Tag Archives: realistic

Fone Photo Friday – Red

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Got a new phone the other day. One of the Nokia Lumia versions, the 920. The camera with an 8.7 MP PureView sensor is supposed to be one of the best features. Well, having used a Windows 7 phone for a while, I really like the upgrade to Windows 8 but the camera is not as great as I had hoped. Even though it has a higher megapixel rating, it’s pretty noisy and not as sharp as I expected, what with the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and all. But even so, it’s not too bad. Still as good as my old Samsung and iPhone.

This rather silly shot was taken with window light and the one thing that I appreciated was how the camera actually gave a very good balance between highlights and shadows. Almost a High Dynamic Range (HDR) effect. I took the original image and did modifications with Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop to increase sharpness and luminance and adjust the vibrance and clarity. But even with the modifications, I couldn’t save certain parts of the image.

I’ve included the original, straight out of the phone, image for comparison. 

For quick shots when I can’t carry my DSLR, this new phone camera will be a pretty good alternative.

Here are a few snapshots from my first day out with the new phone. Really saturates the blue. Looks like Kodachrome. :-)

HDR – Variations on B&W Conversions – CM

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Many HDR images are being converted to Black & White to present typically tone mapped shots in a more “artistic” way.  I’ve seen some beautiful work and, since I originally started with black and white photography, darkroom and all, I am particularly drawn to it. It’s obvious that many photographers are doing very simple conversions using Adobe Photoshop without taking advantage of the great variations that are available as presets. An interesting thing about the software is that there are many ways to convert color photos to black and white. I am going to present a couple of different ways to do the conversions.

This post will deal with using the Channel Mixer presets. You will see what seem to be identical images at first glance. But, looking closely, the variations will be obvious.

I’ve started with this High Dynamic Range image that has quite a bit of tonal latitude; extreme light to very dark and everything in between. It was initially processed using 7 images loaded into Nik HDR Efex Pro for tone mapping and control point enhancements on certain areas. Final modifications were made in Photoshop.


I will now present and describe the Channel Mixer Preset variations for B&W conversion in Photoshop.

  • Channel Mixer – Startup

The Channel Mixer tool is accessed using Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer as shown below.


The initial display defaults to “Preset = None” with the Output Channel set to red at 100%. The variations that I’m presenting are the “out of the box” presets in Photoshop.

Not all of the presets do well without further modifications of the RGB color sliders.  But I’ll let you be the judge.

  • Channel Mixer – Presets at a Glance


The nice thing about the presets, as you can see in the comparisons above, is that they can satisfy just about any preference. Kind of like “clicking according to taste.”  But, some of the presets do more harm than good to the overall tonality of the image as I’ll describe below.

Infrared

As expected with the Infrared preset, certain areas are lightened beyond reality. Notice the plants along the wall on the lower left. If this shot had been taken in summer, the trees would show more of a whitish cast and any reds would be black. Notice that the light orange mulch area in the lower left is very dark and much of the contrast for that area is lost.

 Blue Filter 

This filter causes much higher contrast but in the wrong places. The lower left area is similar to the Infrared effect but the lighter green plants lining the wall are now too dark to be noticed. The shadow and sunlight areas on the lawn at right are now merged into darkness with very little contrast to show that the sun is shining through. If you like more surreal effects for black and white, this filter and the Infrared preset are what you will want to work with.

Green Filter

The green filter seems to get pretty close to “real life” for this image.  A bit of depth is lost in the lower left but the contrast with the wall, plants, shrubs and mulch is enough to keep things separated. The green lawn areas have a natural look as do the sky, clouds and Washington Monument in the distance.

Orange Filter

More contrast in all areas. The shrubs at lower left stand out much better and the shadows and highlights on the lawn and sidewalk are more distinct. But, notice that the plants along the wall get swallowed up in the tone of the mulch.  And the top of the Washington Monument gets lost in a darker sky. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed in further post-processing though.

Red Filter

This filter gives even more contrast but sacrifices some of the lighter areas. And the red stripes in the flag (look closely) are almost too light to be seen. But, I must admit that this is a more dramatic representation of the scene.

Yellow Filter

This is another almost “real life” filter. The results are very close to the Green Filter but with less contrast in some areas and more in others. The image gains more contrast by sacrificing some of the natural tonality of the original Color image.

  • Channel Mixer – What’s your pleasure?

All of these presets have strengths and weaknesses. And personal preference, what I would also call “subjective perspective”, makes each a good selection. It depends on what you want. I find that I’m most drawn to the “real life” examples with the Green Filter being my favorite. Here it is in Living Black and White.

