Ashanali Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 As it says, post your after and before images here. Put the AFTER photo first, THEN the BEFORE photo. Give details on what/how you shot it, then give details of the PP work you did (no matter how major or minor). Stuff like this can help other people see sometimes just how little effort can go into making a photo pop or simply show others some incredible PS techniques that they may like to try on their own images. I'll be back to post one a bit later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 This is one I happened to be showing someone the other day - so I had before and after handy: - Retouching involved creating a path around the bottle, chain and medalion to isolate the background. - Blackening the background. - Curves adjustments to the bottle to increase contrast (with masks to fine tune the targetting of the effect). - Curves adjustments to the chain and medallion (with masks to fine tune the targetting of the effect). - Mirroring the subject to create the artificial reflection. - Dust removal - Targetting sharpening - Resize - Convert to sRGB - Output sharpening After Before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 that is a very sexy image, there, Luke W I must come back to this thread and learn stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 This is a great topic, ashanali. I'm processing some RAW files of what I took on our trip but will just do straight RAW conversions and a little sharpening as with landscapes, I like them to still look natural and as I saw them. Just a personal opinion, I don't like chocolate box looking landscapes. However, portraits and other stuff look great with PS and it's amazing what can be done. I love the black background and would love to know how to cut out and do similar. I have a shot of a wild eagle on a telegraph pole in silhouette as it was early evening but my sky is bland grey so I'm going to google PS to see how I can give the sky some punch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I don't do nearly as much photograqphy as I used to, this thread is the perfect excuse to go looking over my old stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocco Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Great thread. I know my way around photoshop, but would love to see what the pros use in techniques to bring out the best strong colour with-out taking it to the point of everyone looking like a over dousing of Johnson's Holiday Skin . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashanali Posted October 10, 2008 Author Share Posted October 10, 2008 Both of these images have had the same PS treatment. Canon 30D 28-135mm lens All natural light girl standing - f6.3 1/60th iso 800 girl sitting - 6.3 1/40th iso 800 PS treatment (as well as I can remember) Trees trunks filled in to eliminate background. This was done using the clone tool (varying sizes) set to an edge softness of around 50. I carefully selected areas of existing trunk to fill in the spaces. Removal of sheet from under the sitting girl Removal of the more distracting leaves 'antique' affect as explained in another thread was used. Colour layer boosting the red and yellow in the shadows, hue/saturation layer clicked to 'colourise' with a hue of 25 and a saturation of 25. Hue/Sat layer is then faded to allow some of the underlying colour to start coming through. Using layer masks over the colour AND the hue/saturation layers, I brought back the girl a little more so she had more colour in her than the surroundings. Used 'high pass'/'soft light' to ever so slightly sharpen the girl. Added contrast in curves layer Burnt in the vignette Used ' midnight ' action in nik efex - removed layer to about 50%, and off the girl completely so it is only effecting the background. last but not least - layer of diffuse glow that is massively pumped, then using a layer mask I paint over it to control exactly where I want the glow (which is the tree trunk and the girl's wings but nowhere else). Sounds like alot but only really takes about 10 minutes per image. I usually don't PS to that extreme but I was wanting a certain dreamy look to the images. before pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashanali Posted October 10, 2008 Author Share Posted October 10, 2008 Great work with the perfume luke I completely appreciate how tedious that job would have been. Excellent result Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruthless Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Wow, those pics are amazing, great thread I've been using PS for years as part of my job, but I only know the basics. Clipping paths, levels, blur, sharpen, etc. There's so much I still need to learn I took these pics almost 2 years ago when I was still using my camera on auto [and unknowingly set to underexpose by 2 stops ]. From memory all I did was crop, mess with the levels or curves and the hue/saturation and do some burning around the edges and dodging around the eyes. The photos are still pretty mediocre, but they look better than the befores I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I only know basic PS and I'm amazed at what other people can do - in awe actually. I was at OH's office this morning and had breakfast with a graphics artist who leases an office next to him. She also has a photography degree. She gave me a PS book on loan so I'll have to start reading up on it. Surprisingly, she still shoots her hobby shots with film as she prefers it and was telling me about pushing and pulling