photoshop for flowers

I know, i promised camera raw stuff and believe it on not i am half keeping my promise. The image above was shot by myself tonight with a lensbaby and a macro lens adapter. This version has not been tweeked and is how it looked out of the camera. So what would i do to improve it.
First of all i opened it in camera raw and set my exposure and black settings to get the contrast looking right with no blown out highlights. I moved the recovery slider to 7, the clarity to 15, vibrance to 15, and saturation to 3. I then went under the lens correction tab and set the lens vignetting to an amount of -24 and the midpoint to 18 to apply the vignette i wanted. I then opened the image in photoshop.
I used the healing tool to take out a few blemishes and then smart sharpened about 50 amount with a radius of 1. I did not need to use curves as i had already did all the work in camera raw so i moved to my apply image effect to add some information into the red channel to give some depth to the flower. I wrote about this in detail in an earlier post which you can find on this blog.
The results of all this work are subtle but when compared side by side the tweeked version looks much better.

more camera raw

The photo above really does not mean anything to this post, it was just one i was playing with and thought i would add it for eye candy.
I have been experimenting with the new vibrance and clarity sliders in camera raw and have found these settings work good.
Clarity at 12 - 15
Vibrance at 12 - 15
Saturation at 3
I also played with the spot retouch tool in raw and it worked great.
To use this you click and drag a circle over the dust spot and then drag the other circle that appears to the spot you want the heal to sample from. If you want to resize the circle just put your curser over the edge of the circle and click and drag your mouse. I took a flash spot out of a guys glasses that i did a head shot for. I retouched about 20 images of him in a matter of minutes.

highlight clipping view button thing

I have hit a very busy workload recently and felt bad about not posting something for those of you that have been following my blog. Here is a neat little piece of info that should help some of you with your highlight clipping.
First and foremost i will just assume that you are shooting raw. If not, slap yourself now as you have been very bad. The advantages of raw far outway the disadvantages, which really are limited to file size in my mind. Rant over.
In photoshop cs3's raw plug in (see photo above) there are two little arrows at the top corners of the histogram window. The one on left is the shadow clipping view and the one on the right (see my pink arrow pointing to it) is the highlight clipping view. If you click on this the highlights that are clipped, or too bright, will turn red. This means that these areas are pure white with no detail which may not be the best, especially if they show up in the middle of someones forehead. To bring some detail back to these areas we could lower the exposure slider or even better, move the recovery slider to the right. This is a highlight recovery slider and when you move it you will see the red areas start to dissappear. Too cool.
I will spend some effort in making my next few posts about the camera raw plug in window.

book review

I did not open photoshop today and therefore have no images to show but i thought since i have been making more regular postings to this blog that i would at least put something up tonight. I was at chapters tonight trying to spend a $20 gift card that someone gave me and since there was mostly crap on the shelves i still have the card. I looked through all the photography books (too expensive for what you get), and also all the photoshop books. Cs3 books are starting to trickle out but nothing really good yet.
Here however is my book suggestion list for those of you that need some reading material.
I guarantee that you will learn something from these:
- "camera raw" by bruce fraser (amazing book for learning the raw process, a must have).
- "retouching and restoration" by katrin eiseman (she really knows her stuff and shows it well).
- "the channels book" by scott kelby (channels are very powerfull and very under appreciated).
- "adobe classroom in a book" if you are just learning photoshop.
- "photoshop cs2 studio techniques" by ben willmore (very good overall book)
- "professional photoshop, a guide to color correction" by dan margulis (more than you will ever need to know about color correction)
As you can see, most of these books are on very specific parts of photoshop and i find them much better than the overall photoshop books.
There is also one more that i want to get but i cant find it locally yet which is called "the dam book" by peter krogh which is all about digital assett management (how do you find that photo you took of the kids 4 years ago when you have 100,000 photos in your collection).
Happy reading, and if you have any books that you feel should be on this list then please comment. I have had 584 visitors to this blog so far this year and no comments. You could still be the first, now theres some bragging rights.

