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Archive 2016 · How much is too much?

  
 
bipock
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · How much is too much?


I did a mountain wedding this weekend and have encountered a problem I could use some opinions on.

The setting was really nice, but had a gnat problem - as in swarms. The first look pics weren't too bad, so I fixed them, but the formals are much worse.

For some reason, my gut tells me that she isn't going to review me positively. So rather than provide her any ammo, I thought I'd try and fix this if possible.

Would you edit out all the gnats? I don't really know how to replace a sky in PSCC, but I guess that would be a consideration. Any other thoughts?







Jun 13, 2016 at 11:50 PM
stevez32
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · How much is too much?


You are not god that control all beasts, but still if the problem was evident at the time did they not want to shoot in a different location?


Jun 14, 2016 at 12:06 AM
glort
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · How much is too much?



I remember Doing a glamour shoot at a beach about 10 years ago where the flies were worse than I had ever seen them before or since. We walked to several locations and ended up about a KM from where we started but it was no different.
I might have had 10 flies in each picture so for the main I could retouch them but Wow, this is a whole different thing!

I think the above comment is pretty much spot on.
I always play things like this out in my head as a worse case scenario and they took you to consumer court. Client complains, you say it was an act of god beyond your control, case closed. What else can anyone argue?

They can only get you for something you did wrong, failed to do that should have been done, negligence etc. This is not even close to any of those things.

And for hecks sake don't get caught up in this review crap being the be all and end all of your future success and bookings. If she gives a bad review because there were too many bugs in the pictures and people don't book you because of that, BE HAPPY!

You don't want anyone that stupid coming through your door and the people with a brain will see the stupidity of the complaint and be more likely to feel a rapport and sympathy for you and make an inquiry.

I once had a couple come to me because another shooter( who I didn't even know) trashed me so badly they felt they had to come and see how bad I was for themselves. I booked them and it was a very successful job all round.

I did the same thing myself once. Went and saw someone, they spent so much time telling my friend and I what a pack on mongerals the competition was, we walked out the place and I said to my friend, Ring that mob he was talking about and see if they are free now. She said already found their number while we were sitting there.
Guess who we went with and it wasn't the first one we saw! :0)

Even bad reviews sometimes turn out well.



Jun 14, 2016 at 04:37 AM
Mark_L
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · How much is too much?


Weird problem but yes, that is pretty noticeable (as are the dust spots on your sensor!)

This is a very quick fix in PS btw, I just tried it with your web jpg. I did a frequency separation with the threshold just high enough to have no flies and then roughly masked the sky with a big brush on the high frequency layer.

If it was me (and I'm usually on the glort side of these things) for the sake of maybe 30mins I'd fix these before delivering.

Shame it was daytime, at night with flash they may have caused a cool effect!



Jun 14, 2016 at 06:56 AM
bipock
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · How much is too much?


Thanks guys. These were actually up the mountain 9 miles as it was the backdrop she wanted and 1 of 2 places we found. Gnats were tough at either location and the wedding one - they were unavoidable.


Jun 14, 2016 at 07:25 AM
jmraso
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · How much is too much?


The flies and the sensor dust are the least of the problems in the picture (as they are fixable).

The annoying sun expression on her, the shadow of the groom on her chest as they are in a bad position in relation to the sun, the wrong angle and position of the photgrapher, the tree the top of the bride being too close and threatening.

Obviously, that is not the final edited file in many areas, is that ?



Jun 14, 2016 at 08:34 AM
bipock
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · How much is too much?


Nope, probably won't use that one. It was an example for the bugs.


Jun 14, 2016 at 08:56 AM
dmacmillan
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · How much is too much?


I can't help but think of a quote from Matthew: "You strain at a gnat and swallow a camel!"


Jun 14, 2016 at 09:51 AM
LeeSimms
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · How much is too much?


Great source of protein.


Jun 14, 2016 at 10:02 AM
glort
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · How much is too much?


Mark_L wrote:
This is a very quick fix in PS btw, I just tried it with your web jpg. I did a frequency separation with the threshold just high enough to have no flies and then roughly masked the sky with a big brush on the high frequency layer.

If it was me (and I'm usually on the glort side of these things) for the sake of maybe 30mins I'd fix these before delivering.



If I knew how to do or what you were just talking about and it would only take 30 Min, I'd fix them too! :0)



Jun 14, 2016 at 09:46 PM
bipock
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · How much is too much?


