Lazy Days of Summer

LeuceDeuce wrote in post #5933018
Thank you all for the great comments.



Irreverent, thank you for your observation. I think it is some of my other processing that is contributing to the look other than the sharpening, but the end result is that it caused you to think they were oversharpened. I will definately take that into consideration, and investigate whether or not it is my other processing or the sharpening. Your critique is very much appreciated. Thank you.

You're more than welcome. Thank you for taking my comments in the spirit they were intended. I took a look at your web gallery by the way, and very nice work indeed. Strangely, I seemed to see less evidence of that problem in those images than I do on here, so maybe the compression you're having to use to get images onto this site isn't helping matters.

You've obviously got a great eye for detail, colour and form, and your re-works of other people's images are consistently in the top 5% of those I see on this site, easily, so I hope my slightly negative remark about the sharpening issue I saw doesn't come over as too critical.

Irreverent wrote in post #5933275
You're more than welcome. Thank you for taking my comments in the spirit they were intended. I took a look at your web gallery by the way, and very nice work indeed. Strangely, I seemed to see less evidence of that problem in those images than I do on here, so maybe the compression you're having to use to get images onto this site isn't helping matters.

You've obviously got a great eye for detail, colour and form, and your re-works of other people's images are consistently in the top 5% of those I see on this site, easily, so I hope my slightly negative remark about the sharpening issue I saw doesn't come over as too critical.

Actually I always worry that no one will say anything critical, and I appreciate you taking the time to express what you like/dislike. I am constantly learning to be the best photographer/editor that I can be, and this site and it's members are my biggest inspiration.

Thank you.

I agree that well intentioned and thoughtful critique is always welcomed, although in my short time here I have learned that not everybody is as receptive to anything less than a thoroughly glowing review of their work.

I'd be really curious to know what your workflow is like, if you can ever be bothered to take the time to share it with me.

There's a few things I'm guessing - like the way your colours always pop without blowing out suggests you're spending at least part of your workflow in LAB mode.

I *think* I'm seeing some high pass sharpening in places too.

I'd be really curious to see what order you approach things in, how you work in terms of layers, or wirting destructive changes to your images, and what 3rd party tools you use. I can't remember if it was you or someone else who said they made use of Viveza - if it was you, then I would probably revise my guess that you spend much time in LAB mode, and you've probably got working in that plugin down to a tee instead.

Irreverent wrote in post #5933352
I agree that well intentioned and thoughtful critique is always welcomed, although in my short time here I have learned that not everybody is as receptive to anything less than a thoroughly glowing review of their work.

I'd be really curious to know what your workflow is like, if you can ever be bothered to take the time to share it with me.

There's a few things I'm guessing - like the way your colours always pop without blowing out suggests you're spending at least part of your workflow in LAB mode.

I *think* I'm seeing some high pass sharpening in places too.

I'd be really curious to see what order you approach things in, how you work in terms of layers, or wirting destructive changes to your images, and what 3rd party tools you use. I can't remember if it was you or someone else who said they made use of Viveza - if it was you, then I would probably revise my guess that you spend much time in LAB mode, and you've probably got working in that plugin down to a tee instead.

Now that's intriguing because you nailed it. Dan Margulis is my favorite writer/teacher, and you must know his work. I also have been experimenting with high pass instead of USM lately so you nailed that one too. Yes I use Viveza on almost every single image I work; at least to some degree.

When I shoot midday like this, I always shoot HDR as well. The 3 exposures is likely what's contributing to the "crunchy" foliage you're seeing

Foliage enhancements I would do with lighten/luminosity blending the green channel in lighten mode. I would run the green channel through contrast to make the seperation really pop 3D.

If I want to take a shortcut with foliage, I will use the foliage enhancer in Color Efex Pro at about 20% of green #3 (it's not quite as nice though, but damn quick).

Localized contrast is done with three curves layers (highlights, midtones, shadows) where the curve is locked down at each 10% interval and limit the contrast enhancemets to the applicable third of the curve.

A shortcut for this is the tonal contrast in Color Efex Pro, but be careful with this one because the default is usually way too much.