hummer

I put up a hummng bird feeder last week and have been looking at it often in hopes to get a photo of the little critter. It is in shade which really give me two options photographically, silliouette or light it. In this shot i chose the silliouette and shot it using a 200mm lens and a 2x converter.
This first shot is the original, shot in raw and opened and saved in photoshop. Nothing else was done to it.
Not sure if i like the photoshopped file better but here is what i did.
I tweeked the raw adjustments a bit more, clicked on the convert to greyscale box first, added more exposure and added lots in the blacks. I also moved the highlight recovery slider close to the middle of the scale to get a bit of the background to show.
I then cropped it and rotated it a bit to straighten the base of the feeder. To rotate it i went to the rotate canvas menu under arbitrary and typed in about 5. I then changed the mode to rgb so i could add some color. I then went under the image menu - adjustments - photo filter and chose the yellow filter. I smart sharpened the image and thats it.
Here is the final image, still not sure what one i like.
Im going to try lighting it this weekend.

more desaturation

I was fooling around with some photos i took on the weekend and thought i would post another desaturation idea.
I wasn't crazy about this shot but a little photoshop time can often make something out of nothing. I'm not saying that happened in this case but i tried.
First i duplicated the background. I used image-adjustments-black and white in cs3 and converted the layer to black and white. This adjustment in cs3 is really cool. Just place your mouse over the image when the control panel comes up and a slider appears. If you just play with the sliders in different areas of the photo you could get lucky.
Then in the layers pallate i created a layer mask and painted in black over my daughter.
This resulted in her being in full color and the background being in full black and white.
I then lowered the opacity on layer 1 to 50 percent which let a bit of color back into the background. I used my burn tool set to midtones and darkened the edges a bit and some of the lighter parts of the ground. I used the dodge tool also set to highlights and set the amount to a very low setting and dodged her face just a bit.
I flattened the image and sharpened it using smart sharpen set to motion blur, as i was hand holding at a very slow shutter speed and it was blurry. I finished by cropping to a pano and i was done.

desaturate, a bit

I finally got to the orchard down the road tonight. I have been trying for over a week but just cant find the time.
I love landscape images but i dont think i am very good at them. People are my thing i guess.
Someday i hope to get better with the scenics.
Anyway lets get to what i did here.
It was a cloudy evening so first i started by adding some contrast. I used a curve and after that used apply image to put some detail from the red channel into the green channel as it was washed out and weak. (if you read one of my older posts you will find the apply image technique). I then darkened the edges of the photo in a vignette effect. I also used the dodge (set to highlights) and the burn (set to shadows) and lightened some of the lighter patches of grass and darkened some of the darker patches. I sharpened it alot as it was soft.
All this got me to the top photo.
Using photoshop cs3 i then went under the image menu and down to black and white. Under the presets drop down menu i chose "high contrast red filter".
That go me to the middle photo.
I then went under the edit menu and down to fade. I put the slider on 50% and that got me to the bottom photo.
I like all three images but thought over all the bottom would be my pick overall.

workflow2

Just a couple cows in a field i saw while driving home from a recent shoot.
I wanted to go over the workflow for this image starting with taking the photo itself.
When i saw the scene i knew right away that it would be a panoramic. I also made the choice not to include any sky in the shot. It was an overcast day but i knew as well that i would be adding a bit of contrast later in photoshop. These decisions were step 1 in this images workflow.
Step 2 was downloading the raw image using nikon view 6 and then viewing it in adobe bridge. I have now been adding keywords and a description in bridge as i will archive them later. I then processed it in camera raw, mainly exposure, shadows, tint, temperature, and vibrance, and saturation.
Step 3 is opening the image in photoshop. I cropped the file first and then added a new adjustment layer, curves.
I adjusted the curve to make it look half decent and then sharpened the file 100% with smart sharpen (lens blur, more accurate). I used a combination of the healing tool and clone stamp to clean up any bright blades of grass and get rid of some cow pattys.
Step 4 was saving the file and i was done.

