-
-
Nice find. I went raw about 2or 3 years ago and have never gone back. I don't think a monopod was necessary at 1/5000. The lower area of the neck looks very bright but I cant tell on my monitor if it is blown or not.
- Dave
-
Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
-
BPN Member
Overall, it looks good, Willie.
I just calibrated my monitor 10 minutes ago, and can confirm that the lower neck highlights are blown. Perhaps back off that +8 Highlight adjustment for better results.
The eye looks sharp, as it should, but the body is a bit soft.
I presume you were shooting Aperture Priority, and that resulted in the 1/5000 shutter speed. If you were in manual, say at 1/3200 or less, you could stop down to F/7.1 or more, to get more DOF on the bird.
Glad you're having fun out there ! 
-
Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
-
A very nice find!! And I'm glad you've discovered the advantages of raw!
A couple of issues here. First the image has "Camera RGB" profile embedded. To post for web viewing you should convert to sRGB and embed the profile -- see a sticky here.
When you open an image in PS (or Elements) from its raw converter, it will automatically convert to the working space. And probably somewhere you have a place to set that working space. I'm sure that Elements defaults to sRGB, so maybe you changed it? You have only two good choices. Adobe RGB is a little better (larger) gamut for printing, but sRGB is a simpler workflow for the beginner who is mostly using web output. If your working space is not sRGB you should convert to that for any web-based output -- do that when you make the JPEG.
Blown whites: don't rely on the monitor to judge them. It will be a good guide if it is a good one and properly calibrated and viewed, but the accurate way is to look at the histogram, which shows what is actually in the image independent of the monitor. The creator if the image will do this as they are adjusting the image. Viewers judging an image here should open the image in PS, and (important!!!) convert it to your working space. If it doesn't match the working space you should get a warning -- you can set that up in Edit > Color Settings. Then look at the histogram.
The image is small - you can post at 1400 pixels wide and that makes things easier to evaluate.
I don't know the raw converter in Elements, but as Bill said, don't go quite so far with the whites -- watch the histogram.
I think this is worth a re-tweak and re-post, at 1400 px and sRGB, with the above adjustments (if you haven't made them) to your color settings in Elements. It should have been set for sRGB, which makes your own workflow simpler, so I'm not sure how you got the camera RGB embedded.
Looking forward to your progress -- this image is a good place to start!
-
Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
-
Nice find.
A few things.
First it needs a CW rotation.
The whites a a bit blown out, but that is what RAW is for.
You can send me a PM for help, or even share with me the RAW file. I like working on others pics to see how I can help with ideas on how to edit.
Dvir
-
Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
-
I am going to repost eventually, I made a few tweeks and I see what Bill and Diane are saying. However, Diane, I cannot find where to make the sRGB adjustment on the work space....any hints on how to? thanks all, lots to learn
-
I've never used Elements but maybe someone else can help. Try this -- look partway down to the heading Set Up Color Management. (What did you do to get the camera color space tagged to the image?)
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-ele...anagement.html
-
thanks Diane, I did go there and I had already selected the Monitor option for sRGB, will repost with the suggestions above and Dvir....thanks, look forward to working with you.
-
1. Open in Camera RAW
Change Profile to Camera Standard (Like the colors better)
Added 10 Vibrance (my default for all images)
Slightly warmed up the image through the White Balance setting as it was a bit blue to 6100
lower the highlights area by -20
IN PS6
2. Slight rotation CW, can be done in Camera RAW as well
Cropped it as desired
3. Then I made a layer and used the shadow/highlight adjustment to lower the highlights.
I usually bring down the highlights in my photos with a highlight curves mask, but that is a more complicated way
that isn't always really neccesary. And the Highlights/ Shadows tool works great with the right settings.
The settings I used were
0 for the shadow setting
and for the highlights I did to runs of it on the same layer.
The first with
30 amount
6 tonal width
50 radius
Then I did again
60 amount
6 tonal width
50 radius
Then again
90 amount
6 tonal width
50 radius
that overall recovered quite a bit of detail in the feathers.
