I went out last Saturday night to return some DVD's to the video store. On the way back, I had decided to get some stuff at the little store around the corner. On my way in and out I saw this young man outside in front of a door that had "Circle of Hope" on it. I did not have my camera with me! I got out of the store and rushed home deciding if I would or not and decided yes and got the camera and went back and shot. Shot handheld at 1/10 second with ambient light. So.....
Post: Converted image twice from raw with an Exposure Compensation of +2.0. On the first, for the subject, ran the image through Power Retouche Dynamic Range Compressor and then did a heavy curves adjustement. I got a grayish tone so I did layer adjustments for levels, brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. The noise was really bad so ran it through NeatImage then sharpened. This, of course, caused a boatload of jaggies to appeared that were mostly healed though some were cloned. Also cloned, healed some small light reflections on the door. I pretty much left the second image alone to avoid blowing out the upper right (the area of the store window). I placed the second image on the first and erased down in the area of the door and subject. I did a circular stroke at the bottom to, perhaps, reiterate the title in the image. Not sure if it was effective. Merge the images down. I selectively sharpened the letters of the title on the door and drew back in the letters for 'of' to make it more legible with the pencil tool. Sharpened again. The image looked too soft and maybe a little pretty in color. Did a dose of USM, 70%, 10px, 0. Added a layer and did a layer of Hue/sturation to turn to grayscale along with a another layer of levels and Brightness/contrast adjustments. Merged the layer down in normal mode at 60% or so opacity. Did another layer of hue/sat to brighten the remaining color. Resize. Sharpen.
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Wow - way to go pulling out the detail fom your original image. I am still impressed when I see what people are able to do with a pic that I would have tossed in the recycle bin without a second thought. Well done!
I like the subdued tones and desaturation in this ..the very lack of over-processing is suitable. In an "expert editing" challenge, I think the real discipline is to use what you need only when you need it..not to use as much as you can just because you can, ending up with a general mess. Nice control. Fits the challenge perfectly.
I see some evidence of over-sharpening in the photo and I'd like to have seen some use of the expert editing rules. Is this a real observation? If so, yes, life can be harsh. Brightest Blessings to that soul.
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