Wow. Very interesting stuff. Comforting to know that my eyes weren't deceiving me

Naturally, I have heard of Dan Margulis. I've only read the first couple of chapters of his excellent book, but the rest of it is VERY high up on my "to do" list. Interestingly he has recently revised his opinion on sharpening in the a and b channels so that now he states that there are situations in which that might actually be a worthwhile process. I'm almost tempted to sign up to kelby training just to watch his video series on there. I try to spend as much of my PP time as possible in LAB, if only for the integrity of my histogram. But curves in LAB mode has possibly been the single greatest discovery I've made in Photoshop since I figured out how the pen tool works!

If you've been shooting in HDR, then I'm really relieved that you've managed the process with sensitivity and have not succumbed to the temptation to go for the slightly tacky and easily dated (imo) "fantasy" look.

I'm another curves fanatic when working on images, although I've never "let rip" with multiple curves adjustments when Image Editing on here. Ok, that's a lie, I'll use a curve for the black point, one for the white point, one for colour casts, and one for contrast, but I mean BESIDES those ( ), I don't localise contrast down with multiple curves unless I'm getting super precious about my own stuff, so it's nice to see it's in someone else's workflow too.

It's only been recently that I've even considered looking at plugins, and for now I'm just enjoying what Noiseware does for me. I've got trials of the Nik stuff, and Color Efex seems to be a very handy quick fix, but the thing that bugged the heck out of me with Viveza was that the u-point stuff (or whatever its called) doesn't seem to have a tolerance or fuzziness control - sure, it'll allow you to localise your adjustmens within a certain radius, but it doesn't seem to give you any control over what it decides is an acceptable range of colours to apply your modifications to. If you have any pointers with regards to using that plugin more effectively, then I'm all ears. Right now though, I don't think I'd consider it for purchase purely because of the frustrations I've experienced.

I don't think I've ever seen your foliage technique before. Adding contrast to the green channel makes sense to me, but I don't quite follow what you mean by luminosity blending the green channel in lighten mode. I mean, I understand all those words in a vacuum, but when strung together in that order as a concept, I'm left with about only 50% of the puzzle

Nice to see someone else is as much of a student of this application as I consider myself to be. Look forward to seeing more from you in the future.

LeuceDeuce wrote in post #5933436
When I shoot midday like this, I always shoot HDR as well. The 3 exposures is likely what's contributing to the "crunchy" foliage you're seeing

Foliage enhancements I would do with lighten/luminosity blending the green channel in lighten mode. I would run the green channel through contrast to make the seperation really pop 3D.

If I want to take a shortcut with foliage, I will use the foliage enhancer in Color Efex Pro at about 20% of green #3 (it's not quite as nice though, but damn quick).

Localized contrast is done with three curves layers (highlights, midtones, shadows) where the curve is locked down at each 10% interval and limit the contrast enhancemets to the applicable third of the curve.

A shortcut for this is the tonal contrast in Color Efex Pro, but be careful with this one because the default is usually way too much.

Aha! So this is how the pros do it! Thanks LeuceDeuce, for sharing this nugget.

midnitejam wrote in post #5935369
Aha! So this is how the pros do it! Thanks LeuceDeuce, for sharing this nugget.

You are welcome midnite, but you flatter me with the pro comment. I am mearly a student, and I am sure that the pro's have much more refined techniques than I do. I'm still hitting things with a hammer

LeuceDeuce wrote in post #5936125
You are welcome midnite, but you flatter me with the pro comment. I am mearly a student, and I am sure that the pro's have much more refined techniques than I do. I'm still hitting things with a hammer, and missing gigantic mountains in my photos

:p You really are doing so well Chris..

Flo wrote in post #5936346
...and missing gigantic mountains in my photos

:p You really are doing so well Chris..

ROFL cheeky!

Who had any idea what would become of a couple photography magazines bought in the Vegas airport when my flight was delayed...

It's quite amazing how such trivial actions can have such a huge impact on our lives.

I am so stoked about going to my family reunion in about an hour.not because I want to see everyone( which I DO), but I want to look at all the photos I will have taken when I get back.. Its sad really...lol.....