonly as Hairy Sterculia and Elephant-rope Tree. it is called UDAL in Bengali.
The waxy dark-red and fiery-red blooms from the lower right margin to the middle of the image are the flowers of the Bombax ceiba otherwise called the Cotton-floss Tree, and in Bengali, SHIMUL.
There's a blurry image of a tree covered in sprays of off-white flowers in the background leaning to the right from the middle of the image. That is the flowering Moringa oleifera or the Drumstick Tree - the Miracle Tree - that gives us a commonly loved summer vegetable, SHOJNA or SAJNA, with various parts of the plant having different kinds of medicinal value.
At extreme right, the thicker orange clusters are flowers of the Butea monosperma, aka Parrot Tree, known in Bengali as POLASH.
I’ve returned to processing some photos from our Pilbara and Kimberley road trip. Brad and I were fortunate to visit some great beaches, where I found lots to photograph.
I am fascinated by texture, pattern, light, and shadow, and took this photo of tracks and watermarks on the sand just before sunset, when the light and shadows were rich.
I layered it in Photoshop with a couple of my textures: Tectonic, made from photos of the peeling painted concrete floor in Fremantle Prison, silvery bark, grey clouds, and cement board; and Pilbara Sky, made from a photo of wispy clouds, swirly concrete, and painted board. #australia #westernaustralia #pilbara #roadtrip #coastal #fineartphotography #postprocessing
Patrick is a homeless guy that we met while walking along the levee. He told us a story about how he is from Fort Worth, but ended up in Baton Rouge after exercising too much of his right to free speech. He said that his mom and dad were both naval officers. He didn't really say how he ended up becoming homeless.
Which rendering is better? -01 is a simple crop, while in -02, I brightened the image, boosted the contrast and colour saturation