I never even thought of going and getting a sky from somewhere else! I suppose I could even borrow some sky from the same evening same place but when the colors really started coming out . . . hmmmm. . .
This shot was lucky. I was actually shooting 2 birds silhouetted on top of the rock, and just as I was about to click the wave hit and all of a sudden 2 birds flew up from the front and I had 4 birds and some water spray! I clicked really fast to take advantage of my good luck. ;0your shot
I knew you'd get some real nice edits. The shot itself is really,
really good. Yeah, the Sun blows out part of the sky. So what?
It looked great to begin with. After these folks got through with
it, it looked even better. This shot really has to be viewed at
the original size to really appreciate all the nuances. If you've
got some that are even better than this.....please don't post
them....LOL J/K
If I get a chance (uploading is painful for me) I'll post another ISO 800 shot that is pretty much noise free. Compared to that one I thought this one was noisy. The other is a closeup of a hand and a roasted marshmallow in combined firelight and sunset light vs. this lowlight wide tonal range shot. I guess the difference in light accounts for the difference in noise. This is the only shot from the trip that I would consider 'noisy' and it just happened to be one I really like the captured moment on! I didn't take very many ISO 800 shots though. Just when I was handheld and losing the light.
Thank you for your kind words (and help) Steve! CindyI really had a ball foolin with itI'm having even more fun,
looking at it, over and over...lol
A big thank you for sharing it,
Steve
Yeah, I know. I actually was at -1 ev. I've tried to get in the habit of bracketing too, of course layering a shot with moving objects won't work . . .
It was a thin layer of clouds with the sun directly behind it
So you just deleted the rock? Did you include the birds or water?
OK, I've never airbrushed anything before, so this will be a good exercise.
I thought that too until I reviewed my pics and started remembering that the really colorful sunset didn't happen until a little later. At this time it all had sort of a golden cast to it.
I think we can do everything you've mentioned in elements.
I've never tried one but hear they are really cool.
Thanks! awesome work Troy! Cindy
--
Wow MAC that looks like a postcard. Really eye catching! I wouldn't have thought of doing something like that but you really pulled it off nicely. I'll email you back on the details. Thanks, CindyMAC
lol. OK cUrVe, I want details man - what do you remember exactly . . . start at the beginning and don't leave anything out! lol. It looks great. I'll get with you later and try to pry those techniques out. Cindy
Thanks Steve! I love moving water with this 10d. The swim meet photos I've been taken continue to blow me away with the texture of the water coming off the swimmers.Cindy,
I'm sure this isn't what you're looking for, but I did have fun
with it
capture. I really like those frozen globules of water.
Yes it does pop much better than the original. I like the way the bird on the right now stands out in front of the water better too!
Hi Mel, that was my firt thought too. I tried using levels and also adjusting back lighting. Both methods improved the sky for sure. But unfortunately I lost the lightness and detail in the water too. I couldn't seem to select it differently than the sky and just got frustrated. Thanks, Cindy
I've played with layers a little but never tried setting the blending to color or doing a gradient map. I just gave it a quick shot and that works pretty slick! Thanks Shay!
I loved this in the lcd but was dissappointed once I got it home.
Here is an unedited version.
It just lacks pop and being at ISO 800 has some noise. I want the
colors more vibrant but I would love to keep the detail in the
water spray. If the seagulls and rock are silhouetted that's ok.
I've messed with it but can't seem to make it work. Can anybody
teach me how to improve/salvage this image? I use PS elements. I
also have neat image but have never been very good with it. Thanks
in advance! Cindy
full res original image can be found here:
http://www.pbase.com/image/19903620/original
--
CindyD or SarahD
If one of us is laughing, and the other one isn't, one of us must
be wrong...
I used the lasso and dragged it along the edge of the water and rocks (but not the birds, I liked how the light shines through their wings) and then around the edges of the picture. Under "selection" you can feather your selection. I did mine by approx 50 pixels. This creates a gradual effect rather than a hard effect.
