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How can I process this image to get more pop?

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Gadget Man

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I took some individual football shots last week and the sun was just too bright and the conditions where not the best There was no shade anywhere to be found near the field to take these photos, so I put the sun at their backs. I was using a 5D MarkII and just love it so far. I've been playing with these trying to get a little more pop from the image. This image is un-edited. I've added a little more saturation and some contrast and it helps, but I'm hoping the editing and retouching guru's will have some more advice. Thanks



 
Quick and dirty edit. Brought up the midtone curve, set black point on top of helmet, set gray point on bleacher supports in background, light sharpening via wavelet sharpen, and bumped up the saturation by 20%. The jersey needs some denoise work, but I don't have more time right now.



--
Jem
Have sensor, will travel.
 


Frank
 
Wow, Thanks! great job. My guess is you are using a full version of Photoshop? I have Elements 6 right now and was thinking of getting 9 when it comes out if the reviews were good and they added some worthwhile features. The features they added for 7 and 8 didn't impress me. It seemed more consumerish. I upgraded from PSE4 to 6 and there weren't many improvements and it ran slower. I wish there was a version between Elements and CS5. I could afford $300 for this, but not $675. I did buy some Photoshop CS2 books with the intension of buying it, but never did. I think that would do most everything I need. Do yo have recommendations for processing with PSE6?
 
Have a look at Adobe Lightroom 3
 
Wow, that's what I was hoping to end up with after I played with it. It's amazing what post processing can do to an image that was not taken under ideal conditions. I need to study up more on this. Care to share your settings?
 
I tried LR1 when it came out, but will investigate LR3 later tonight as I can get a free 30 trial and then watch a bunch of Youtube tutorials on it. I use PhotoMechanic right now for importing my images and managing them, but LR3 could be another tool for me.
 
I used PSE6. Did essentially this: Levels (tweaked each channel separately); shawdows/highlights; tweaked colors to fix skin tone; color burn blending mode/color dodge blending mode selectively; vignette.



--
Claude
 
Gadget Man said:
I took some individual football shots last week and the sun was just too bright and the conditions where not the best There was no shade anywhere to be found near the field to take these photos, so I put the sun at their backs. I was using a 5D MarkII and just love it so far. I've been playing with these trying to get a little more pop from the image. This image is un-edited. I've added a little more saturation and some contrast and it helps, but I'm hoping the editing and retouching guru's will have some more advice. Thanks
Click to expand...
I say play up to to the fact that the sun was low in the sky due to the time of year, likely carrying a very warm tone and rather intense. Don't be afraid to push the edge of warmth.

I like Topaz and Nik Filters. Warmed up the white balance a bit based on the jersey. I did this in two steps as there is direct warm light already on the background while the front of the boy is rather cool.

After that a little punch was added to the mid tones. Don't apply too much. I then used a little glamor glow to help darken up the blacks a bit more but without blowing them out. It will also help highlight the edges as the sun naturally does.

I hope you enjoy the final edit.



--
-tim

NW Columbus/Dublin, Ohio
Family Photo Site
http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro

RIP Sir Ares of Sedgewick 2000-2010
RIP our Sweet Lady Jasmine II 1997-2008

 

Gadget Man said:
I took some individual football shots last week and the sun was just too bright and the conditions where not the best There was no shade anywhere to be found near the field to take these photos, so I put the sun at their backs. I was using a 5D MarkII and just love it so far. I've been playing with these trying to get a little more pop from the image. This image is un-edited. I've added a little more saturation and some contrast and it helps, but I'm hoping the editing and retouching guru's will have some more advice. Thanks



Click to expand...
--
Only when you can criticize yourself, should you criticize others. Mikes.
 
Before post processing I made money taking team shots. You did good back lighting them to avoid squinty smiles .... use fill flash (with some testing prior) next time and you won't need the excellent "fixes" that have been offered. Oh, back lighting with a dark background really lets the glowing hair rim light really stand out for both dark and light hair.

Mark
--

 
Gadget Man said:
Wow, Thanks! great job. My guess is you are using a full version of Photoshop?
Click to expand...
We use Linux machines, so this was all in the Gimp. It's free and available for about any operating system (www.gimp.org). For 16 & 32 bit edits I use cinepaint and then convert to 8 bit (jpeg) or whatever is needed, but I don't know if it's available for windows or not.

--
Jem
Have sensor, will travel.
 
what technique or filter did you use to create the flare? I've been looking at several options as it seems to be the latest rage among request from my clients.

thanks.

--
-tim

NW Columbus/Dublin, Ohio
Family Photo Site
http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro

RIP Sir Ares of Sedgewick 2000-2010
RIP our Sweet Lady Jasmine II 1997-2008

 
The lens flare was done in Corel Photopaint. It has hundreds, if not thousands of variations in it.
--
Only when you can criticize yourself, should you criticize others. Mikes.
 
Hello Nick,

Wow, I just downloaded LR3 on a trial basis and watched a few YouTube videos and I think that is what I need! Being able to adjust certain colors allows me to pump up the greens to bring in the grass. The batch feature will really be handy to adjust groups of photos taken within the same 30 minute period. I plan on adjusting the 1st image shot and batch the next 10 images. Then I will look at the 11th image and tweak it and then batch the next 10 images. This way as the sun moved and changed the lighting condition, I won't be using the same variables from the first shot until the last. Great forum here guys!
 
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