FixMeUp - FM Forums

Moderated by: Fred Miranda

Visit the FM Store · Image Upload · Buy & Sell
FM Forum Rules
What are the criteria?

FM Forums | Photo Critique | Join Image Upload

2 end

Bob Jarman
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #1 · FixMeUp

In response to those who expressed an interest in each member having to chance to interpret and visualize an image in their own way, I'm posting a baseline jpg - hopefully you will be able to download the full image which originated as a NEF but I zeroed out all RAW settings.

Our hope is that each person posting their processed version(s) will include a description of the workflow so all can share and learn from the exercise. Please include the platform and software used.

Reduced Image:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Hopefully you can right-click & "Save Link As..." for the following link - this doesn't work PM me with your e-mail and I'll e-mail the image.

ClickMe

Bob

EDIT: tested the download link & worked for me

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 12:13 AM

Scott Stoness
Online
Image Upload: On

p.1 #2 · FixMeUp

Mac g5 dual 1.8 - Flow jpeg to iphoto, iphoto cropped, pse3 for processing, shrunk to web size with pse3

Opened, Cropped to get horizon 1/3 down and to meet an 8x10 size with native looking into the open space.

Cloned out messy people on bottom.

Adjusted level bars on both ends so that they were against the histogram.

Adjusted shadows/highlights to get detail on native.

Move saturation down a bit

Adjusted curves a bit . [curves is action add in on pse3 that I have installed]

Sharpened

Posted

Not sure I have improved much - I need to look back at it in a day or so to see if I liked it.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 05:35 AM

Steven Roberts 1-time assignment winner

Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #3 · FixMeUp

Much better Scott and well explained. I haven't been on the Critique in a while, but I see you are still loyal in your help.

Steve R

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 05:51 AM

paulhodson
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #4 · FixMeUp

Used Lightroom (see below for settings) +5% Shadow/highlight in PS +duplicate layer set to multiply plus mask(gradient) for sky plus a slight levels change and sharpening.

Will have a look again!

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 08:57 AM

paulhodson
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #5 · FixMeUp

Lightroom settings (plus medium contrast tone curve)

Lightroom 1.2, CS2, Windows XP Pro

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 09:43 AM

Bob Jarman
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #6 · FixMeUp

Good job guys and thanks for the helpful commentary!

Paul - how did you get the screenshots?

Scott, I like the way you've cloned out the people. I hesitate to comment on anything else since my work monitor is always too dark.

I'll try to have a run at it tonight after work.

Thanks again,

Bob

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 12:17 PM

paulhodson
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #7 · FixMeUp

Bob Jarman wrote:

Paul - how did you get the screenshots?

Bob

http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

Free! and excellent

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 12:23 PM

Bob Jarman
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #8 · FixMeUp

Thx...

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 12:24 PM

paulhodson
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #9 · FixMeUp

Of course - for something completely different.....

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 01:26 PM

paulhodson
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #10 · FixMeUp

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 01:27 PM

paulhodson
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #11 · FixMeUp

Another version of a normal one - levels alteration (+mask used to avoid blowing highlights), selective saturation changes to sky and trees, S curve and sharpening.

Despite the facilities in Lightroom - I still find Photoshop easier if not starting with Raw unless I want to change the white balance.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 05:05 PM

perspective
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #12 · FixMeUp

All done in Photoshop CS3. I cropped this one dramatically to get a composition that I thought was stronger. My feeling here is that this picture has two focal points. I could either have cropped out one or the other to isolate one but it destroys the picture so two it must remain. Keeping that in mind I decided to crop so that the bridge structure was close to the edge and the Indian close to the thirds line on the left instead of centered as in the original. I thought the water was dull so I cropped out most of it but left some in there to bear the nice reflections I saw up close to shore. I left half a rock on the left and part of the bridge on the right as lead-ins to the picture. If I was going to try to print this I'd probably clone out the power lines but I'm at work now and don't have time. I'm on the fence about the people. I decided to leave them but I could see the argument for cloning them out too. Again, this was kind of a decision made out of time constraints too.

Then I made levels adjustments and a mild contrast s-curve in curves was applied. I punched up hue and saturation in blue and yellow, not a lot, just a bit. I masked off the Indian and did some shadow adjustments to bring out details there. I then did a USM of around 75, .5, 0. I chose USM because when I tried the high-pass filter method the results were garish and it darkened the Indian again. If I had the raw file to work with I'm sure I could have punched up the colors better as they still are a bit muted for my liking.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 09:39 PM

perspective
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #13 · FixMeUp

I couldn't resist. Here's the above image I did but with the power lines edited out.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 10:15 PM

sbeme
Online
Image Upload: On

p.1 #14 · FixMeUp

LR with exposure adjustment, adjusted luminosity and saturation, predominantly of the sky, contrast boost with S curve and clarity adjustment.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 10:27 PM

Bob Jarman
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #15 · FixMeUp

So many ways - different yet similar - to view/process a single image... yet to tackle mine.

Any other adventurous souls out there?

