A Single File Line

[Jack Dean III]

I took this hand held from my boat with a canon 7d, EF 400mm f/5.6 lens, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/3200 sec. Processed in Lightroom: highlights -100, shadows -48, whites +77, blacks -70, clarity +26, vibrance +15, saturation +5. Tone curve adjustments: highlights -40, lights -61, darks -18, shadows +13. In HSL I brought the yellow saturation down to -27. Sharpening 41, radius 2, masking 79. NR luminance 49.

This wasn't any where close to the perfect shot but I thought it was too interesting to just let go. I did clone a couple of spots in the water and a few spots on the geese that were just really bright. I didn't notices until I viewed it at a 100% but the third one from the left I think has a fish in its mouth. :)

[Glennie Passier]

Hey Jack. This is very nice. It's nice to get out in a little boat and paddle around with the camera. We have a Hobie "pedal" craft that sits low in the water. My husband likes to be at the back so he can steer...always in the wrong direction. You've done an excellent job of hand holding.

I reckon you must have tweaked every slider there is to tweak to get this ethereal look. Interesting to see your sharpening technique. I like the horizontal lines. I don't mind the darkness at the top; I feel it gives the mist a bit of punch, although it does draw my eye a little. If it were mine, although having so many ducks in row is great, I would see what it looked like without the last two. And maybe see if you could add a bit of canvas on the right to give the lead bird a bit more room. Do you think that's Mum and Dad with the children? The third bird with fish, I think is a fourth birds' bill.

I know you know this is not a perfect shot Jack, but that's what makes it special. You don't have to conform with all the rules all of the time.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful image. I wish I was there!

Like your avatar.

[Jack Dean III]

Thanks Glennie. This is what I came up with. It's the first time I have ever extended canvas and I think it was well worth it. I didn't have much room to work with as the original post was full frame and it took a bit of cloning to make it look right.

[Jim Keener]

I like your RP a lot. Late Edwardian, early Victorian look to it. And congratulations on extending the canvas. That still intimidates me. Would you consider doing it a bit on the left, too? I think you're showing a good eye here. You are demonstrating a sense of beauty and composition, and you're participating in a forum to hone your technique. Those seem to be elements of success. Thanks for this.

[Glennie Passier]

Well, Jack, I am impressed with your canvas painting! It looks seemless. You did such a good job of adding the canvas to the RHS, I think you should consider adding a tad to the LHS as well. (not as much as the RHS though) Again, not much to work with, but you are skillful and have a good eye for details. Now I've just looked again at your OP...instead of adding canvas, you could possibly clone out the last two ducks instead of cropping them.

[Diane Miller]

Very nice rework! Agree with Glennie's comment to consider adding more back on the L or just removing the last two to preserve the original BG, which is lovely! I can't comment on the settings without having the raw file, but you got very nice results. I love the tonal flexibility we have in ACR/LR!

[Jack Dean III]

Diane what is the proper way to save files in PS? I have just been hitting save and it puts a tiff file in lightroom. I tried to work on this some more but I can't get the original pic back after I saved it this way unless I start all over again.

[Diane Miller]

Yes, from PS just do File > Save. I save as .psd but as long as it's not flattened and converted to 8 bit, TIFF is fine. It preserves the layers just as the.psd format does. Are you saving a flattened TIFF? What do you mean by the original pic? You can't see it?

Check my Lightroom tutorials on my web site, and if you still have something going on,get back with more information.

In PS Pref's > File Handing, Maximize Compatibility should be Always - don't know if that's your issue though.

[Diane Miller]

When you do a Save As try changing it to Format Photoshop, check embed layers and also Color Profile -- then see if a regular Save on a new image that you just brought into PS picks up those settings. Back in the old days, the first Save of a picture was a Save As where you specified those things. Looks like now it may just be picking them up from the last Save As -- I actually hadn't noticed that.

[Jack Dean III]

Thanks. I will look into it when I get home from work.

[Jack Dean III]

Ok here is my final result. I got a bit frustrated because I had to start completely over so I thought it would be a good idea to step away from it for awhile.

[Jim Keener]

To my eyes, it was worth the wait.

[Jim Keener]

Jack, I don't know if you got an answer to an earlier issue. Saving in PS overwrites the .dng, .cr2, etc. raw file in LR making it no longer nondestructive. I make a virtual copy of the .dng (raw) file before exporting to PS.

[Diane Miller]

Jack -- wonderful! This is a special image!

Jim -- No -- not so! All file formats exist in the filmstrip and in the image folder on your computer alongside the raw file and one another. And the actual raw file can't be changed -- any raw converter just applies settings to it, but they are infinitely editable. A raw file isn't an image file -- you have to apply certain parameters to it to make it one and that's what a raw converter does.

Depending on your pref's the raw and various edited versions may be "stacked" on one another. You can separate the stack by clicking in the image in the filmstrip. No need to do a virtual copy before going to PS!! The raw file will retain whatever slider settings it had when it went to PS -- they will be "baked" into the BG layer of the PS file, but that's inevitable with any raw converter.

A virtual copy is for two versions with different adjustments.

Check out my two LR tutorials on my web site -- link below my signature here.