I have been playing with old images to see what kind of PP and presets I like. Here is one example of an old image with different PPs:
. . .
If I was entering this image in a challenge I would have gone with the most conservative (the closest to the original). The Lightroom Burnt Sepia preset caught me by surprise. I tried color HDRs with Efex and Photomatix and did not like any as they bring out too much detail in the foreground.
Which of my PPs one would you submit in a challenge?
or
If you don't like any of my PPs what would you do? (I am including the original to play around with)
PS Maybe this could be turned into a SC? Have one old image every day and submit your best PPs of that image.
I think this is one of those images that doesn't need much. The original and the one that was simply desaturated to b/w are the two that stood out to me the most.
I think this is one of those images that doesn't need much. The original and the one that was simply desaturated to b/w are the two that stood out to me the most.
OnOne Software has a free skeleton set of their very expensive tools called "Photo Tools 2.5 Free", and this uses the Golden Hour Enhancer and the Black Soft Medium tools, primarily, plus some edge gradients.
I should have said that this was in the morning and hence I kept subdued colors more towards yellow than red. I liked Wolf's B&W title :)
What I also liked was the attempt to emphasize the rays by softening them. I understand Bear_Music achieved by using Photo Tools and Black Soft Medium.
wolf - how did you achieve the softer look of the rays?
I used Topaz adjust. I also added a refine edge around the border to darken the corners. Glad you liked the BW title :) Originally I wasn't going to title them, but couldn't resist after I stepped back to look at it.
My steps:
Shadow/highlights to bring out a little more detail
Added contrast
Adjusted levels
Gave it a redish-yellow tone
Faded gaussian blur to soften rays
Adjusted Contrast again
Sharpen, crop & border
Not sure if I like the crop/border or redish tone...
My steps:
Shadow/highlights to bring out a little more detail
Added contrast
Adjusted levels
Gave it a redish-yellow tone
Faded gaussian blur to soften rays
Adjusted Contrast again
Sharpen, crop & border
Not sure if I like the crop/border or redish tone...
I assume all these steps are in Photoshop CS? I am very much in favor of borders, especially for narrow images with a lot of black in them. I think that the light grey background does not do justice to a lot of images submitted in challenges. I do like the crop. In fact - I love it! Well done :)
I think this is a good example where an average image can become very good through good quality PP.
Since the main interest of the photo is the Sun rays and trees I pushed the foreground much darker to focus attention to those areas. Like Bear_Music (Robert) I used onOne software, but I own the full 5.5 suite which I recommend to others. As I previously explained in another thread I had purchased just the Phototools 2.5 program. Then a free update came out to 2.6. Then just before Christmas I got an email from them offering the whole suite at 50 percent off since I had previously bought Phototools. Well, for $249.00 dollars I thought I'd be a fool not to take advantage of the offer so I did. I only spent a couple minutes on the photo BTW...so don't take that as an example of what the suite can do. LOL.
My steps:
Shadow/highlights to bring out a little more detail
Added contrast
Adjusted levels
Gave it a redish-yellow tone
Faded gaussian blur to soften rays
Adjusted Contrast again
Sharpen, crop & border
Not sure if I like the crop/border or redish tone...
I assume all these steps are in Photoshop CS? I am very much in favor of borders, especially for narrow images with a lot of black in them. I think that the light grey background does not do justice to a lot of images submitted in challenges. I do like the crop. In fact - I love it! Well done :)
I think this is a good example where an average image can become very good through good quality PP.
