Getting the shot....

Hi,

I somehow admire that guy ...

Great subject matter, and a great idea for a picture.
What I don't like is the washed-out look of the guard's uniforms and the
hazy look of the entire image. I would have played around a lot with the
colors here and tried to sharpen it a bit.
With a little adjustment, I'd say it's a keeper for sure.

Rick,

thanks for the feedback!

Unfortunately, the sharpening is as much as I could get. I sharpened the picture with USM, and anything more gets grainy. I already had to apply a gaussian blur to the wall, because it really showed there.

Reason is that it is basically a 100% crop from a larger G2 picture.

I'll try to bump the colour a bit

Best regards,
Andy

The problem that I see is the color cast. Too blue.

Do you have PS Elements 2.0? It has a "Color Cast" correction feature that is mysteriously absent from PS 7 and CE. You just eye-drop an area that is "supposed" to be white (or black or grey) - in this case the guys shirt - and it automatically adjusts the color temp of the shot so that the area IS white.

This feature alone makes PSE2 worth buying - even if you are using "more advanced" programs.

After adjusting the color cast, then nudge the saturation just a hair.

Rad

Rad,

thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that.
As my luck would have it, I only have Elements 2.0

Best regards,
Andy

Andythaler wrote:
Rad,

thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that.
As my luck would have it, I only have Elements 2.0

Best regards,
Andy

Hi Andy,

Interesting, exotic photo... I think most of your color problems will disappear by setting a black point, which you should be able to do in either Curves or Levels (your choice, same thing for this purpose).

The nearest-to-black point I can find in this photo is on the middle guard's right boot (his right), at the very top of the boot in the middle of his leg. Click on your black eyedropper and then click that point and see what you think.

Cheers,

Don