workflow

I shoot a great deal of photos and thought i would finally post my workflow.
First off i only shoot raw files. You should too, believe me.
I download my cards through nikon view into my pictures and backup the folder on a second hard drive.
I navigate to the folder in adobe bridge and open all the images in the camera raw plug in.
In camera raw i correct the exposure, shadows, brightness, add about plus 8 saturation, and place a 5 star rating on all the images i will use.
I do not have sharpening on in my camera and i do not sharpen in bridge.
I then hit done, which writes and saves my xmp files.
I then go back into bridge and filter my images by 5 star ranking.
I go to edit - select all.
I then go to tools - photoshop - image processor.
In image processor is where i convert these files to jpegs, smart sharpen via a preset action, and imbed my copyright info.
I hit go and leave the room to do something more exciting while photoshop does my work for me.
Depending on the clients needs i would then make a web gallery (tools - photoshop - web gallery) and/or burn a cd of the jpegs to send to them.
Job done.
Notice that i did not open photoshop once.
I would save this for images that need to be retouched for publication.

flight

I just wanted to post something as it has been awhile.
I will be back in action very soon with many posts to come.

fade retouching

I was cleaning up a guys face today and thought i would try a different way of retouching.
Typically i would use the healing tool or the clone stamp set to a lower opacity and build up the retouch.
This time i first used the healing tool with a brush a bit bigger than the wrinkle i was retouching. I healed the whole wrinkle and then, right after you heal one, go to edit - fade, and lower the opacity until it looks faded but natural. Fade will only work on the tool you have applied last.

one photo, two xmp files

This post really is not about the photo of my sons feet.
It is however about having one photo with two xmp sidecar files.
To do this open your photo in the adobe camera raw plug in box and make what you would like to be your first adjustments. Hit done and the first xmp file will be created. Now reopen this same photo in the raw dialogue box again and make the changes you would like. Now before hitting any of the raw boxes buttons go to the settings menu (small triangle beside settings menu at top right side of box) and go to save settings. It will allow you to name this new xmp file (i just put a letter b behind the file name) and save it to the same folder that your original photo is in. Then hit cancel in the raw dialogue (if you hit done your second settings will overwrite your first ones). You can then open your file and when you want to see your second settings just go to the settings menu and "load settings". Select and open the "b" settings and bingo, they will appear.
So, you ask, why would anyone want two versions of the same photo as a raw file.
A practical use may be if you have a beautiful landscape photo and as you correct it to lighten the land, your sky blows out. No problem, just do a correction for the land and a second correction for the sky and then blend them together.

background blur and darken

In this photo i wanted the subject to stand out a bit more than she was from the background. The books on the left of her were nicely out of focus thanks to a shallow depth of field but the books to the right were in focus and sharp.
First i duplicated the background layer twice and turned off the visibility of the top layer. I highlighted the middle layer and went to filter - blur - lens blur.
I used an amount that made it look close to the books on the left. I then turned on the visibility of the top layer and highlighted it. I made a layer mask and painted over the books i wanted more blured with the paintbrush and black as my color. I would suggest using an amount of between 20 - 50% on the paintbrush and building it up until you get it to look right. This allows the middle layer, which is blurred, to show through where i want it to. I then flattened the file and used my burn tool, set to midtones, with a good sized soft brush and painted around the exterior of the image to create a vignette.

Requests anyone ??????

