What else should I do?
Aug 9, 2014 10:46:33 #
I'll open by saying I'm not big on post processing. LR clarity and sharpness is about all I do with may levels or curves in PS. But I'm working on this image. Here's what I have done from RAW:
In LR3
Standard density/clarity/sharpness
Recovery 100% in LR
Green saturation up and luminosity down (don't recall how much)
Blue sat and luminosity up (a lot)
Cloned boy to the left side and then cloned over his original spot.
Exported image as TIFF.
In CS5:
Selected sky and darkened it with levels
Selected green, moved mag/gr slightly to the right in color balance
Selected oranges in the grass and in color balance moved the cyan/red slightly left.
Saved image
Reopened the image and brought lightness up 4 and saturation up 10.
I know no image is ever "done." But I don't know what else to do. I don't like to go off reality, so I'm trying to keep it sort of real.
In LR3
Standard density/clarity/sharpness
Recovery 100% in LR
Green saturation up and luminosity down (don't recall how much)
Blue sat and luminosity up (a lot)
Cloned boy to the left side and then cloned over his original spot.
Exported image as TIFF.
In CS5:
Selected sky and darkened it with levels
Selected green, moved mag/gr slightly to the right in color balance
Selected oranges in the grass and in color balance moved the cyan/red slightly left.
Saved image
Reopened the image and brought lightness up 4 and saturation up 10.
I know no image is ever "done." But I don't know what else to do. I don't like to go off reality, so I'm trying to keep it sort of real.
Aug 9, 2014 11:00:43 #
I think that you've made a big improvement to the image by what you've done to it in post processing and perhaps, because of this result, you may change your attitude about doing it to more of your images on a regular basis. As I see it, the only other way to get more realistic looking images is by the use of HDR and here again that's another form of post processing.
I love the look of the clouds that you managed to bring out in the scene.
I love the look of the clouds that you managed to bring out in the scene.
Aug 9, 2014 11:32:33 #
I agree with what flyguy said and mind you i'm no expert but there are two areas that stand out to me.
One is to the child's left is 2 sticks that looks like you cloned in. At the bottom there is a repeat pattern.It doesn't appear that either of these give anything to the overall image and you might consider removing one or both.
2nd in the clouds just above the pine trees (center of image) there appears to be a light scratching in the dark shadow of the clouds. To me this doesn't look natural and should be an easy fix.
I think your work so far is really good!!
One is to the child's left is 2 sticks that looks like you cloned in. At the bottom there is a repeat pattern.It doesn't appear that either of these give anything to the overall image and you might consider removing one or both.
2nd in the clouds just above the pine trees (center of image) there appears to be a light scratching in the dark shadow of the clouds. To me this doesn't look natural and should be an easy fix.
I think your work so far is really good!!
Aug 9, 2014 12:01:56 #
If this were mine, I would crop out a big portion of grass so that the child, trees, and clouds would become more the focus. Right now, the little one is lost in a sea of grass.
Are you open to see what other folks might do with this, as long as they maintain a photorealistic look and feel?
Are you open to see what other folks might do with this, as long as they maintain a photorealistic look and feel?
Aug 9, 2014 12:07:40 #
I'm not familiar with CS5, but I'd say that in LR terms, the green is a bit too far towards the blue end. That may be a tint problem, or it may be due to the fact that you darkened green (perhaps a bit too much? ).
I would also say that the whole pic could be lightened a bit. In LR I'd do that by lightening the shadows a bit, which saves you from having to worry about (or readjust) the sky. And I still think that the boy's face would benefit from being brightened.
The funny shape in the clouds that JohnnyT mentioned does look a bit odd. Since the whole sky is just a little bit on the grainy side, one possibility is to select the sky and soften it using negative clarity. That may be enough to fix the funny shape. If it wasn't, you could select the shape plus a bit of feathering and soften it somehow.
I get the impression that you've made a determined effort to bring out the green as much as possible. What might look at least as good as that (and probably a lot easier) is to bring out the golden colour in the grass.
I would also say that the whole pic could be lightened a bit. In LR I'd do that by lightening the shadows a bit, which saves you from having to worry about (or readjust) the sky. And I still think that the boy's face would benefit from being brightened.
The funny shape in the clouds that JohnnyT mentioned does look a bit odd. Since the whole sky is just a little bit on the grainy side, one possibility is to select the sky and soften it using negative clarity. That may be enough to fix the funny shape. If it wasn't, you could select the shape plus a bit of feathering and soften it somehow.
I get the impression that you've made a determined effort to bring out the green as much as possible. What might look at least as good as that (and probably a lot easier) is to bring out the golden colour in the grass.
Aug 9, 2014 19:56:31 #
Bob Yankle wrote:
If this were mine, I would crop out a big portion of grass so that the child, trees, and clouds would become more the focus. Right now, the little one is lost in a sea of grass.
