It would seem that quite a few of you liked my idea as to how to use Neatimage to Neatimage different parts of a picture differently. I have therefore decided to provide a slightly more in-depth explanation as to how I tend to use Neatimage.
Just for starters, I use Photoshop so your techniques may have to differ from mine depending on what package you use.
I start off by opening up the image, which becomes the base layer.
I then make two copies of this image onto two new layers and run Neatimage on them.
I then copied the original image as a mask onto both of these new layers.
I then run the edge detection filter in Photoshop on the mask that was created.
I follow this by using threshold to detect just the edges that I want.
Having detected the edges, I use a Gaussian blur to create a more seamless transition between the edges and solid colours.
You then have two invert one of the masks, so that you've got edges selected on one and non-edges on the other.
The two Neatimage layers have to be set into overlay mode (you could use other overlay modes, but they tend to also affect the image)
by varying the opacity on the two Neatimage layers, you affect how much of the original image is smoothed over.
By using this technique you can retain a lot of edge detail, but still smoothed out the more solid colours in a picture.
Very helpful. I'd also be interested in a little more detailed info on creating the NI filtered image itself. I understand selecting single blocks of color to create and fine tune a profile for that particular photo, but what about creating standardized profiles for the camera itself- can that be done, and is it effective when each photo will be taken in different conditions? Also, how do you choose filter settings- do you tweak them based on each individual image, or set them and use the same settings on every shot? How do you decide what is too much NI? And with the layered method would it matter how filtered the filtered version is?
Thanks for the great tutorial on how to blend the NI layer with the original, I'll give this a try. Sometimes I'm not happy with the results I get from NI but maybe this will help.
One problem though, is using this method for DPC challenges illegal? I thought we aren't supposed to minipulate multiple layers unless the layers are "Adjustment Layers" only?
Anyone have ideas on this? I'm not sure if it's legal or not.
Why couldn't you do it in a regular challenge? Your applying it to the entire image (I think, but I read that pretty quick). So it should be legal I believe.
Why couldn't you do it in a regular challenge? Your applying it to the entire image (I think, but I read that pretty quick). So it should be legal I believe.
Lee
Because in the Regular challenges you're not allowed to use/blend image layers or use any kind of selection tool.
Why couldn't you do it in a regular challenge? Your applying it to the entire image (I think, but I read that pretty quick). So it should be legal I believe.
Lee
Sorry, I was thinking about the non-December rules. It's legal for December, that's right, thanks Kirbic for clearing that up. :)