Please submit an unprocessed image of your own for others to 'visualize' if you have a likely candidate. In selecting this one I looked for shortcomings that perspective has nailed - given what I was searching through, there were more than several to choose form

- I conceptually 'see' what could/should be done - my 'doing' is another matter

Bob

Bob

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 16, 2007 at 10:52 PM

Jim Schemel
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #16 · FixMeUp

Bob,
I felt in this picture you had a lot of objects that your eye was being forced to look at = distraction.People,power lines, etc.So i went crazy with the clone tool.Here is my version
-Jim

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 17, 2007 at 12:25 AM

Bob Jarman
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #17 · FixMeUp

Jim,

Yes busy, distracting, and, for me, somewhat frustrating to work on - y'all did a much better job of cloning out the people - I did the wires and then stopped after the two guards. If nothing else I've learned how to clone wires and clean up the artifacts - at about 700% enlargement. Let's say my compositional skills are a work-in-progress.

The B&W was done in CS3 - cropped, cloned out the wires etc. and converted using a BW action from ePaperPress. He, Ken Neimann - ePaperPress' author, also has a Paint with Light Action that I used on the rocks and water. I wanted to bump up the brightness on the sculpture but couldn't find a satisfactory way to do that. Lastly it was sharpened with USM but I forgot to record the settings

Something from outside the box....The second was done after thrashing around in LR - used a plug-in LR - Deep Negative, one of a collection of plugins that I believe I found on the LightRoom Forum. It is obviously a crop of the basic image.

I don't know about others but LR has actually pushed me more to CS3 to learn to properly use masks, layers, etc. - probably at first because there are so many distractions to clone away

The tone curve is interesting as it resembles the standard S curve but rotated 180 degrees about the y-axis.

One final note: if anyone is interested, use Google Earth and fly to Wichita, Kansas and click on the photo icons at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers. Someone posted very nice images of the same area - interesting cloning is not too much of an issue since most were taken at night.

Got a new lens and hope to take it for a spin tomorrow (12-24 f4 Tokina) - so hope to be back soon for critiques. Hope y'all would like to continue doing this for several more iterations...

regards,
Bob

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 17, 2007 at 02:14 AM

sbeme
Online
Image Upload: On

p.1 #18 · FixMeUp

Wow,
Love that rework of the Indian!

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 17, 2007 at 05:49 AM

perspective
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #19 · FixMeUp

Your B&W version seemed really dark to me. I couldn't really see much of any detail in the Indian. He's really the primary focus and unless he's destined to be a silhouette I figured we needed some detail to show through on him. I sharpened this version up a bit and used shadow/highlight on the whole image first and then masked off the Indian and did even more shadow recovery on him alone.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 17, 2007 at 08:20 AM

Bob Jarman
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #20 · FixMeUp

perspective

Thank you - yes, much, much better with a broader tonal range. In part I think my eyes got tired as I looked at it later after posting and did not recall it being that dark either. Probably ought to do what some others have implied through comments - revisit in a day or two for a fresh view.

Earlier in the color version I'd tried selecting the sculpture (magic wand) but had lots of blue artifacts around the fringe so tossed all of that and had a fresh start - frankly my selection skills really need a lot of work. Any suggestions of how to do it differently?

thanks for the rework,

Bob

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 17, 2007 at 12:15 PM

ALAN ROYCE
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #21 · FixMeUp

My first thot was to crop to make the image simpler and to make the artwork the main subject. Saturated the blue to richen the sky, and the yellow to do the same with the rocks. Cloned out the wires on both sides. Selected the ironwork and applied levels to lighten up, and then did a sharpening with unsharp mask. All this in Photoshop CS.

I'm not sure that this is what you're looking for since I cropped out most of the picture.

Great Idea. I look forward to see what others do.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 18, 2007 at 03:56 AM

perspective
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #22 · FixMeUp

I was able to narrow the Indian down almost to the pixel using the magic wand tool with a tolerance of 35 and just kept the shift key held down and clicked on parts of the indian until I had the whole thing selected. If I hit a part that went beyond the borders I just clicked back a step in the history menu to erase the erroneous selection. I then went to "Refine Edge" and zeroed out all the menu items and upped the feathering just enough to smooth the transition every so minutely. I didn't go too far because he's against a sky so a sharp edge is called for here. Everything else I left at zero. No halos.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 18, 2007 at 07:15 AM

Bob Jarman
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.1 #23 · FixMeUp

Alan - I like the way you pulled out the sculpture. BTW, I'm not looking for a 'school solution'

, my thought was let's see how others choose to visualize and improve upon a ho-hum image. I hope others learn as have I from the information you and they are including a description of your workflow.

perspective - thanks for the details. Patience is not one of my strong suits - I bailed when the selection started picking up tones in the rock base. I'll go back and practice your approach, plus, reading some detail on how to properly use the magic wand might help

thanks for sharing.

Bob

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 18, 2007 at 12:41 PM

Wayne Cardwell
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #24 · FixMeUp

My goal was to fix the shot but not change the composition. I selectively used color balance/USM/smart sharpen and some contrast.

WC

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 20, 2007 at 07:41 PM

perspective
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.1 #25 · FixMeUp

Bob Jarman wrote:
Alan - I like the way you pulled out the sculpture. BTW, I'm not looking for a 'school solution'

thanks for sharing.

Bob

Bob, when that happens just grab the lasso tool and hold down the ALT key (if using a PC) and de-select the areas you don't want selected. Then you can switch back to the magic wand. If it keeps going out of bounds you can decrease the tolerance amount.

Edited on Nov 27, 2007 at 01:17 PM

Nov 20, 2007 at 08:59 PM


FM Forums \| Photo Critique \| Join Image Upload 1 2 end