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Archive 2014 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty

  
 
rbn920
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Here is a photo I have been having trouble with. It is a 55' sculpture titled "Truth is Beauty." I have been struggling with a very hard halo around the body (maybe not as noticeable as it seems to me?) as well as a few other aspects. I was hoping for some ideas/comments on how I can make the most of this shot.
Thanks,
Robby







Aug 10, 2014 at 05:18 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Halo is not apparent to my on a good monitior.
I love the image, as is.
What a fantastic sculpture!
And I like the angle/POV.
Scott



Aug 10, 2014 at 06:11 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Yep, second Scott here.


Aug 10, 2014 at 06:32 PM
JohnBrose
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


I seem to see a slight lighter outline in some areas, but could be something with compression or how the file is created with the sensor. If it really bothers you, you could just go around the whole statue with a clone brush. It could be created from software if you are applying an hdr filter also-don't know how the image was created.


Aug 10, 2014 at 06:41 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Just to add, I love the color and transitions, yellow to blue, blue to brown to blue.
Scott



Aug 10, 2014 at 07:12 PM
robbie36
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


There is a halo there but it is only noticeable if you are really looking for it. Still if I had taken this fantastic photo, I would want to get rid of it. It isnt terribly difficult assuming you have PS.

The 'halo' is essentially a thin white line between say the relatively 'light' blur sky and the 'dark' statue. What you do is take the clone stamp and set its blend mode to 'darken'. Now sample in the sky and run it 'roughly' over the halo. The clone stamp will stamp sky into the halo as it 'darkens' the halo but it will not affect the statue as the statue is darker than the sky.



Aug 10, 2014 at 10:30 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


+1 @ Robbie36 @ the halo is visible, etc.

My approach to halos is diff from the correction, but rather the prevention.

Typically, the halo is a result of a sharpening algorithm giving instructions to give an increase in variance between pixel values. In areas that already have sufficient contrast/variance, the additional instruction to increase (globally applied) contrast between existing values can create halos (light or dark) as Robbie36 has mentioned.

Imo, the key is not to figure out how to "correct" for them, but rather how to prevent them. One way is to apply a mask on your sharpening layer that you feather/brush over the outline area on your sharpening layer mask. Another way is to adjust your "blend if" settings such that they don't render the change on the new layer. Another way is to apply sharpening on duplicate layers with one set to darken, the other set to lighten. Then you can adjust the opacity of the lighten layer to reduce the brighter areas of the halo.

I routinely will use a combination of the latter two techniques (avoids brush work) to mitigate halo generation. Takes a few extra steps and I get lazy not wanting to bother with the time/effort to dial it in ... but I'm usually glad when I have done so (which is typically my last / near last steps for an image). If I still have the halo, then I go back through, turning layers on/off to find out which one(s) seem to be driving it the most and address it their through "blend if" / opacity / mode / mask to reign it in.

Edited on Aug 10, 2014 at 11:05 PM · View previous versions



Aug 10, 2014 at 11:00 PM
Shasoc
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Here is a cool technique to get rid of halos:
- Create a new Layer and change the blending mode to "Darken"
- Get the brush and sample the color next to the halos you want to paint away (Press the ALT key and your brush will switch to an eye dropper to sample the color next to the halos.)
Now when you paint on the halo any pixel that is lighter (halo) will get darker and cover the halo. Go gently, use a small brush and use just its edge.
You need to keep sampling the color next to the halo (on the sky side), if the tonality changes, to cover well the halo.
Click with the eye-drop and paint, click with the eye-drop and paint, click with the eye-drop and paint.....and so on.
That is what I did on your image, my job is a bit sloppy but you can do a better job on your original file. However, as you can see I got rid of those white halos.
For dark halo just use the "Lighten" blend mode. Same technique.
Hope this helps
Socrate







Aug 10, 2014 at 11:04 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


As a correction ...

Blur is essentially the inverse of sharpen, so if sharpen created an increase in pixel contrast variance, then blur reduces it. A duplicate layer with blur applied to reduced the contrast of neighboring pixels can pull back a halo, while masking the subject areas not to be reduced. In this application a blue channel mask was quite effective a separating the subject from the halo/sky area ... with some additional brush refinement to the mask.







Aug 10, 2014 at 11:38 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Good fixes, guys. And good explanations.
Now I can see the halo, which appears to be a wide radius sharpening artifact. I wonder if it would be visible in print without the fixes applied, but good to know what can be done.

