How can I safe this picture?, posted in the Nikon D300 forum

Hi,

I opened a thread with this same subject in the Nikon D300 forum. It concerns PP in NX2. One of the posters suggested I better do it here, but I don't think it's right to open a second thread with the same info in a different forum once I already did over there. So if anyone in this forum feels like helping, please visit http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1039&thread=29361246 . Any CC will be highly appreciated. And I'm also providing a link to the original NEF.

Thanks a lot!

Daniel

It may be best to post the retouches in this forum

It is a lovely picture as is... not sure what you are looking for.

I thought it may help in making the shadow transations less sharp and smoothing the skin somewhat... but not sure if that is what your looking for,

Butch

the picture is reasonably good to me. center-weighted metering would have been better (noise wise) since she was in the shadow, IMO. it is a nice picture as it is, just a little pp & noise reduction would already do good to it. unless you have something else in mind.

a quick try on your posted jpg.
original



edit

I like this version very much, Butch. Do you mind sharing your PP details (and software used)?

Thanks a lot!

Daniel

Daviskw said:

It may be best to post the retouches in this forum

It is a lovely picture as is... not sure what you are looking for.

I thought it may help in making the shadow transations less sharp and
smoothing the skin somewhat... but not sure if that is what your
looking for,

Butch

Click to expand...

Yes, Nathan. The use of matrix metering was an error. I used it for some other pictures before this one, and then forgot to change to center or spot (aimed at the eye) as I normally would have done for this type of portraits. Do you think that's the offender? I mean... teh reason why the face is undersxposed and the background (the wall) is almost in the highlights extreme?

Would you mindsharing your PP detalis?

Thanks a lot!

Daniel

nathan_thads said:

the picture is reasonably good to me. center-weighted metering would
have been better (noise wise) since she was in the shadow, IMO. it is
a nice picture as it is, just a little pp & noise reduction would
already do good to it. unless you have something else in mind.

a quick try on your posted jpg.
original



edit

Click to expand...

By the way... any unmercyful critics on this version will be much appreciated. A poster in the other forum asked me if I was trying to make the face sharper, which is entirely another story. I said it was not sharpness, but contrast I was looking for. That maybe my eyes are looking for some 'punch' that doesn't belong in this picture. I gues the face in this version needs to be desaturated too, right?

Hi there

I use Photoshop CS3

I used Cspringer’s skin repair action in Photoshop. I like this action because it uses a technique that blends the underling tones without necessarily blurring detail. This blended the shadow edges making them softer. It also allows removing small blemishes and adding back texture if needed.

I did use PWL in the eyes but just a small amount.

You can always overlay the original and back off the effect as desired.

Scroll down to Cspringer's skin repair action... http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

Butch

This is nothing but NX2 adjustments.

Basic workflow is:
Reduced Noise
Set control points to selectively modify some contrast and lightness.

• Face brighter with less contrast.
• Eyes brighter with more contrast

Set LCH curve lightness channel to give more overall contrast

Set LCH curve to darken the entire scene then used a large soft brush to mask out the area where the girl is. The overall effect of this layer is basically a burn around the edges.
Used unsharp mask to sharpen eyes just a bit (used brush to brush in the effect)

Used High Pass filter on overlay to sharpen the eyes a bit more (brushed in the effect)

The settings file is here: http://66.116.139.98/images/MiscPhotoshop/dpreview/_DSC1601.set

I did use a resize adjustment then a color space to sRGB adjustment before creating this jpg.



--
Ed C.

Thank you, Butch. I'll check the Cspringer action.

Daniel

Daviskw said:

Hi there

I use Photoshop CS3

I used Cspringer’s skin repair action in Photoshop. I like this
action because it uses a technique that blends the underling tones
without necessarily blurring detail. This blended the shadow edges
making them softer. It also allows removing small blemishes and
adding back texture if needed.

I did use PWL in the eyes but just a small amount.

You can always overlay the original and back off the effect as desired.

Scroll down to Cspringer's skin repair
action... http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

Butch

Click to expand...

Thank you, Ed. The workflow you describe is still a bit complicated for me, as I am new to NX2. But I'll keep the recipe for the future, when NX2 becomes more familiar.

Why did you start with noise reduction? Why should there be any noise with the camera values of this picture?

And what is the settings file? Is it something I can load into NX2 to see all teh steps or something?

Daniel

Ed_C said:

This is nothing but NX2 adjustments.

Basic workflow is:
Reduced Noise
Set control points to selectively modify some contrast and lightness.

• Face brighter with less contrast.
• Eyes brighter with more contrast

Set LCH curve lightness channel to give more overall contrast
Set LCH curve to darken the entire scene then used a large soft brush
to mask out the area where the girl is. The overall effect of this
layer is basically a burn around the edges.
Used unsharp mask to sharpen eyes just a bit (used brush to brush in
the effect)
Used High Pass filter on overlay to sharpen the eyes a bit more
(brushed in the effect)

The settings file is here:
http://66.116.139.98/images/MiscPhotoshop/dpreview/_DSC1601.set

I did use a resize adjustment then a color space to sRGB adjustment
before creating this jpg.



--
Ed C.

Click to expand...

I knew I was going to introduce noise when I lightened the face so I applied noise reduction just to that area then lightened it.

The settings file is something that you can put on your system. When you open the .NEF you can load settings from the file and it will give you all the steps right there so you can see exactly what I did and play with the settings to get it where you want.

