My Free Study Shot bombed. I think it got the score it deserved, but I'm annoyed with myself as I had the raw materials of a much better score and I totally ruined it with the editing. I agree with the comments about over- sharpening, and I don't know what I was thinking with converting it to B&W.
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Anyway, I'm keen to know how you'd have edited it differently. The original is here (warning - it takes a while to load). How would you have edited/cropped the shot?
What approaches do you all take when it comes to sharpening? Can't remember exactly what I did with this, but usually I leave all my sharpening until after I've resized, where I give it USM of about 0.5 or 0.75, depending on the photo, with strength of about 210 (this is with PSP, which I think has a strength setting of about 0 to 500) might have gone a bit mad with the sharpening brush too with this shot.
This is probably the direction I would have taken it more or less. That is focus on the lashes and give it some mood via desaturate/dodge/burn. I didn't do any sharpening to it rather I blurred it a little. It did get some sharpening when it was resized via the bicubic sharper.
Agree with Roba an amazing transformation. Yanko, how did you select the eyelashes?
It was actually pretty easy to select it. After I did my dodge and burn and desaturated the whole image on a new layer I hid that layer and selected the highlights via the Control+Shift+Alt+Tilde shortcut. This got me the selection of the lashes as well as the other highlights in the image. Once that selection was made I just went back to the desaturation layer and on the mask erased the parts where the lashes were and that brought back the color in the lashes. Since I didn't erase beyond that area the rest of the highlights weren't effected.
I like to think I'm pretty decent at photoshop, but this photo just puts me all to shame. FANTASTIC work, yanko!! You pulled an amazing vision out of this shot, and executed it so well.
Yanko, thanks for providing the details - this is what I really love about DPC, and thanks also to SoulMan1978 for sharing his photo and starting the thread.
Yanko, thanks for providing the details - this is what I really love about DPC, and thanks also to SoulMan1978 for sharing his photo and starting the thread.
Humbling, isn't it?
Agree, thanks Yanko -- it's always helpful when people share their tricks and methods. I'm going to see if I can do something similar with this in PSP (if only for my own self preservation).
This is probably the direction I would have taken it more or less. That is focus on the lashes and give it some mood via desaturate/dodge/burn. I didn't do any sharpening to it rather I blurred it a little. It did get some sharpening when it was resized via the bicubic sharper.
Here's my version, less desaturated, not rotated, not flipped:
Editing steps not that far different from Richard's, really, except they are :-) I used an "apply image/soft light" layer to snap contrast, I used magic wand to select eyeball/lash area and inverted the selection to work on the rest-of-the-horse, I used high pass sharpening...
"If you don't see the [Edit Post] button then you're doing something other than editing your post." I'd write it 100 times, but I'd just use cut and paste. Carry on...
Amazing to both yanko & Bear! I'd love to see a tutorial on either method, if either of you have time! (Actually, yanko, what I'd prefer from you is a tutorial on your great Free study blue!)
Agree with Roba an amazing transformation. Yanko, how did you select the eyelashes?
It was actually pretty easy to select it. After I did my dodge and burn and desaturated the whole image on a new layer I hid that layer and selected the highlights via the Control+Shift+Alt+Tilde shortcut. This got me the selection of the lashes as well as the other highlights in the image. Once that selection was made I just went back to the desaturation layer and on the mask erased the parts where the lashes were and that brought back the color in the lashes. Since I didn't erase beyond that area the rest of the highlights weren't effected.
A few questions, Yanko. You select the lashes in the original layer, right? Then what? What do you do with the rest? I'm a new newbie to masks and such so bear with me.
I'm not so impressed with how you did what you did, as I am with how you knew to do this. This must be part of some greater strategy or philosophy of yours. Any further insight you're willing to impart would be great!
Also (and this is for anyone), I'm using PSP X2, so I don't have that shortcut or see anything like Select Highlights. Will Select Color Range or something like it work? Any PSP users following this?
Agree with Roba an amazing transformation. Yanko, how did you select the eyelashes?
