Someone suggested uploading an unedited picture so that people can use photoshop on it for a realistic photographic effect, so I thought I'd give it a go. Here is the photo I'm proposing we use:
Its unedited except for resizing. The original file can be found here:
Original File
As you can see, I took it at about 300mm in the evening and there is a slight camera shake on the image. The colours are flat and boring, and the sky is pretty blown out. I took it for the All Alone challenge but it basically sucked when I looked at it at home.
Let's see what you Photoshop wizards can do with it :)
You can crop, skew, dodge, burn, clone, do whatever you want with whatever tools you want, but it must keep photographic integrity (that means no flying pigs!). You may also not add anything from another source.
Not to be rude - but I suggested uploading an example of a truely good photograph and showing how we could make it great - one that should be deleted due to shake and exposure problems isn't the best example of what I meant :)
Post-editing, at least in my little world, isn't about taking rubbish and saving it, its about taking the best possible image in camera and making it into the best possible final version through correct post processing- much in the same way that post processing is considered for traditional darkroom work.
There are just certain things that need to be done well to make a good photograph really sing - that's the sort of things i'd like to learn and see the rules accomodate here. For a good photo, it should at least be exposed correctly (for whatever definition of correct exposure you choose to apply) and should only have things like camera shake and blur if it was intended originally.
You can't polish a turd... I know this isn't an example of one of your best images in the 'unedited' form...
Ohhh rite, I thought that when you mentioned it in the other thread you meant post a really crappy photo and see how much you can use PS to try and make it a good one, just a misunderstanding :)
noting is new in the image (ie, no gradient, copys from other images, patterns, or so on)
and thats what teh origional clouds are like, theres a very slight bit more detail before overexposed.
First I rotaed, then increased the canvas size.
I used clonestamp to fill in the sky and grass, and tree's
I then used a 50% clone to help merge some of the grass more natural looking.
I then used the burn tool to pull some definition out of the sky, and did a slightly heavier burn around the edges of the tree's to stop the "halo" effect.
Then adjusted the levels, colours, contrast, brightness.
heavy unsharp mask (4px @ 70%)
cropped it, and saved it.
This is a blend of a double multiply layer with a double screen layer. Blended with Fred Miranda's DRI action. Overdone the sky a bit, but I'd personally expose for the sky and restore the underexposed foreground.
The threeline sky has been 50% opacity cloned in, because there was a halo.
Cropped it a bit.
Cloned out some dust spots or birds.
Ran Fred Miranda's Digital Velvia Pro action (I am pretty certain that it is dpc legal, it applies to the whole image and only uses curves and channel mixing for that) at setting 6 to boost the colors. Could be less perhaps.
Resampled to 640x427.
USM 200% on 0,3px, treshold 2 Lab mode lightness channel. Might have overdone it, but didn't want to try everything at every setting. I'd be sitting here until three in the night. :)
Save for the web.
edit: Wanted to save the 3:2 aspect ratio, the top could be taken off.
Methos. What was your processing here. I have a very similar shot with blue color cast from my manual WB being stuck on for an entire memory cards worth of photos. Very annoyed at myself! How to fix em?
Methos. What was your processing here. I have a very similar shot with blue color cast from my manual WB being stuck on for an entire memory cards worth of photos. Very annoyed at myself! How to fix em?
You can't change the white balance after you shoot them? Levels in photoshop is how I adjusted the color, along with saturation. Hope that helps!
I think this would be a lot more interesting and educational if members listed the steps they used in photoshop or whatever program they used to save or improve the photo also. Not just post the revised photo.
.........
You can't polish a turd... I know this isn't an example of one of your best images in the 'unedited' form...
Oh, but you can too polish turds as I recently learned in another thread here on DPC. Granted it took millions of years for these turds to be polishable, but they are turds and they are polished.
Methos. What was your processing here. I have a very similar shot with blue color cast from my manual WB being stuck on for an entire memory cards worth of photos. Very annoyed at myself! How to fix em?
The single best approach I've seen to fixing these is to use solid colour adjustment layers, rather than levels.
Add an adjustment layer, pick a colour and fill the layer with that colour - invert that layer, blend it with the colour option, and then adjust the opacity until the cast you want to remove has gone.