One of the things I love about NX2 is that you can do all these things in a completely non-destructive way. Control points are just fantastic. Once you get the feel for how they interact with each other the power and control is unreal. NX was OK but NX2 I have really cut down on my Photoshop time. This is particularly true since I got the NX version of Nik Color Efex Pro. I kept this edit to pure NX2 but you can really get interesting results very quickly when you combine both.

--
Ed C.

Thank you, Ed.

Two questions:

1. Why do you introduce noise when you lighten the face?

2. How do you load the settings from the file? I open the NEF picture and then?

Thanks again!

Daniel

Ed_C said:

I knew I was going to introduce noise when I lightened the face so I
applied noise reduction just to that area then lightened it.

The settings file is something that you can put on your system. When
you open the .NEF you can load settings from the file and it will
give you all the steps right there so you can see exactly what I did
and play with the settings to get it where you want.

One of the things I love about NX2 is that you can do all these
things in a completely non-destructive way. Control points are just
fantastic. Once you get the feel for how they interact with each
other the power and control is unreal. NX was OK but NX2 I have
really cut down on my Photoshop time. This is particularly true
since I got the NX version of Nik Color Efex Pro. I kept this edit
to pure NX2 but you can really get interesting results very quickly
when you combine both.

--
Ed C.

Click to expand...

Ed,

I managed to load the settings file. Which leads to another question. Why are there two control points (2 and 4) with all settings = 0? Do they serve any purpose?

Thanks,

Daniel

harlot said:

Two questions:

1. Why do you introduce noise when you lighten the face?

2. How do you load the settings from the file? I open the NEF picture
and then?

Thanks again!

Daniel

Ed_C said:

I knew I was going to introduce noise when I lightened the face so I
applied noise reduction just to that area then lightened it.

The settings file is something that you can put on your system. When
you open the .NEF you can load settings from the file and it will
give you all the steps right there so you can see exactly what I did
and play with the settings to get it where you want.

One of the things I love about NX2 is that you can do all these
things in a completely non-destructive way. Control points are just
fantastic. Once you get the feel for how they interact with each
other the power and control is unreal. NX was OK but NX2 I have
really cut down on my Photoshop time. This is particularly true
since I got the NX version of Nik Color Efex Pro. I kept this edit
to pure NX2 but you can really get interesting results very quickly
when you combine both.

--
Ed C.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I worked with the small size, but I'm sure you'll get better results with the raw file.

Nathan,

I'm very curious about your PP details, if you don't mind sharing. I would really appreciate it. I like this version very much.

Thanks!

Daniel

nathan_thads said:

the picture is reasonably good to me. center-weighted metering would
have been better (noise wise) since she was in the shadow, IMO. it is
a nice picture as it is, just a little pp & noise reduction would
already do good to it. unless you have something else in mind.

Click to expand...

nathan_thads said:

edit

Click to expand...

One of the interesting things about control points is how they interact with each other. They aren't inherently round like a lot ofpeople believe. Their selection criterion adapts to what they are put on as well as to other control points around them. Often a control point will select areas kind of similar to what they are sitting on but you can put a 0,0,0 control point on whatever you DON'T want selected and it will restrict the reach of the original.

I know that explanation is very long winded and difficult to understand. Probably the best way to understand it is to turn on the ability to view the selection on 1 point and then delete one of the 0,0,0 points.

Regarding noise ... when you lighten a photo it automatically starts introducing digital noise. Sometimes you don't notice it. I knew I was going to lighten the face so I applied some noise reduction there before I lightened it.

--
Ed C.

Cute photo. I don't have NX2. I did my version in CS3:



Original (cropped):



--
Chandra

harlot said:

I'm very curious about your PP details, if you don't mind sharing. I
would really appreciate it. I like this version very much.

Thanks!

Daniel

nathan_thads said:

edit

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

hi harlot,

i am glad you're liking this version. thank you! and sorry for the delay coz i'm in a different time zone.

i just worked on your posted jpg image on this one. i used PS-CS3. reading back the feedbacks so far i am getting the idea that NX is very able to correct or at least bring the picture to what's in your mind. so, i would say this is very NX correctable, u-point of course to alter the balance of light according to your liking. so across the board kind of correction does not work on this particular image. user intervention is necessary to put emphasis to where you wanted it.

my workflow may possibly not help you with the processing coz it is in the 'retouch' realm. Ed_c's recommendation would probably be the best bet. unless u prefer retouching to process this image. anyhow, the retouching i did on this was very basic.

• first, i ran noiseware(i'm trialing it, first try on this one!) but very subtle 35% to ease up the noise in the midtone areas.
• hue/saturation layer, lightness slider to darken the image then mask the subject & other areas to my liking. using a tablet gives added flexibility working with masks.

-hue/saturation layer to up the saturation of the whole picture. very lightly.

-tightly lasso'd the eye, nose & mouth> very light smart sharpen viewing it at 100%.

that's pretty much it. i hope that helps when you decide to retouch. i like the picture & it has lots of possibilities. i'm not worried about the noise -very minimal & correctable, it's all a matter of how to treat it to bring it to your vision.

thank you & for posting!

ACR, layers etc...
The full size image http://rapidshare.com/files/146273509/1harlot_dsc1601.jpg

A wholehearted thank to all of you: Butch, Nathan, Ed, freelancer54, Chandra and Pictus for all your feedback, nice retouching and advice. I really appreciate it. And I have learned a lot from you.

Thanks!

Daniel