 

Full Circle – River in Winter

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Quick post from a cold winter day with nowhere to go. I originally posted this photo last year. Thought I’d play with this old image using a few different software combinations.

Here, I’ve posted the final version and have worked back to the original. The artistic possibilities are endless with the latest technical tools thanks to Adobe, Nik, etc.

Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop Final

Nik HDR Efex Pro – Granny Duo

Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 – Monochrome

Adobe Photoshop – Original

HDR – A Little More Realistic

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This High Dynamic Range, “Long Lens Landscape” image is the full frame of a photo that I posted about a year ago. That one was just a little bit less realistic. So, after a year of practice, I’ve decided to do a comparison.

Here is the original from last February.

As you can see in the image at the top of this post, I’ve managed to get the colors right . . . more like real life. And by including the full view, I’ve allowed the total scene to show more visual depth. And a little vignetting on the lower corners doesn’t hurt either. :-)

To restate what I said in the original post; “The first image was shot with the lens set to 210mm. Notice the beautiful compression of the background and foreground trees; a distance of over 100 yards. With “long” lenses, the compression will distort perspective to a certain extent but the results are very artistically appealing.”

My updated version was reprocessed using only Adobe Camera Raw and a little Photoshop Curves and Hue/Saturation to add depth and winter color, realism.

I must be totally honest though. With the re-process if this image, the monochrome version is my favorite. The texture and more drastic contracts really pop as a black and white work of art.

 Nikon D700 camera, Nikkor 70-210mm lens and post processed using Nik HDR Efex Pro, Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop.

Rabat – The Church

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Sometimes a traditional photograph can almost pass for a High Dynamic Range image. This image from my first trip to Rabat, Morocco is of a Christian church. At that time, I was told that it was the only church in the city.

This image was originally shot on Kodak Kodachrome slide film using a Contax rangefinder camera. I chose to not correct the vertical tilts since they give more of an organic sense of what a church is all about.  Even though the normal method is to shoot the front of these beautiful structures, I was fascinated by the architectural details on the side and rear of the building. And that sky; well it speaks for itself!

As usual, I’ve included a monochrome version of this shot. The sky drama was incredible and black and white seems artistically natural.

HDR Sharp and Smooth – A HTDS Process

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Many HDR images have been criticized because of the tendency of lots of photogs to go over the edge in post-processing. In this “How To Do Stuff” post, I’d like to demonstrate one of my techniques for producing realistic High Dynamic Range images that can be enlarged without losing too much visual detail. This image is a result of a bit of fine tuning with Nik HDR Efex Pro, Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop CS6.

  • Sharp and Smooth – Un-Cooked

I’d like to start with the image as it came out of Nik HDR Efex Pro and show how I use Camera Raw for most of the post-processing.

I started with the Basic panel to modify just about everything that was needed except sharpening/luminosity and correcting chromatic aberration.

As you can see, minor adjustments of Highlights, Clarity and Vibrance can add much more punch to an image. My next step is to add sharpening and noise reduction using Luminosity on the Details tab. I’m using a before and after blowup of the side of the water tower to show the details and the sky.

I’ve found that the settings on this tab are usually dependent on the starting image. With this shot, I was able to get a pretty decent compromise of sharp and smooth. But, as you can see, this was a windy day and some of my branches are doubled from the image blending process. This shot was taken with an old Nikon zoom lens that seems to produce quite a bit of Chromatic Aberration. So, the next step required some automatic removal with the Lens Correction tab.

I realize that most people don’t get too concerned with this level of detail but if you plan on making large prints, things like detail sharpness, luminosity and chromatic aberration need to be addressed. This is usually my final step in Camera Raw unless I want to do some type of split toning or additional color correction.

  • Sharp and Smooth – Photoshopping

Now I’m ready to move into Photoshop for some final enhancements and size modifications. By working with Layers, I made adjustments to the final image. My major effort was to remove the halo effect around the trees and tower. For this I simply used the burn tool at a very light, 3% setting with a soft blend. Slight adjustments to Hue/Saturation for realistic color, Exposure for Gamma Correction and Curves for overall contrast gave me just what I wanted. Here are the before and after versions.Now that we have a nice sharp and smooth image, it’s time to do the final stage for a large print version.

  • Sharp and Smooth – Big Time

By using the Photoshop Image sizing tool, I’ll create a larger than final size image for slight sharpening using High Pass filter. I’ve found that sharpening at a larger size and then reducing the size to the final print dimensions creates a more realistic effect.  My final size is 36 x 24 inches so I’ll create a copy with a 40 inch horizontal length. I then apply the High Pass filter using 8 pixels and Soft Light at 100% Opacity and Fill. The last step is to reduce the image size. This is a comparison with a small part of the original image.

