Hot..Hot...Hot!

[Phillydigishooter]

Hot pepper cut outs using PS Elements. I think it's a cool look. What do you think, comments welcome!! (cannon G3)

[mijbril]

Needs tidying up.

[Phillydigishooter]

Needs tidying up. Ok, please help me out. what area? Open to suggestions.

[Sam]

If this were for a specific marketing piece and you had text for the open areas then I would say you are spot on.

For an image I would hang in my kitchen I would want more to it. Maybe leave the green in and not do selective coloring on this piece. Use lighting and aperture to highlight the colors in the peppers.

Those were my thoughts.

[mijbril]

the right chili looks a little untidy. I also agree with solinger's idea of a bit more colour :)

[Carzee]

This sort of graphic effect needs power, colour power! On my monitor the orange is not saturated enough, even a bit dull, and the background is low contrast greys.

[Phillydigishooter]

Thanks everyone for your comments. The orginal photo is below with little post processing done; cropping, levels. I have a question regarding monitors. The cutout photo and the original were processed on a Dell 9300 laptop with its lcd. This system is calibrated with PS elements. I look at the same photos on a desk top with a Viewsonic CRT that was calibrated using PS 7.0. The photo's were saved as "psd" format. They appeared washed out. I corrected with levels only, now they pop. Any suggestions in using an LCD vrs CRT?

[Titus213]

The BG needs more contrast. And when I tried I couldn't get the right levels. The leaves behind the peppers need something. The tonal quality is off? Don't know but it doesn't look right to me.

[Phillydigishooter]

107 views, and 7 comments. In need of suggestions on orginal photo, and monitor calibrations.

[Titus213]

Light looks to be a bit flat on the original.

I don't have monitor calibration equipement so I just went thru the Adobe adjustment program Adobe Gamma. It helped.

[Phillydigishooter]

Light looks to be a bit flat on the original.

I don't have monitor calibration equipement so I just went thru the Adobe adjustment program Adobe Gamma. It helped.



Thanks Titus for your help.
The first photo the background was set to b/w on purpose so the red/orange peppers would stand out as cutouts. If I'm using the proper term. The second is full color before background change.

I also use the gamma calibration program from PS on the desk top with the Viewsonic monitor. However the Dell Inspison 9100 laptop does not have easy contrast control settings. You have to use the ATI controls to adjust the contrast, I spent sometime today calibrating it using the gamma program. The photo's look better. I have now learned the importance of calibration of monitors. Next I have to calibrate the printer.

[Candyass]

A tip for making photos pop more is to:

In Photoshop

1. Make a copy of the background layer, set the Blend Mode of the new layer to Soft Light, lower the opacity to taste. Usually around 40-50% works, in this case I had to use a bit more. This gives the image more density.

2. Then, copy the Soft Light layer (it now ends up on top of the layer stack) and change the Blend Mode to Screen, lower the opacity to taste, usually 25-35% works. Setting a copy of the photo to Screen at 33% is the equivalent of one f-stop, so if you only wanted to brighten up an image it's a good thing to know.

Usually these simple steps takes care of it, but sometimes you may want to make another copy of the layer, make sure it's on top of the layer stack (above the Screen layer) and set the Blend Modes to Overlay, create a mask for this layer and mask off areas that you don't want to "lift to the front".


Here's a quick and dirty example of your file.

Hope that helps

[ryno4youth]

Nice job Candyass. It is great to have someone so proficient in PS around. Welcome.

[Phillydigishooter]

Thank for your help Candyass. Your refinements to the photo are great!! Will try your method to improve other photos. I am new to digital photography and Photo Shop. Being an amateur I have a lot to learn.

Thanks again,
Bob