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#1
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Just in case
On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said:
Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. -- Regards, Savageduck |
#2
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Just in case
On 2014-10-15 02:15:13 +0000, Savageduck said:
On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Oops! an "s"/"d" typo, "removed" rather than "removes". Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. -- Regards, Savageduck |
#3
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Just in case
On 2014-10-15 03:51:21 +0000, Tony Cooper said:
On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 19:15:13 -0700, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. I would answer your question...if I could. There were 22 layers involved. I started out just playing around practicing with some of the tools. Here's the original with just the basic adjustments I'd make to any photograph but uncropped. http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...cd8XmbV-XL.jpg I decided to remove that traffic pylon in the center, and that went well so I then removed that traffic pylon on the right. Both removals meant filling in the spaces, so I did that. The milk can on the right is the milk can on the left with some changes in Hue/Saturation to make it a different color. Then I had to piece in some of the silver can above the new milk can. OK! I did much the same with the traffic cones using a combination of content aware fill & clone stamp. I didn't touch the milk can on the left. Next was removing that green sign on the post, but that cut a section out of the tire on the wall, so that had to be fixed. I did that by copying the tire, flipping it horizontally, and fitting it in. I worked on the vertical post using the clone stamp in "Vanishing Point". I did a similar tire flip trick to deal with that issue. The Sinclair sign was brightened up by making it a selection and just adjusting brightness to just the selection using Curves. That got included in some of my global adjustments. With all that done, the back wall was too dark and I couldn't really bring that out globally without blowing out the stuff in front of it, so I used Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2 plug-in set to 07 - Bright. That brought the purple out and lightened up the whole thing. I skipped NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and went to NIK Color Efex Pro 4 and stacked "Detail Extractor" and "Tonal Contrast". Then I made a tweak with Viveza and finished by returning to NIK Color Efex Pro 4 and used "Pro Contrast", "Dynamic Contrast" pre-set. That gave me this rendition: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/FileChute/TC-Y-01.jpg Then I added a little something from NIK Analog Efex Pro 2 to come up with a second rendition: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/FileChute/TC-Y-02.jpg If I felt like one more run at it, I'd tone down the green of the grass. The actual grass is patchy over sand so I had to fill it in with some cloning. The one thing that I'd like but won't do is to make that No Parking sign legible. It's painted over with white paint or something. I could find a similar sign on the web, but I will only add things in an image that are from one of my own photos. That could be done at some time. Just for giggles I dug up something from my archives and made it fit bt conversion to smart objet, and then used "Perspective Warp" to make it fit. I made that change before I got rid of the green sign. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/FileChute/TC-Y-002.jpg This is one of those projects that "just grew" as I worked on it. I started out practicing tool technique and got to like the image. That is what happens to me. I find myself returning to images I thought I was finished with years ago, and apply newly learned stuff to them. it is all a continuing education. The funny thing is that I'm using CC 2014, but never used any PS tool that wasn't available in PS 5 or so. That doesn't matter. Just use whatever you are comfortable with until you have climbed a little higher on the learning curve. -- Regards, Savageduck |
#4
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Just in case
On 2014-10-15 04:18:55 +0000, Tony Cooper said:
On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 19:15:13 -0700, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. This image, like the pull-back, required a lot of work using Layer Masks to change aspects of what's shown, but I really don't do as many adjustments in processing as it seems you do. I adjust the RAW image as best I can, add a little clarity and vibrance, and then use Levels to bring in my end points and that's it. This is the original of the close shot: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...dxRpNn8-XL.jpg I took out that brown wooden box at the top right, but this left me without a complete "d". So, I took the "p", turned it upside-down, and grabbed some of that dark area at the top and used that to fill gap. Also had to fill in some boards under that. All done by copy/pasting from one place and putting it under a layer mask. I forget what I did to remove the blue stain. Last step was running Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2 using "Dramatic". I don't believe that HDR Efex Pro is necessarily the best choice for dealing with this image. That said, there is no harm in trying. I prefer to look to some of the other NIK options especially when it comes to single exposure images where DR issues are not too drastic. These days most of my RAW processing is done in LR. Of course those adjustments are mirrored in ACR, and using that engine it is quite easy to set black & white points, get some detail out of the deep shadows, and sharpen, all before opening in PS. Generally, I don't go for as much vibrance in an image as you do. I use whatever pleases my eye, at that given moment. If you are referring to "Vibrance" as used in LR or ACR, then it is best to remember that the Adobe "Vibrance" adjustment is not a global saturation adjustment. It will usually no effect skin tones, and only add a slight degree of "pop" in areas where the saturation is comparatively subdued. These two seemed to call for it, though. Mostly it was an exercise in improving my skills in using layer masks. Since you are exploring the NIK plug-ins, I suggest looking at Color Efex Pro 4 & Viveza 2. Just remember, you can use them to tone things down if needed, and most importantly, the effect can be applied selectively using the brush. In "documentary" stuff, I don't do this sort of thing, so it's fun to do it when I'm working with other types of images. Yup! With PS + LR I can lose myself in noodling about for hours. -- Regards, Savageduck |