With christmas coming i will be on vacation for almost two weeks.
I had almost 300 visits to this site in the past two months and thought i would take some requests to keep me busy. If you have any photoshop questions or specific troubles with some part of it just let me know and i will post some hopefully helpfully tips. Just send an e-mail to
righteye@rogers.com
merry christmas

adjusting the clock

I took a photo of this clock tonight but it was quite dull in contrast and just did not look all that great. I am not sure that it still looks that good but here is what i did in photoshop.
First i duplicated the background layer (ctrl - j). I then desaturated this new layer and changed its mode (in the layers pallet) to overlay. I lowered the opacity to 60% and lastly used smart sharpen at an amount of 80 and radius 1.
This made the contrast much better and boosted the colors up nicely.

photoshop cs3

If you are checking out this blog then i am sure you already know that cs3 beta is available for download.
go to
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshopcs3/
and you will be able to use it, if you have cs2, for two days. You are supposed to be able to have it for thirty days but something is wrong with the serial number generator.
I dont agree with this two day demo crap as this is only a beta version, missing alot of elements, and it will be us that are first in line to buy the real one when it hits the shelves.
You can see some very good tutorials at
www.russellbrown.com
that will get you into the new features.

logo stripping

This is a christmas card idea for my wife who sells volkswagens.
I shot the tree and made sure i had a good sized bulb close to the center of the frame. The bulb was gold when i shot it and my goal was to keep some of the reflections and make it look natural.
I opened the logo in a seperate window in photoshop and using the move tool dragged it onto my tree image. I used free transform, holding the shift key down to constrain the proportions, to make it fit to the size of the bulb. Also to help with this i lowered the logo layers opacity so i could see the bulb size clearly.
I then changed the logos layer mode to hue (modes are in the top left hand corner of the layers pallete). This made the two layers blend and look natural. It killed the white in the logo however so i duplicated the logo layer and changed the logo copy layers mode to normal. I selected the white in the logo, did a select inverse, and hit delete to get rid of all but the white. I then lowered the opacity of this layer to 56% so it too would blend but still remain white.
Lastly i retouched some of the distracting reflections out of the bulb and placed a vignette on the outside of the image.

selections of people on white

This photo was one of 16 or so that i wanted to strip together to make one large group photo.
I started by selecting the white background.
I used the magic wand tool with a tolerance of about 30 (lower this if the selection goes into your photo) and clicked on the background.
then hold down the shift key to add to your selection.
I get as much as possible selected with the magic wand and lasso and then fine tune any problem areas in quick mask mode (Q).
Once i am happy with the selection i select-modify-expand (2 or 3 pixels).
I then select-feather (1 pixel).
Next select-inverse.
I can then grab the person (selected) with the move tool and drag them into a new document that i have made for the group.
If you just wanted a white background in the original photo you could have just filled the background with white before the select-inverse step.
Hair, obviously, is the hard part. Thank goodness these people wore hats.

selective blur

I had some fun tonight shooting this fan i have had for over a year now. I have wanted to make an image of it but the how never came to me until now.
I made the image and felt it needed just a little something else, gaussian blur.
I duplicated the background layer and added the amount of gaussian blur i liked to the background copy. You can lower the opacity if you go too far. I then just created a layer mask and painted in black over the logo in the middle of the fan. I think i used a very soft edged large brush at an amount of about 50 and built it up till the letters were clear.

links

these are links from the 2006 pdn photo annual from the best web sites section:
www.hanskristianriise.com
www.stevenlippman.com
www.joshrothstein.com
www.ba-reps.com
www.brendakenneally.com/theblock
www.chasejarvis.com
www.stocklandmartel.com/smart_book/2005
www.jefftse.com
www.garryowens.com
www.craigsherodphoto.com
www.marvilacar.com
www.nathanperkel.com
www.benjaminkrain.com
www.andreafazzari.com
www.feinknopf.com
www.allisonvsmith.com
www.matthewstylianou.com
www.glanger.com
www.oculi.com.au
www.dananeibert.com
www.bobbifabian.com
www.seanmurphyphoto.com
www.3am.net
www.jeremycowart.com
www.zizola.com
www.reena-adam.com
www.TogashiStudio.com
www.jamesdayphoto.com
www.mediastorm.org
www.mitchrangerphotography.com
www.noelletheard.com
www.grunertimaging.com
www.jefflipsky.com
www.reneeritchiephoto.com
www.flotowarner.com
www.LifeShots.co.uk