really beautiful Ian, the smooth, neutral colored water really makes him pop - and no mud on his bill! love how the very subtle wake lines in the water frame him.
Ian,
If you would, please post(as a reply) another version of this image with less Shadow and Highlights.
A Halo is obvious and I don't think it needs as much as you applied.
Hi Ian. I saw the halo-and it is a caused by the shadow/highlight tool. I don't know if you use ACR, but if you do I would strongly suggest you use the curves adjustment there for these type adjustments. The likelyhood of halos and other artifacts is less. As a matter of fact there are advantages in doing everything possible in ACR. Of course things like selective NR are going to have to be done in PS. regards~Bill
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 02-10-2011 at 01:12 AM.
Very nice shot. The colors are beautiful, nicely exposed, and sharp. The subtle ripples give the image character without distracting from the subject.
The halo issue has already been covered, so not much to say there...
Ian, both images have halos. I took the liberty of taking the first image to Photoshop and remove the halo so you can see the difference. I did a quick selection of the water (probably not too accurate - I just wanted to help you see the halo), reversed it and jumped the bird to a separate layer. On the background layer I then painted over the halo's around the bird using the clone tool.
Hope this helps?
By the way, I think it's a very nice image; the bird stands out nicely against the neutral background.
Thanks, Bill. I'm curious about what advantages you find working in ACR.
My current workflow is initial cropping, correction of angle (I'm terrible with keeping my camera level and rarely remember to bring my bubble level), and exposure adjustment in LR3, curves and/or S/H in CS5, NR as needed in Noiseware Pro, and then sharpening in CS5 or Real Fractals/CS5.
I like starting in LR3, because that is how I maintain some semblance of order in my catalog. Doing this workflow, however, skips the ACR step that I used to get when I went from Bridge to CS4.
I don't use lightroom, but I assume the RAW converter is the same as ACR in photoshop.
The question is: are there advantages in the manipulation of the RAW file, or wait until after conversion to a useable format (like .psd or .tiff)?
In the first place t is easier to work on the RAW file directly in ACR (or lightroom I assume) Adjustments are all set out in one place. Access to individual sliders is quick and easy, and since each is clearly visible it is less likely you'll forget one adjustment.
RAW files contain more information than when converted to a useable file format.
Specifically in the "Benefits" section in the following wikipedia article there is more about RAW and perhaps why I find it better to work on it directly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_image_format I realise they are talking about jpegs vs RAW. but I think there are advantages in RAW vs .PSD or .TIFF, though not as great.
regards~Bill
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 02-10-2011 at 02:41 PM.
Thanks, Bill, that makes sense. I do work only in RAW until I save a processed image in TIFF. I use JPG for web presentation purposes. I find that I have better control in RAW than I ever had the other way. If I read you correctly, I am doing similar things in LR3 that you are doing in ACR before we get to PS.
Sounds like it too. Bottom line; the shadow/highlight tool in PS is likely to produce nasty wide halos, which can be fixed as Levina pointed out with masking, but avoiding the use of the tool by doing the necessary adjustment with curves to the RAW file is better. Note; you can still get halos in RAW adjustments, especially with the clarity slider used too much, but with curves halos are not as much of a problem. regards~Bill
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 02-10-2011 at 05:03 PM.
Bill, if used well, the S/H tool is a wonderful tool to bring out blacks and tone down highlights and you have a lot of control, but you have to use it with moderation. In any case, I never have halos when I use it. And although selecting my subject and jumping it to a separate layer is a method I use a lot when I want to selectively do stuff, I would never create halos first and then remove them the way I did with Ian's image. But in this case I only had a halood jpeg to work with and I couldn't think of another method to get the job done...
I agree Levina, S/H when used correctly is a good tool when used in moderation, it is just that if there is considerable adjustment needed, such as with this image as evidenced by the appearance of halos, curves in ACR (or lightroom) is better. I didn't think you create halos and remove them, just pointed out you had a solution to the problem. regards~Bill
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