#5
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Just in case
On 2014-10-15 06:48:35 +0000, Savageduck said:
On 2014-10-15 04:18:55 +0000, Tony Cooper said: On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 19:15:13 -0700, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. This image, like the pull-back, required a lot of work using Layer Masks to change aspects of what's shown, but I really don't do as many adjustments in processing as it seems you do. I adjust the RAW image as best I can, add a little clarity and vibrance, and then use Levels to bring in my end points and that's it. This is the original of the close shot: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...dxRpNn8-XL.jpg I took out that brown wooden box at the top right, but this left me without a complete "d". So, I took the "p", turned it upside-down, and grabbed some of that dark area at the top and used that to fill gap. Also had to fill in some boards under that. All done by copy/pasting from one place and putting it under a layer mask. I forget what I did to remove the blue stain. Last step was running Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2 using "Dramatic". I don't believe that HDR Efex Pro is necessarily the best choice for dealing with this image. That said, there is no harm in trying. I prefer to look to some of the other NIK options especially when it comes to single exposure images where DR issues are not too drastic. These days most of my RAW processing is done in LR. Of course those adjustments are mirrored in ACR, and using that engine it is quite easy to set black & white points, get some detail out of the deep shadows, and sharpen, all before opening in PS. I forgot to add my rendition of that shot, https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/FileChute/TC-003.jpg Generally, I don't go for as much vibrance in an image as you do. I use whatever pleases my eye, at that given moment. If you are referring to "Vibrance" as used in LR or ACR, then it is best to remember that the Adobe "Vibrance" adjustment is not a global saturation adjustment. It will usually no effect skin tones, and only add a slight degree of "pop" in areas where the saturation is comparatively subdued. These two seemed to call for it, though. Mostly it was an exercise in improving my skills in using layer masks. Since you are exploring the NIK plug-ins, I suggest looking at Color Efex Pro 4 & Viveza 2. Just remember, you can use them to tone things down if needed, and most importantly, the effect can be applied selectively using the brush. In "documentary" stuff, I don't do this sort of thing, so it's fun to do it when I'm working with other types of images. Yup! With PS + LR I can lose myself in noodling about for hours. -- Regards, Savageduck |
#6
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Just in case
On 15/10/2014 04:51, Tony Cooper wrote:
On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 19:15:13 -0700, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. I would answer your question...if I could. There were 22 layers involved. I started out just playing around practicing with some of the tools. Here's the original with just the basic adjustments I'd make to any photograph but uncropped. http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...cd8XmbV-XL.jpg In a way, I prefer the original. The edit has certainly brought out some of the colours, and the inner porch on the rhs. That /is/ to the good IMO. But overall, I find the sharpening too severe - it suggests 'edited digital photo' in an obvious way. I notice that a lot of photos people post on this group are similar. And while the compositions are excellent, I'm always drawn to edges parallel to top and sides. Can't help myself! I think a marvellous trick some photographers achieve is to take the eye away from what I think of as 'framing anomalies'. Doubt they do it on purpose, or with me on mind :-) Thanks for posting - enjoyed them. The con-rod/piston - what is that from?! I was going to joke 'a US compact car' but rethunk :-) -- Cheers, Rob |
#7
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Just in case
On 15/10/2014 07:55, Savageduck wrote:
On 2014-10-15 06:48:35 +0000, Savageduck said: On 2014-10-15 04:18:55 +0000, Tony Cooper said: On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 19:15:13 -0700, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. This image, like the pull-back, required a lot of work using Layer Masks to change aspects of what's shown, but I really don't do as many adjustments in processing as it seems you do. I adjust the RAW image as best I can, add a little clarity and vibrance, and then use Levels to bring in my end points and that's it. This is the original of the close shot: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...dxRpNn8-XL.jpg I took out that brown wooden box at the top right, but this left me without a complete "d". So, I took the "p", turned it upside-down, and grabbed some of that dark area at the top and used that to fill gap. Also had to fill in some boards under that. All done by copy/pasting from one place and putting it under a layer mask. I forget what I did to remove the blue stain. Last step was running Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2 using "Dramatic". I don't believe that HDR Efex Pro is necessarily the best choice for dealing with this image. That said, there is no harm in trying. I prefer to look to some of the other NIK options especially when it comes to single exposure images where DR issues are not too drastic. These days most of my RAW processing is done in LR. Of course those adjustments are mirrored in ACR, and using that engine it is quite easy to set black & white points, get some detail out of the deep shadows, and sharpen, all before opening in PS. I forgot to add my rendition of that shot, https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/FileChute/TC-003.jpg Technically, a tour de force. But (and related to my earlier post), what are you trying to achieve? Not, I'd guess, 'realism'. I consider edits of that kind a form of art in their own right. I suppose there's a philosophical underbelly to all of this that I'm not even going to attempt! -- Cheers, Rob |
#8
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Just in case
On 2014-10-15 07:06:49 +0000, RJH said:
On 15/10/2014 07:55, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 06:48:35 +0000, Savageduck said: On 2014-10-15 04:18:55 +0000, Tony Cooper said: On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 19:15:13 -0700, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. This image, like the pull-back, required a lot of work using Layer Masks to change aspects of what's shown, but I really don't do as many adjustments in processing as it seems you do. I adjust the RAW image as best I can, add a little clarity and vibrance, and then use Levels to bring in my end points and that's it. This is the original of the close shot: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...dxRpNn8-XL.jpg I took out that brown wooden box at the top right, but this left me without a complete "d". So, I took the "p", turned it upside-down, and grabbed some of that dark area at the top and used that to fill gap. Also had to fill in some boards under that. All done by copy/pasting from one place and putting it under a layer mask. I forget what I did to remove the blue stain. Last step was running Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2 using "Dramatic". I don't believe that HDR Efex Pro is necessarily the best choice for dealing with this image. That said, there is no harm in trying. I prefer to look to some of the other NIK options especially when it comes to single exposure images where DR issues are not too drastic. These days most of my RAW processing is done in LR. Of course those adjustments are mirrored in ACR, and using that engine it is quite easy to set black & white points, get some detail out of the deep shadows, and sharpen, all before opening in PS. I forgot to add my rendition of that shot, https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/FileChute/TC-003.jpg Technically, a tour de force. Thanks for that. But (and related to my earlier post), what are you trying to achieve? Not, I'd guess, 'realism'. Certainly not, and I doubt that Tony was looking for a realistic documentary photograph either. With the tools we have today for the digital darkroom we have a freedom of expression which truly expands into the photograph as an artistic expression. ....and certainly even for photographers such as Ansel Adams, his prints were expressions of his art. Just a look at a photograph such as "Clearing Winter Storm" will tell you that this is not a true representation of the Yosemite Valley. I consider edits of that kind a form of art in their own right. There are two forms of artistry there, the art of capturing the image with a camera to the best of the photographer's ability and skill. Then there is the artistry of post processing where the final product, or a version of the final product an be produced. I suppose there's a philosophical underbelly to all of this that I'm not even going to attempt! The point is, there is more to photography than producing perfect documentary images, and there is a place for both. For example here is the same image capture processed in two very different ways, to get two very different results, one documentary & one artistic expression. https://db.tt/v2nVoRrh https://db.tt/GGcRXNdc -- Regards, Savageduck |
#9
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Just in case
On Wed, 15 Oct 2014 07:59:39 +0100, RJH wrote:
The con-rod/piston - what is that from?! I was going to joke 'a US compact car' but rethunk :-) My first reaction was Detroit Diesel, but the piston and rod is too big. The Detroit Diesel was in fact designed by Kettering. Kettering also designed the similar but larger series of engines used by ALCO in their locomotives. Some ALCO engines used that style of arched bearing cap on their connecting rods, so I would say the assembly comes from an older ALCO locomotive. -- Regards, Eric Stevens |
#10
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Just in case
On 10/15/2014 11:14 AM, Tony Cooper wrote:
On Wed, 15 Oct 2014 07:59:39 +0100, RJH wrote: On 15/10/2014 04:51, Tony Cooper wrote: On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 19:15:13 -0700, Savageduck wrote: On 2014-10-15 01:56:25 +0000, Tony Cooper said: Just in case anyone here is still interested in photographs, here's a couple that I took last year but never got around to doing anything with in post. Looking for something else, I came across this one: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...2-04-91-XL.jpg Nice find! With it was a closer view of something in the same scene, seen on the right of the above: http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/Curren...-04-29D-XL.jpg The item which caught my interest was the big piston & connecting rod. A close up of that with the block in front of it removes , would I believe have made for an good solo item shot. Some things in the original view of the same photos have been moved, deleted, and changed in Photoshop, but if you don't see the alterations then they never happened. I don't particularly care about any article moves or removals from the original, but I would like to know how you attacked the various PP adjustments, effects used etc. & what if any plug-ins used. I would answer your question...if I could. There were 22 layers involved. I started out just playing around practicing with some of the tools. Here's the original with just the basic adjustments I'd make to any photograph but uncropped. http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...cd8XmbV-XL.jpg In a way, I prefer the original. The edit has certainly brought out some of the colours, and the inner porch on the rhs. That /is/ to the good IMO. But overall, I find the sharpening too severe - it suggests 'edited digital photo' in an obvious way. I notice that a lot of photos people post on this group are similar. And while the compositions are excellent, I'm always drawn to edges parallel to top and sides. Can't help myself! I think a marvellous trick some photographers achieve is to take the eye away from what I think of as 'framing anomalies'. Doubt they do it on purpose, or with me on mind :-) Thanks for posting - enjoyed them. The con-rod/piston - what is that from?! I was going to joke 'a US compact car' but rethunk :-) It's just a terminology point, but I did not sharpen my image...well, I didn't use any of the sharpening tools or techniques. The sharpened look is a result of the Nik plug-in's effect. I generally do not process images to be overly-vibrant. The Duck's version is too vibrant to my eye. However, images sometimes call for different techniques in post. This one, with all that clutter on the porch, just called out to me to be treated a bit differently. \\ So many times if you just let the image tell you what to do, you will have a great result. -- PeterN |
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