Scott



Aug 11, 2014 at 12:57 AM
rbn920
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Thank you for some really great suggestions and comments. Typically I would agree that the halo is an artifact of sharpening but this photo has been a tough nut to crack for me. This is a single RAW exposure with very little PP. I first noticed the halo in photoshop so I went back into lightroom and started to investigate. I figured either the sharpening or clarity sliders were overdone (though I try to use very little of either in lightroom).
Below is a 200% crop of the RAW file with no sharpening or clarity and pretty subtle other adjustments. There is already a halo in the file which would make this photo very sensitive to sharpening. Once this photo was pulled into photoshop I made a small levels adjustment, used a luminance mask to increase the contrast where the yellow/orange dusty sky transitions to blue and sharpened using a high pass filter with radius of 3, a blend mode of soft light, and an opacity of somewhere around 50. The high pass filter does make the halo more distinct but not as much as I figured it would.






200% Crop of RAW file. 0 sharpening 0 clarity




Aug 11, 2014 at 11:18 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


Hard to figure how you got a halo in the raw, maybe somebody can explain.

I too try to use sharpening methods that create zero or very low halos and I prefer to sharpen globally and for most subjects if I can get away with it. My biggest sharpening issue is when I have sky noise, so I sometimes run NR on the sky and other smooth areas.

By the way, I have noticed that when I look at a mountain against a darker sky I see a halo.

But the steps others have shown here are very interesting.



Aug 11, 2014 at 11:38 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


ben egbert wrote:
Hard to figure how you got a halo in the raw, maybe somebody can explain.

By the way, I have noticed that when I look at a mountain against a darker sky I see a halo.


Yes, this is a natural phenomenon also. I was noting it yesterday as I was viewing black suits against light walls, etc. I recall someone (Doug, Peter, Chuck, ) explaining it a bit (I didn't retain the details of how/why) some time ago.

As to the RAW having it, I guess it isn't unlike a mild form of "rim lighting" (launching technical physics thoughts) of what is happening @ multiple angles converging to produce diff tonal value with "light bending" or some such explanation (which I don't know atm).

Whether pre-existing in the capture or an artifact ... the enhancement of it (sharpening/contrast/etc) is to be on guard for and/or correction/reduction of. It is a bit of a balancing act to drive contrast between pixels without driving too much as all neighboring pixel relationships are not equal. I mean 130 next to 150 is a far different thing than 45 next to 210. The size of the wedge needed to drive them far enough apart to be easily seen is different, as the 45 vs. 210 really needs little additional help to distinguish the diff where 130 vs. 150 could use a bit more help.



Aug 11, 2014 at 11:55 AM
DianeinCR
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


I can't speak to the technicals of this image but I love the composition. Wish it were mine!


Aug 12, 2014 at 10:24 AM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


RustyBug wrote:
As to the RAW having it, I guess it isn't unlike a mild form of "rim lighting" (launching technical physics thoughts) of what is happening @ multiple angles converging to produce diff tonal value with "light bending" or some such explanation (which I don't know atm).


I'm guessing I could be a wave effect, like diffraction, or a scattering effect or rough surface refection, but I could be completely wrong. Unfortunately, subsequent post processing can amplify the effect. For special images that are worth the time, I sometimes use the clone stamp at high magnification to remove the white edge and then sharpen and further process.



Aug 12, 2014 at 04:59 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


I suspect you're in the ballpark @ peaking amplitudes like wave/diffraction ... but I'm only somewhere between a SWAG and a WAG on it atm.


Aug 12, 2014 at 05:56 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


atm = at the most, I presume.


Aug 12, 2014 at 08:03 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


at the moment (i.e. subject to change)


Aug 12, 2014 at 10:08 PM
FarmerJohn
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


I was also going to guess some sort of physics/light effect. It's interesting to note that the halo appears only with the blue sky background. I don't notice it in the cloudy background. Maybe it's there but not as noticeable at web resolution? This is mostly definitely a WAG. It has no S aspect to it at all

Also, could it be from in-camera sharpening?

Also also - really nice image. Really enjoying the colors and composition.



Aug 12, 2014 at 10:38 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Burning Man 1 - Truth is Beauty


FarmerJohn wrote:
Also, could it be from in-camera sharpening?

Also also - really nice image. Really enjoying the colors and composition.


Some cameras (Sony, iirc) apply a pre-cook to even their RAW files. Not sure if that might be the case here or not.

+1 @ much to like image.



Aug 12, 2014 at 10:53 PM
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