4. Next Step
My regular work would be to do midtone contrast, but that requires the use of luminosity masks and takes some time
so what I did here next was open a new curves layer mask to add some contrast and changed the layer mode to luminosity
so that it doesn't affect the color. Tip: If you have it, to make new layers use the Layer - New Adjustment Layer tab
Under the Curves panel, I made a point on the grid on the left side of the slanting line and slightly dragged it down to
add some contrast to the image
5. I added another curves mask with similar mode
I added two stop points on the grid One at the top right of the bottom sqaure and the other at the bottom left of the top
right sqaure. This is done so as to only affect the midtones of the image. I then made a slight curve up by dragging the
middle of the curve line. This only affect the midtones.
6.
Added a new Levels adjustment mask with luminosity mode. Made sure the image stretched all the way to white white or close
7. Added a new layer, Selective Color (I love this one). Moved the blacks under the Reds tab 6+ to make the eye stand out a
bit more, and moved the blacks under the neutrals tab 4+ to add some more contrast.
8. I added a new saturation layer added 10+ saturation all image and 4+ saturation to the reds channel
9. I than merged all layers, and used the cloning tool to clean up some of the stuff on the sensor or what ever the
dirt was. Its not that important for web posting really.
10. At this stage I flatten all the layers if I am happy with the results.
Then changed the image from 16bit to 8bit for saving it as a Tiff file. This is done through the Image- Mode
tab. Always work on your images in 16bit, and I have ACR do that automatically for me.
Now I save the image.
11. For posting for the web, I reopen the file
change its size. So under Image - Image Size
I change the settings as follows
12. Even after the downsize, their is still a bit of noise in the image. So I reduced the noise a tad bit.
I use Topaz Denoise (best noise reducer IMO)
13. Then I sharpened the image. I add a new layer for the sharpening in case I want to mask something out.
For Wildlife/birds, my basic sharpening settings is
Smart Sharpen:
500 amount
.2 radius
make sure to click the more accurate tab, its important
I do that twice usually, on the same layer. I find that sharpening gradually rather than all at once leads to more natural
results.
I sometimes (like here) addd a new layer and do another round of sharpening, same settings, but 200 amount. Then I do a
layers mask and click ctrl+i to invert mask so the sharpening isn't applied. Then with the brush tool paint over the eye
with white paint at 100% opacity.
I ended up adding another layer with 200 amount sharpening to the whole image, as I wanted just a bit more zing to it.
14. Then when I am happy, I click the save for web, and save the image at usually 80% quality for forum, 100% quality for
personal website.
Final Image: Had I spent more time I would have done an actually good CW rotation, but that always takes me too much time*
That was a bit long, but I wanted to help out. Hope that helped a bit.
All the best, Dvir
-
Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
-
OK, I have lots to study now Dvir. Thanks for taking the time to do this and amazing what you brought out!
-
BPN Member
Excellent transformation, Dvir !
-
Very nice explanation, Dvir. Willie only has PS Elements which may not have some of these features, but it gives an excellent approach, as nearly as he can replicate it.
One caution about Shadows-Highlights -- in PS the default is (sadly) a basic interface that is very limited -- be sure to check Show More Options. But I'm not sure Elements will have those options. Shadow-Highlight can be useful but you can make light tones too gray if you're not careful. As much of that sort of adjustment as possible should be done with the larger tonal overhead in the raw converter. The Detail Extractor in Nik's Color Efex Pro is a more subtle version of the same sort of thing. Midtone contrast is enhanced by the Clarity slider in the raw converter -- then more may be desired later in PS.
I'll argue here about routinely flattening a file and converting to 8 bit. (But if you do, flatten FIRST or you have lost the advantage of working in 16 bits.) My preference is to keep all layers for future tweaking. There isn't that much advantage in making the file smaller, and you don't need to flatten and go to 8 bit for printing. When you make a JPEG for the web, Save for Web (or Export in LR) will flatten and go to 8 bit for you, leaving your master file intact. It can be surprising what you (or somebody else) will see in a print or web post you might make months later, that you wish you could go back and fix in one of your layers.
-
Thanks Bill.
I agree Dianne with the image flattening, I flatten files that I know I won't really get back too. Some files like more complicated landscapes, I will keep all the layers. Also with the shadow/highlight tool. As Dianne has said, its a tool that needs some mastering to use. I have new defaults set, with that tool, try to use a smaller amount and tonal width, and about 50 radius. It can sometimes make the image too neutral grey, but that is why I added the levels layer afterwards.
Last edited by Dvir Barkay; 07-01-2014 at 11:04 AM.
-
Using the ruler tool and arbitrary rotation is a quick and easy way to level up an image. Learned from Artie's Digital Basics file.