Are you open to see what other folks might do with this, as long as they maintain a photorealistic look and feel?
Are you open to see what other folks might do with this, as long as they maintain a photorealistic look and feel?
Sure, Bob. Have at it.
Aug 9, 2014 19:59:44 #
R.G. wrote:
I'm not familiar with CS5, but I'd say that in LR ... (show quote)
I'm not sure what the "funny shape" is in the clouds, as I did no cloning there. All I did to the sky was to darken the blues. So what is there probably was there. But I'll go back and look at the original large file to try to see what you're seeing.
As to the yellows, when I first worked on this it was WAY to yellow and I toned it down a lot. After redoing it this way it didn't seem to yellow, but the grasses that weren't green seemed a sort of horrid dark orange. So I did work on them a bit. Do you think I now need to bring the yellow back up? Won't that affect the sky also?
Aug 9, 2014 21:41:08 #
AzPicLady wrote:
Sure, Bob. Have at it.
Cropped out some of the grass, moved the boy as you did but to a slightly different place, cut down on the saturation of the tree, cloned out the dark wedge in the cloud, and upped the clarity levels a bit.
Aug 10, 2014 02:36:59 #
I think this is the shape that JohnnyT was referring to. As you can see, it's a bit pixellated and in a place where it's going to stand out.
I wasn't sure if you were trying to lose yellow or enhance green, and I opted for the latter in my own edit rather than go for an out-and-out golden look. But as it is, I didn't have to subdue yellow much. My settings for yellow (in LR) were-
Lum. +2, Sat. -11, Hue +31.
I found that the sky needed darkening more than anything else, and amongst other things (lowering highlights etc) I darkened and re-tinted blue (slightly towards the purple end). I still ended up with a slightly grainy sky, so I selected it and used negative clarity and a bit of denoise to smoothen things out.
I also used a slightly panoramic crop as I suggested previously. And lightened the boy's face..... and gave him some more flowers to pick.
This was another very nice image to work on.
-
I wasn't sure if you were trying to lose yellow or enhance green, and I opted for the latter in my own edit rather than go for an out-and-out golden look. But as it is, I didn't have to subdue yellow much. My settings for yellow (in LR) were-
Lum. +2, Sat. -11, Hue +31.
I found that the sky needed darkening more than anything else, and amongst other things (lowering highlights etc) I darkened and re-tinted blue (slightly towards the purple end). I still ended up with a slightly grainy sky, so I selected it and used negative clarity and a bit of denoise to smoothen things out.
I also used a slightly panoramic crop as I suggested previously. And lightened the boy's face..... and gave him some more flowers to pick.
This was another very nice image to work on.
-
Aug 10, 2014 07:04:33 #
I like this a lot. The PP you've done so far has made a BIG improvement in my opinion.
For what it's worth, I would crop out that bush on the left, then make tiny adjustments to overall exposure and contrast. You may be able to put a little more "life" into it keeping in mind that it's pretty darn good as is.
After you've worked on an image for a while it does get hard to see if you are making things better or worse or even if you have something worth working on. This one is definitely worth the work you've put into it.
What I've done on a few occasions is to export what I've got, fiddle a bit more then export that. Walk away from the PC for a while then go back and look at the images again side by side.
For what it's worth, I would crop out that bush on the left, then make tiny adjustments to overall exposure and contrast. You may be able to put a little more "life" into it keeping in mind that it's pretty darn good as is.
After you've worked on an image for a while it does get hard to see if you are making things better or worse or even if you have something worth working on. This one is definitely worth the work you've put into it.
What I've done on a few occasions is to export what I've got, fiddle a bit more then export that. Walk away from the PC for a while then go back and look at the images again side by side.
Aug 10, 2014 07:50:47 #
AzPicLady wrote:
I'll open by saying I'm not big on post processing... (show quote)
Rather than moving the boy, I decided to leave him where he was and do a tighter crop on that area. Slight adjustment of levels in the sky and level adjustment on the foreground. Tried to bring out the red in the flower to the boys upper left without changing the main color. Borders by Picasa. We will see what it looks like when it is uploaded
Aug 10, 2014 09:15:23 #
K7DJJ
Loc: Spring Hill, FL
I did last week and only remember reversing the boy, opening the shadows, and using a graduated filter on the sky.
Aug 10, 2014 10:08:07 #
K7DJJ wrote:
I did last week and only remember reversing the boy, opening the shadows, and using a graduated filter on the sky.
Would you mind telling me how you reversed the kid?
Aug 10, 2014 10:08:40 #
Thanks, everyone. I'll work on it some more. There's something about the mood of this image that touches me. Guess that's why I'm working on it so hard.
Aug 10, 2014 11:47:05 #
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