Same here. I think he's saying put a blur on and then apply it to just the sky. Best I can tell from reading anyway.


Jun 14, 2016 at 11:06 PM
Mark_L
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · How much is too much?


bipock wrote:
Same here. I think he's saying put a blur on and then apply it to just the sky. Best I can tell from reading anyway.


Sorry, I shoot a good amount of fashion so I've had to pick up some more complicated PS stuff to be able to retouch to an acceptable level.

Frequency separation is amazingly useful, it splits the image into a layer of fine detail and another of coarser detail so they can be worked on independently which is usually used for skin retouch or getting rid of creases in clothes. Clone and heal tools then work amazingly well too. In this case, you can use it to blur just the fine detail in the sky (so only catching the flies) and leaving the rest like clouds untouched. Win.

Have a read about it if you are interested, the PS clone from affinity even has this feature built in now. Usually total overkill for wedding work but useful to know.



Jun 15, 2016 at 04:07 AM
mgrayson3
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · How much is too much?


Duplicate layer. Attach Layer mask.
Apply Dust and Scratch filter to new layer until flies are gone. Play with Threshold and Radius sliders.
Paint in new layer over original where necessary by painting in (or erasing) the mask..

That gets you very close very fast.

Good luck,

Matt



Jun 15, 2016 at 06:40 AM
jeremy_clay
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · How much is too much?


Mark_L wrote:
Shame it was daytime, at night with flash they may have caused a cool effect!


They would look like stinky people in a cartoon lol



Jun 15, 2016 at 02:58 PM
JPuckettPhoto
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · How much is too much?


Mark_L wrote:
Frequency separation is amazingly useful, it splits the image into a layer of fine detail and another of coarser detail so they can be worked on independently which is usually used for skin retouch or getting rid of creases in clothes. Clone and heal tools then work amazingly well too.


I think the better way to describe frequency separation is that it splits the image into a "color" layer and a "texture" layer. That way, you can edit one without affecting the other. "Amazingly useful" is an understated way of putting it, Mark.

There's plenty of good tutorials on YouTube showing this process.



Jun 16, 2016 at 06:45 AM
RSHPhotography
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · How much is too much?


jmraso wrote:
The flies and the sensor dust are the least of the problems in the picture (as they are fixable).

The annoying sun expression on her, the shadow of the groom on her chest as they are in a bad position in relation to the sun, the wrong angle and position of the photgrapher, the tree the top of the bride being too close and threatening.

Obviously, that is not the final edited file in many areas, is that ?


Hold on right there. This is not needed.

He didn't ask for the pic to be critiqued. I'm sure many would agree with your assessment on the picture - but the OP didn't ask for it.

This is the picture the OP wanted to shoot. If not, he would have re-framed it. This topic is not about "How would you have composed this shot", but rather how to get rid of insects that take away from the overall picture.

I think we as photographers would respect another's artistic vision, rather than impose our own whenever an opportunity arise, then we as a collective group would benefit.




Jun 16, 2016 at 11:56 AM
bipock
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · How much is too much?


RSHPhotography wrote:
Hold on right there. This is not needed.

He didn't ask for the pic to be critiqued. I'm sure many would agree with your assessment on the picture - but the OP didn't ask for it.

This is the picture the OP wanted to shoot. If not, he would have re-framed it. This topic is not about "How would you have composed this shot", but rather how to get rid of insects that take away from the overall picture.

I think we as photographers would respect another's artistic vision, rather than impose our own whenever an opportunity arise, then we
...Show more

I don't take any offense to the critique. Great shot? No. I don't mind the tree, but certainly understand the deep shadow on him. At that time, it was there or nothing as we had spent, at the bride's demand, 10 minutes driving up the mountain to get a scenic shot and we only had 45 minutes total. We left there and went a little further up and found a much better spot.

A couple of the images I just cloned out by hand as they weren't too bad, the others I applied a blur to the sky which worked well too.



Jun 16, 2016 at 01:33 PM
jmraso
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · How much is too much?


Sorry if I went too far, I do apologize !


Jun 16, 2016 at 02:53 PM
samwillow
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · How much is too much?


pretty background


Jun 20, 2016 at 03:46 AM
ahaug
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · How much is too much?


Hum ... are we addressing the issue? The bride said that "for some reason" she was not going to leave a positive review. I think you might want to clarify what her reasons are specifically. Is it the gnats or something completely different?


Jun 23, 2016 at 02:48 PM
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