film which was a big ?? to me. So here are a few beginner efforts. The subject is very handsome and needs no introduction. Oh ok, monelite's perfect looking Dobe, Rex, retired Aust Champion. The dog who made me love dobes. totally untouched. Camera 30D Lens Canon 70-200. Aperture f/4; shutter speed 1/125, hand held. white balance: auto. Shot in jpg. Sepia toned using Canon software that came with the 30D; sharpened using unsharp mask in PS, vignette applied using marquee lassoo tool to select, inverted it, layer via copy and then darkened using levels. I think that's how I did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 (edited) Camera 350D, lens Sigma 17-70 f/7 at 1/10 ISO 400, natural light through windows, tripod, indoors, no flash. Crop, channel mix, blackened the wall at the back of her head and added a vignette. Looking at this now, I can see other things I can do to improve it, I had a go at this a few months back. I originally gave my unedited photo to ashanali to PS for me and she returned it looking amazing, no idea what she did, but it looked great. I printed both a (cropped with back wall cloned out and vignette added) colour one and the b/w one that ashanali ps'd for me and gave them to my friend who was over the moon. Edited December 19, 2008 by Ripley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocco Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Really great the result I see. Everyones pictures look awesome. Ashanali I esp love the look you produced. Such a difference it made. I love those trees too. The ones at the City Gardens are amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 What a great idea! I love learning from threads like this. Luke, your perfume shot is a total work of art, I love it. Here's a fun one I just did for something different. I used this as the background, after altering the contrast a bit and then used a layer mask to take out the blue sky on this one and copied it & placed it so it looked like she was looking at the pelican Then cropped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rugerfly Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Im going to start an I hate Vickie thread. I have a beautiful movement shot of a bitch gaiting and I'd love to do something with it but I have no idea how to use the software. i wanted to give it to the owner as a presie. good work you guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Im going to start an I hate Vickie thread. BITCH! I have a beautiful movement shot of a bitch gaiting and I'd love to do something with it but I have no idea how to use the software. i wanted to give it to the owner as a presie. Post it up...there is some seriously amazing talent on here, I am sure someone will have some ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 (edited) . Edited December 19, 2008 by Ripley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 (edited) . Edited October 11, 2008 by Ripley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piper Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Great thread Ashnali, I love the pics of the kids that you did. This is a picture of Reagan and my dear departed Ricky. 1 of the first shots I took with my SLR, loved the picture of them but hated the background. And here is the after - which I have just had printed onto canvas as 60th present for my Dad as Ricky was his heart dog. I tidied it up befofe printing it - this version was 1 of my first photo shop edits. I used the colour selection tool to select 2 colours off of the wall behind them. Added a layer and filled this using the render clouds filter, blending the 1 colours I had selected. I then applied a layer mask and erased away until I had my boys. I think it worked well for trying to get around their coat as by choosing colours from the original background it was not too bad if I didn't got in too close around their coats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 (edited) Can someone tell me a quick way I can replace the colour in a background? I took a shot of an buzzard/eagle on a telegraph pole in silhouette and the background is grey as it was coming on dusk, not a sunny day that day. Would I use the quick selection key but I have CS2, not CS3. Photo is on OH's laptop still but bascially I have a raptor on a pole in the left hand side, some telegraph lines leading to the right and a boring bland sky behind it. I don't want a fake sunset, just to make the colour richer in the background without affecting the bird and pole.Here it is - I underexposed by 1 stop as I wanted a silhouette. But I'd like a nicer background. Can this be done in a few easy steps? No idea what this raptor is - I'm guessing hen harrier or eagle? Untouched in PS, out of camera. Lens 70-200mm Canon, Exposure f/13 @ 500, hand held, slowly reversing car and creeping up on bird before he flew off. Wishing I had a longer lens but was surprised I even got this close. It's going to depend on exactly how you want the background to look. If you simply want to add some brightness and color, playing with selective color, color replacement, saturation and curves would be the way to go. If you really want to start with a fresh sky, there's no alernative but slow, painstaking masking at 100% or greater. Edited October 11, 2008 by Luke W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rugerfly Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Vickie. Here's the photie. I'd be happy with anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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