Post Process critique/ comment ...

[chakras]

Flowers are nice subjects to try your hand in post processing :D. Here are two images. First as from the camera, and second after I tried post processing it. Can you please critique if this is overdone and what I could have done differently (or what I should have done) ?

[Hellashot]

Yellow can be difficult to deal with. In your processed version, the upper right corner of the flower is a little blown out/too bright.

[chakras]

Thanks Hellashot. I think I understand what you mean. I will correct that.

Edit: Cloned out the blown out parts.

[MCB]

Removing the white from behind the left side of the flower helped, too. I think the new version looks very good. But something seems strange right along the edge of the flower where you removed the white part. There is some texture there that seems too clear, like maybe it isn't being blurred the same as the rest of the background. Otherwise, it's a great flower pic. :)

[CyberDyneSystems]

And there is a noticeable "halo" effect do to PP .. most visible on the lower right hand side of the flower... but also quite visible a tthe very top center.

This is a dead give away for an over processed image.

[chakras]

Thanks MCB and CDS for your comments

MCB: I am so bad at cloning. Still I tried to do some modification and replaced the second photo with modified clone this time (Edit: Laptops are so deceiving, I did not see the texture thing you mentioned before until I changed my angle of view - I need to smoothen that too :eek:)

CDS: I did the following to the original. Apart from Cropping, I converted the background to grayscale and replaced the colored flower on it. Gave a glow effect, adjusted histogram for brightness/ contrast and increased hue + saturation towards yellow (red + green). Which step can give a halo effect ? Is it where I increased the hue + saturation ?

[Radtech1]

Chakras,

Well, well, well. Let's try to be nice and just say "Plenty of room for improvement" on both post processing jobs.

I think the thing that will help you the most is learning how to use the clone tool. I think I can see what you did on the first one. It looks like you created a second layer, selected the flower, deleted all BUT the flower on that layer, then blurred the bottom layer.

The big problem with doing that is when you blur the bottom layer, some of the yellow of the flower on the bottom layer blurs INTO view, from behind the top layer. That is why there is sort of a yellow halo peeking out behind the flower in your first post processed shot.

The fix for that is easy, and there are several ways to do it. What you end up needing is to NOT have the yellow present to be blurred. On the bottom layer, BEFORE you blur it, you can take the Smudge tool and smear a bit of the background into the flower. Just go all the way around the perimeter of the flower, using the smudge tool like a broom, sweeping little strokes towards the center of the flower. NOW, when you blur the bottom layer, there will be no yellow along the edge to creep into view.

A second way is to use the Clone tool. Again, on the bottom layer BEFORE you blur it, use a medium sized, soft edged, clone brush and just clone over the perimeter of the flower. There are several places in your original image that would make good clone sources. Bottom left, bottom right and top right all have good areas that you could clone from.

In fact, you could use this process to clone over the blown areas that you addressed in your second attempt. It would yield better results than you currently demonstrate. Your has a lot of what I call "jitters" where the same clone source was used over and over in rapid succession. By using a large, soft clone brush before you blur, that problem would be gone.

Best of luck and go do better.

Rad

[chakras]

Thanks Rad. That was a simple way of making me understand. I guess I should go back to the drawing board again.:o