Neutral Density. It's just like putting a graduated ND filter on your camera. Create a second layer. Using the gradiant tool (make sure you select fades to transparancy) fade from black (on the top) to nothing near the red in the center. I clicked about halfway up in the yellow and dragged straight down to about halfway through the red. You can adjust the opacity of the layer to create the desired amount of darkening. For the black layer, I used about 5-7%. I did the same thing again, but this time with a really bright and heavy yellow (the strongest yellow I could find in the picture). The only variation is that I used about 15-20% opacity on this layer.
The first pic I made I liked really well...then I looked at the water. It took another couple of attempts to get it right. In the end, I'm happy with it. Yes, I struggle with the too much vs. too little color...I find this is the most difficult thing to do (you add some and it looks good, but when you take it back away the picture just looks sour), especially with other peoples photos (read: I wasn't there...how do I know what it looked like?). The most challenging thing about the picture, and the one part that I'm not 100% satisfied with yet, is the sky. It's a very difficult sky to work with. I like to stay as true to reality as possible when doing photoshop work. Given that it wasn't my photo, I took the saturation a little further than I normally do, but I've also taken sunsets many times only to see that they looked much more vivid in person...so I put a bit more in there just in case
--I loved this in the lcd but was dissappointed once I got it home.
Here is an unedited version.
It just lacks pop and being at ISO 800 has some noise. I want the
colors more vibrant but I would love to keep the detail in the
water spray. If the seagulls and rock are silhouetted that's ok.
I've messed with it but can't seem to make it work. Can anybody
teach me how to improve/salvage this image? I use PS elements. I
also have neat image but have never been very good with it. Thanks
in advance! Cindy
full res original image can be found here:
http://www.pbase.com/image/19903620/original
--
CindyD or SarahD
If one of us is laughing, and the other one isn't, one of us must
be wrong...
--I loved this in the lcd but was dissappointed once I got it home.
Here is an unedited version.
It just lacks pop and being at ISO 800 has some noise. I want the
colors more vibrant but I would love to keep the detail in the
water spray. If the seagulls and rock are silhouetted that's ok.
I've messed with it but can't seem to make it work. Can anybody
teach me how to improve/salvage this image? I use PS elements. I
also have neat image but have never been very good with it. Thanks
in advance! Cindy
full res original image can be found here:
http://www.pbase.com/image/19903620/original
--
CindyD or SarahD
If one of us is laughing, and the other one isn't, one of us must
be wrong...
That explains part of the problem. My 10D blows out also and I am not very happy about it. I keep my camera on -.5 ev all of the time. Were you shooting in average meter mode.
Thats a tough shot. Into the sun, hidden behind clouds. I have a similar photo taken with a S2 I just cant give up on. I was on average meter and -.5 ev. I should have spot metered the sky and bracketed. It caused almost exactly the same sky problem.
Here is the top layer I started with.
I too thought it would be a challenge. I have been getting into photo manips and digital art so I have been working with a lot of layers and brushes etc. Here is one of my manips I did for an online contest. Mind you it is a bit on the edge.
You might want to handle it with all yellows and oranges. The nice thing about this technique, is you could have several cloud layers done differently and turn them off and on to compare.
I forgot I have elements and I think it has all the tools you need.
I bought the $99 Wacom and it great. The pressure pen is a must for this type of work.
Thanks! awesome work Troy! Cindy
--
CindyD or SarahD
If one of us is laughing, and the other one isn't, one of us must
be wrong...
I don't think I can do this in PSE. It has a gradient map that changes your whole image (or layer) at once, but I have to choose from a menu - I can't select strengths of individual tones.
I like the color banding you ended up with! If you are new to PS you are off to a good start I would say. Read through the rest of this thread and you will be impressed at the different approaches and complexities. I know I'm learning a lot here. Thanks, Cindy
Not bad Jim. You should browse through and see the different approaches. I know you use paint shop pro so it is a little different, but what was your approach here? Thanks, Cindy
Thanks Brad - what was the opacity of the new layer? I would have been afraid the blurring would effect the birds as well, but it looks fine. Thanks, Cindy
PSE does layers but I'm not sure about the background/foreground color in the layers. I just took a look and it doesn't jump out at me anyway how to do that.
