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View Full Version : Scotte's Challenge (continued)


maderito
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 19:00
Do you have an image causing concern because you just can't get right? I'm sure there are several of us here who would be willing to take a stab at "correcting" it. I think it would be pretty interesting to see how several people would "correct" a single image...

1) The "problem" image should be of some interesting content (maybe) but should be neither too close to perfect nor too far out of whack. It should be an image that needs some help but not a miracle. Anyone can post an image they'd like to have "corrected."

2) People with said "problem" images should post untouched ("straight from the camera") web-sized examples to the forum when the "pick an image" thread is created. Interested "correcters" should pick 1 or 2 images to be corrected. Hopefully we'll get at least 3 or 4 people who will volunteer to correct each image. If we get 10 correcters to volunteer then we'll have several images to correct. If we get only a few volunteer correcters we'll pick 2 images from the posts.

3) I'll PM the photographers of the "problem" images so they can email me the picture. I definitely suggest that the picture should be full-sized straight from the camera. If RAW the correcters will hopefully be able to handle the format. (Or should they be straight-processed to TIFF to make it portable?) If JPG then anyone will be able to work on it.

4) I'll make the image available on my server and start a new thread for each image with a link so they can be downloaded by the correcters.

5) The correcters should make notes on what they did, in the order done. This can then be a learning experience for everyone.

6) The final images should be posted to that picture's thread, and all should be at the same size. I suggest that final images should be resized to 700 pixels wide if landscape, or 700 pixels tall if portrait. Notes should be included of course.

7) I don't think that the image should be "manipulated" so much as "corrected." That is the content shouldn't be changed, like erasing a tree or a branch. Rather we should concentrate on image correction - color, saturation, hue, sharpness, etc, etc. No cropping by the correcters - leave the composition as the photographer took it. This is the "Post Processing" forum anyway, and IMHO shouldn't be about taking a better picture.

7a) Maybe this can be left to the poster of the image. Perhaps the problem is that a particular feature, like a branch, spoils the picture. Perhaps the photographer doesn't like the composition

7b) Perhaps it's just a free-for-all.

8) This suggestion intentionally left blank because "8 )" turns into a smiley.

9) This *isn't* just a Photoshop exercise! I'd love to see what people can do with Paint Shop Pro or Elements or Picture Window Pro or whatever!

Here's another shot taken when the sun was low in the evening sky. Like most lighthouses, this one is white! You can visit it in Woods Hole, Mass.

50/1.4 lens @ f/13 1/180 sec ISO 400 converted to sRGB
http://display.lifepics.com/imgdisp.asp?filespec=%60foxhx2cuxmwdogx%5D9%3C%3D8 %3B9dOjeOrmlfo%7Cjtvzne88mxi%0E17%3D78C%0C82518%40

JZaun
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 19:20
Here's my try
http://gallery.bytephoto.com/data/3131/51imgdisp_1_copy.jpg

JZaun

PacAce
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 20:28
Since I'm assuming that this shot was taken in the late afternoon, my thinking is that it would look more natural to retain some of the warmth of the sun light on the side of the lighthouse. So, using levels, I used the gray dropper to select the portion of the lighthouse that is NOT in the direct sunlight but not entirely in the shadows either. This is somewhere like 1/3 of the way in from the right side of the lighthouse.

I then used the shadows/highlight tool to brighten up the sign that's in front of the lighthouse.

http://www.tanseikai.com/tanseikai/images/others/imgdisp_b.jpg

maderito
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 21:40
My final result was very similar to PacAce's since I also wanted to preserve some of the late evening warmth of the setting sun. The resulting variation in the color of white across the lighthouse is striking. Opening up the shadows brightens the foreground sign and brings out iron work details under the light housing. PS 7 doesn't have a shadow/highlights tool, so I used a curves adjustment layer with a layer mask to target the shadow areas.

Here's a 100% crop of the sign which gives some details on the fresnel lens. This is yet another shameless plug for the virtues of the 50/1.4 lens. :) :)

http://display.lifepics.com/imgdisp.asp?filespec=%60foxhx2cuxmwdogx%5D9%3C%3D8 %3B9dOjeOrmlfo%7Cjtvzn368mxi%0E17%3D6%3DA%0C82527% 3A

Meerkat17
17th of April 2004 (Sat), 01:59
Here's my twist on the same subject:
I really like the colouration of sunlight on the lighthouse - I adjusted the levels slightly to make the sky a little lighter. Then I added a little saturation to bring out more of the colour detail in the lighthouse.

I then used the levels (middle slider) to adjust for the sign then used the history brush set at 50% flow and 50% opacity to lighten the sign.

David

http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/imgdisp.jpg

Barry88
17th of April 2004 (Sat), 23:22
I thought I would let PSP8 "have its head".
Enhance Photo
Colour balance
Automatic Contrast Enhancement
Clarify

To which I added USM .7/100/0

Barry Hooper

http://www.hooper-home.com/CDPF/imgdispadj.jpg[/img]