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Archive 2012 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...

  
 
RustyBug
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


Okay, so that's a stretch for some frosty fungi.

Edited on Feb 12, 2012 at 09:49 AM · View previous versions



Feb 11, 2012 at 11:35 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


Like the subject.
Like the conversion with great tones, range.
Like the comp with strong diagonal movement across the frame.
DOF bothers me. There is kind of a diagonal band of sharpness top left to bottom right which competes with the pull of the eye lower left to upper right.
My eye first goes to the upper left shrooms, bright and clear, then jumps to the bottom right snow on the leaf.
Scott



Feb 12, 2012 at 08:21 AM
cgardner
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


Momma taught me to never eat the yellow or gray snow. Uncle Ansel taught me how to render it accurately on a print

http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Fungus.jpg

I realize tastes vary but if your are going to tone down the snow to gray and kill it's natural specularity putting a white border around the photo will make it more obvious the highlights are dishwater gray rock salt, not sparkling diamonds.

In my edit I pushed the highlights to clipping in the snow to get their natural Zone 10 specular value and then pulled the shadows, which were blocked, up to about 10 with output in Levels. Then I pasted the original with the blocked shadows over the top again and with a mask selectively darkened some shadows back down to 0. The net effect is a full 0 - 255 tonal range with more sparkle in the highlights and a bit more perceived detail in the shadows. The shadow detail is easier to see with a black mat vs. the adjacent glare of a white one.

Save the white mats for when you mount the photo on a white wall. The "wall" at FM is gray and the white mat becomes a distraction from the content.

In terms of composition I would have preferred to see the focus set in the circled area (with arrows added just to annoy Dougie )

http://super.nova.org/EDITS/FungusO.jpg

That would pull and tend to hold the view in the "core" area of the photo. The sharpness in the lower right in the original pulls the eye away from center to that contrasting sharpness.



Edited on Feb 12, 2012 at 09:16 AM · View previous versions



Feb 12, 2012 at 08:50 AM
sbeme
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


well done, Chuck.
totally agree on the sharpness in the "core"
Scott



Feb 12, 2012 at 09:09 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


Thanks guys.

Pretty much exactly as I thought @ DOF, whites & blacks.

First day out with my new "progressive" specs, so I've got to learn how to "see" with them. No tripod and it was quite 'chilly' out, so position (for stability) trumped composition to handhold the slower shutter speed. Wound up shooting from an angle that wasn't what I wanted, which is why the skip/dual plane of focus. Not too critical, since I was only serving it up as a processing test subject ... knowing that I would likely revisit today with pod (& more appropriate coat).

As to the processing, I was working in 32 bit and got things where I really liked them. Then, when I converted to 16 bit, I incurred a significant change that blocked my shadows and grayed my whites. I never did quite figure out how to keep things the same for the conversion. Once in 16, I tried to restore it to how I had it in 32, but never quite got it there ... and lost a little "mojo" while trying to get it back where I had it.

I find that I like working in 32 bit, but haven't figured out the best way to get out of it to rejoin the ranks of 16 & 8 bit ... anybody got a clue about how to best approach/adjust/compensate for that?



Feb 12, 2012 at 09:43 AM
cgardner
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


RustyBug wrote:
I find that I like working in 32 bit, but haven't figured out the best way to get out of it to rejoin the ranks of 16 & 8 bit ... anybody got a clue about how to best approach/adjust/compensate for that?


Allow for "shrinkage" in your 32-bit workflow by keeping the highlights a bit muted and shadows more open, well above any blocking in the the 20 range.

Then at the final output stage, be it a JPG for printing or screen, do a final Levels check / tweek of end points and middle slider after resizing and sharpening. More or less what I did in the edit.

By the time you go from 32 > 8 bit any losses due to the tweeking are too trivial to worry about.

IMHO 32bit workflow is overkill for anything smaller than a wall size mural, and even for that. Compare workflows start > finish and if you can see a difference between 16 > 8 and 32> 16 > 8 you got yourself a set of new magic glasses



Feb 12, 2012 at 09:56 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


Hard to explain, but it isn't the final product that turns out different, but how I am perceiving the file as I'm working on it (which translates into the final product). For me, it seems that I can "see" the file better in 32 bit as I work on it. Sharpening seems more refinable and gradations seem less likely to band when "pushing and pulling" on things pretty hard. Routine stuff ... nah, why bother.

It's not the output size as much as the transitions, etc. I'm still "lite" on the technicals, but it keeps calling to me, for whatever reason.



Feb 12, 2012 at 11:01 AM
Bob Jarman
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


Great work folks!

Backyard?

Bob



Feb 12, 2012 at 01:52 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Chillin' on some 'Shrooms ...


Not quite backyard, but reasonably local ... woods along a creek about 8 miles out.


Feb 12, 2012 at 06:12 PM





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