It was actually pretty easy to select it. After I did my dodge and burn and desaturated the whole image on a new layer I hid that layer and selected the highlights via the Control+Shift+Alt+Tilde shortcut. This got me the selection of the lashes as well as the other highlights in the image. Once that selection was made I just went back to the desaturation layer and on the mask erased the parts where the lashes were and that brought back the color in the lashes. Since I didn't erase beyond that area the rest of the highlights weren't effected.
A few questions, Yanko. You select the lashes in the original layer, right? Then what? What do you do with the rest? I'm a new newbie to masks and such so bear with me.
I'm not so impressed with how you did what you did, as I am with how you knew to do this. This must be part of some greater strategy or philosophy of yours. Any further insight you're willing to impart would be great!
Also (and this is for anyone), I'm using PSP X2, so I don't have that shortcut or see anything like Select Highlights. Will Select Color Range or something like it work? Any PSP users following this?
Yes, I did the selection off of the original layer. I'm not sure what you mean by your second question. When I did the selection it selected all the highlights in the image which included the lashes but I just wanted to erase the desaturation on the lashes so that's all I erased on the mask attached to the desaturation layer.
As for knowing the direction to take, that just comes with time. For this photo, I simply determined what I liked and what I didn't like about it. I then enhanced what I liked and minimized what I didn't. I liked the eyelashes (as did soulman judging by his entry's crop) so I knew I wanted to make that center stage. What I didn't like so much was the lighting. It didn't bring out the detail in the fur too well so I made it a point to give that some more contrast. After I was just about done I looked at it again and felt there was still something missing. The eye has a sadness to it so I gave the image a little blur (selectively applied) to give the image a little movement, which for me gives the image more emotion. That's basically it. The key is not just in knowing what you like and don't like but knowing why. That's what drives everything I do.
Yes, I did the selection off of the original layer. I'm not sure what you mean by your second question. When I did the selection it selected all the highlights in the image which included the lashes but I just wanted to erase the desaturation on the lashes so that's all I erased on the mask attached to the desaturation layer.
Here's my layer stack in PSP. I kind of have something like what you have (not as good of course), but I'm having trouble seeing where the selection comes in. All I have is layers and masks.
Yes, I did the selection off of the original layer. I'm not sure what you mean by your second question. When I did the selection it selected all the highlights in the image which included the lashes but I just wanted to erase the desaturation on the lashes so that's all I erased on the mask attached to the desaturation layer.
Here's my layer stack in PSP. I kind of have something like what you have (not as good of course), but I'm having trouble seeing where the selection comes in. All I have is layers and masks.
Thanks again!
I'm not familiar with PSP. Are you able to make a highlights only selection? If you can get that kind of selection you then just erase on the mask used on the desaturation layer. If you just erase where the lashes are and if you have just the highlights in that area selected all you should effect are the lashes (well mostly just the lashes).
I'm not familiar with PSP. Are you able to make a highlights only selection? If you can get that kind of selection you then just erase on the mask used on the desaturation layer. If you just erase where the lashes are and if you have just the highlights in that area selected all you should effect are the lashes (well mostly just the lashes).
Thanks for your patience with me. I think I need to learn more about masks and also the erase tool/function which I haven't used much. It sounds like erasing over a selection performs some magic that I don't understand.
I did this version using PSP XI. When you use masks or adjustment layers, you can use the brush tool and paint directly on that layer to change the appearance. I usually paint with black or white at different opacities but you can use shades of gray as well. There is also a feature under Adjust->Brightness and Contrast->Clarify... which is a great one to use for sharpening as well.
I did this version using PSP XI. When you use masks or adjustment layers, you can use the brush tool and paint directly on that layer to change the appearance. I usually paint with black or white at different opacities but you can use shades of gray as well. There is also a feature under Adjust->Brightness and Contrast->Clarify... which is a great one to use for sharpening as well.
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Thanks for posting this. Clarify is a great tool; I use it often.
Maybe someone can explain to me what the Eraser tool is for or how they use it with selections and/or masks (see my disjointed dialogue with yanko below). I feel like I'm missing something really fundamental.