Not sure where this is? Note the red box in the image below. That’s a pretty sweet rendition for a shot from an old, not so sharp lens.

This is one of many methods that can be used for enhancing an image to produce large prints. I will be presenting a few different scenarios in the future. And I hope this has been helpful.

HDR – Dramatic Effect with Photoshop Masking – HTDS

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Today, I’m using a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image that I worked with a few days ago. In that post I demonstrated the film type functions in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. But now, I want to work with the color version to do a very short explanation of how simple masking can save an image from the trash bin. This is another HTDS (How To Do Stuff) post.

For this image, I wanted to preserve the heavy gray sky but make the foreground look like the storm was passing. I thought a brighter effect would accomplish this.

1.  I loaded the original HDR image into Adobe Photoshop CS6 and started by duplicating the background layer. This step is essential since I want to preserve the original.

2. The next step is to add a mask to the new layer. This is my working layer for applying the mask to the area that I want to modify, which in this case is everything except the cloudy sky.

3.  By using the Brush Tool at 0 hardness for an easy, smooth blend, Mode set to Darken and Opacity and Flow set to 100%, I just brush the area that I will modify. In this case, the sky will be left as is to preserve the tones that will allow the contrast to separate it from the ground.

4.   I added another layer for Curves to enhance the tones, colors and contrast on the masked layer. My last modification was to add a layer for Exposure where I adjusted the Gamma and Exposure to bring out more brightness.

I ended by using Layer > Flatten Image to combine my original sky with my changes.

This is a pretty simply method for masking but with the additional layering and modifications, a very dull shot can come to life. Here are the “before” and “after” images, side by side.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, 44mm, f/13, ISO 200. Bogen/Manfrotto tripod with ball head.

HDR – Hibiscus in Red

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Our Hibiscus plants were just about bare for this year but I managed to find one last bloom for this HDR image. It’s been about a week since I shot this one and I’m sad to say that the limbs are empty. Oh well, next spring will bring more beauty.

Processing: This photo is about 60% of the original which accounts for a slight lack of sharpness and definition. But with a subject like this, the softness isn’t always a negative.  For some unknown reason (to me anyway), flowers usually need additional work when doing HDR imaging. The tones and shadows seem to get swallowed up with my Nik HDR Efex Pro software so I used the File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro process in Adobe Photoshop CS6. With three exposures, I was able to get the limited tonality that I needed while still maintaining the shadow and highlight details. After creating my image, I used Camera Raw for sharpening and adding luminosity. My final step was to do some very subtle dodging and burning on selected areas for more depth.

For the monochrome version, I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and increased the overall structure for a more textured look.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens at f/22, ISO 800. Manfrotto/Bogen tripod and ball head.

Red Yellow Green Minimalism

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I’m traveling this week and have preposted a few posts. This is one of my favorite minimalist images. From a Fujichrome transparency.

Note: I’m traveling for a few days and won’t have much access to my technology. I’ll try to respond to comments.

HDR – Camellia in Pink

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One of our Camellia bushes is pumping out dozens of blooms right now. For those who like Macro and Realistic HDR, this is almost heaven. :-) And like my previous shots of our white specimens, these are a deep pink. I hope to get some red next week.

Processing: I used five images for this shot, at 1 ev intervals. My original, combined image had lots of extreme highlight. The software seems to go crazy with these flowers . . . always giving me high saturation and high contrast. So, I managed to blend it down a bit in Nik HDR Efex Pro and then used Curves in Photoshop for a final touch of contrast and light blending. For a final pass, I generated a large tiff file and loaded it into Camera Raw for Sharpening and Noise Reduction.

Here’s my latest tech talk if you’re interested. I’ve recently been saving larger jpeg files for canvas printing and then a smaller web version for this blog and other web places. I find that after creating the large file and then reducing it for the web, I can get incredibly smooth and sharp resolution. Especially when using “Save for Web” in Adobe Photoshop. I’ll be doing a HDTS (How To Do Stuff) post to visually present my methods in the near future.

Back to this shot. Not ever seeing a violet version of a camellia, I decided to create one. This was easily done in Photoshop with Hue/Saturation and by reducing the Vibrance.

It’s sometimes fun to play with the colors and the results can be pretty interesting. This still looks pretty realistic since I kept the center of the flower intact, color wise that is. I’m not sure if they come in violet.

I’ve included my monochrome version below. I tried to get a more earthy, deep look while still retaining the delicate sense of the petals. As usual, I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 with those endless possibilities.