OK guys, newbie needing help with photo retouching (contrast)

Hi all!

I need some more help. I recently acquired both Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop and I'll be darned if I know how to use them. The following pictures were both taken a few seconds apart, one has been retouched to lighten the lawn area but how can I retouch the bottom half of the picture without getting a white sky. I tried to use the "magic wand" in PSP but it isolates clouds and not the blue sky, I couldn't find what to do in PS. My softwares are in French and there isn't as much help guidelines as there could be in English.

Could you suggest a site where I could find a step-by-step approach on how to isolate the bottom and top parts of my pictures to get the desired effect.

Thanks to all.

A. Bettik

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332926

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332923

ooops!!!

links are:

http://www.pbase.com/klaatu52/inbox

A. Bettik said:

Hi all!

I need some more help. I recently acquired both Paint Shop Pro and
Photoshop and I'll be darned if I know how to use them. The
following pictures were both taken a few seconds apart, one has
been retouched to lighten the lawn area but how can I retouch the
bottom half of the picture without getting a white sky. I tried to
use the "magic wand" in PSP but it isolates clouds and not the blue
sky, I couldn't find what to do in PS. My softwares are in French
and there isn't as much help guidelines as there could be in
English.

Could you suggest a site where I could find a step-by-step
approach on how to isolate the bottom and top parts of my pictures
to get the desired effect.

Thanks to all.

A. Bettik

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332926

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332923

Click to expand...

When using Photoshop, try adjusting the tolerance of the magic wand before selecting the sky part of the image. I just tried it with a tolerance value of 60 and it allowed me to capture pretty much all of the sky area. Hit Ctrl-SHIFT-I to invert the selection so you'll end up with everything except the sky selected. Then do your magic on the tree and grass area.

An alternate approach is to adjust the levels of the entire image to get a more balanced result. Hit Ctrl-L and take a look at the histogram. Move the rightmost slider to the left until it touches the bottom of the right peak. Then move the center slider to the left until you're happy with the results. Make sure you have the "preview" checkbox selected to get life feedback on your adjustments.

Roy.

A. Bettik said:

links are:

http://www.pbase.com/klaatu52/inbox

A. Bettik said:

Hi all!

I need some more help. I recently acquired both Paint Shop Pro and
Photoshop and I'll be darned if I know how to use them. The
following pictures were both taken a few seconds apart, one has
been retouched to lighten the lawn area but how can I retouch the
bottom half of the picture without getting a white sky. I tried to
use the "magic wand" in PSP but it isolates clouds and not the blue
sky, I couldn't find what to do in PS. My softwares are in French
and there isn't as much help guidelines as there could be in
English.

Could you suggest a site where I could find a step-by-step
approach on how to isolate the bottom and top parts of my pictures
to get the desired effect.

Thanks to all.

A. Bettik

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332926

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332923

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I'm no expert in either Photoshop or PSP, but there are several methods to do what you want to do in both. If you simply want to treat one half of the picture differently from the other-- I might just add an adjustment layer (layers---adjustment layer---levels/ contrast or whatever) and adjust them as I like for the portion of the photo I want to alter, then erase the rest of the adjustment layer. (Make sure you are erasing on the adjustment layer not the background layer.) I hope this helps.

Melanie

A. Bettik said:

Hi all!

I need some more help. I recently acquired both Paint Shop Pro and
Photoshop and I'll be darned if I know how to use them. The
following pictures were both taken a few seconds apart, one has
been retouched to lighten the lawn area but how can I retouch the
bottom half of the picture without getting a white sky. I tried to
use the "magic wand" in PSP but it isolates clouds and not the blue
sky, I couldn't find what to do in PS. My softwares are in French
and there isn't as much help guidelines as there could be in
English.

Could you suggest a site where I could find a step-by-step
approach on how to isolate the bottom and top parts of my pictures
to get the desired effect.

Thanks to all.

A. Bettik

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332926

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332923

Click to expand...

Roy,

I tried your suggestion and it partly worked. The tolerance value did the trick but now I have this white line at the top of the trees (see picture).

http://www.pbase.com/klaatu52/image/17336667

I realize this might be the most I can do but it is better than it was before, thanks!

Klaatu

Roy van der Woning said:

An alternate approach is to adjust the levels of the entire image
to get a more balanced result. Hit Ctrl-L and take a look at the
histogram. Move the rightmost slider to the left until it touches
the bottom of the right peak. Then move the center slider to the
left until you're happy with the results. Make sure you have the
"preview" checkbox selected to get life feedback on your
adjustments.

Roy.

A. Bettik said:

links are:

http://www.pbase.com/klaatu52/inbox

A. Bettik said:

Hi all!

I need some more help. I recently acquired both Paint Shop Pro and
Photoshop and I'll be darned if I know how to use them. The
following pictures were both taken a few seconds apart, one has
been retouched to lighten the lawn area but how can I retouch the
bottom half of the picture without getting a white sky. I tried to
use the "magic wand" in PSP but it isolates clouds and not the blue
sky, I couldn't find what to do in PS. My softwares are in French
and there isn't as much help guidelines as there could be in
English.

Could you suggest a site where I could find a step-by-step
approach on how to isolate the bottom and top parts of my pictures
to get the desired effect.

Thanks to all.

A. Bettik

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332926

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332923

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hello mlynn,

I will try doing what you told me but I can't figure out what the "layers" are in PSP. It seems it has to do with "calques de réglages" but I don't know what to do when it asks me what kind of "calques" I want. Thanks anyway, I will get back to you when I found how to do them.

Andre

mlynn said:

Melanie

A. Bettik said:

Hi all!

I need some more help. I recently acquired both Paint Shop Pro and
Photoshop and I'll be darned if I know how to use them. The
following pictures were both taken a few seconds apart, one has
been retouched to lighten the lawn area but how can I retouch the
bottom half of the picture without getting a white sky. I tried to
use the "magic wand" in PSP but it isolates clouds and not the blue
sky, I couldn't find what to do in PS. My softwares are in French
and there isn't as much help guidelines as there could be in
English.

Could you suggest a site where I could find a step-by-step
approach on how to isolate the bottom and top parts of my pictures
to get the desired effect.

Thanks to all.

A. Bettik

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332926

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332923

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

The easiest way to fix this image is with a curve adjustment layer using photoshop 7(or6).



Best Regards,
Don

A. Bettik said:

Hi all!

I need some more help. I recently acquired both Paint Shop Pro and
Photoshop and I'll be darned if I know how to use them. The
following pictures were both taken a few seconds apart, one has
been retouched to lighten the lawn area but how can I retouch the
bottom half of the picture without getting a white sky. I tried to
use the "magic wand" in PSP but it isolates clouds and not the blue
sky, I couldn't find what to do in PS. My softwares are in French
and there isn't as much help guidelines as there could be in
English.

Could you suggest a site where I could find a step-by-step
approach on how to isolate the bottom and top parts of my pictures
to get the desired effect.

Thanks to all.

A. Bettik

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332926

http://www.pbase.com/image/17332923

Click to expand...