Playing with photoshop

[KingstonTodd]

What do you think?

Original:


Photoshop'd:


Original:


Photoshop'd:

[Jac]

hmmmm, you know, I prefer the original... Your dogs are so beautiful.... Hershey is very special!

[Lucky Me]

The originals look better on our Mac too.......kinda looks like they ate a lot of carrots! LOL ( I used to use carrot to color feed my canaries)

[KingstonTodd]

I was trying to do a pseudo-high dynamic range. Supposedly its all the rage now, but I am not convinced.

[seazr]

I too, like the originals, but it could be that "doodles" are not good subjects for high dynamic range processing. Your "kids" are SOOOO gorgeous--I love, LOVE red coats!!!! I think the HDR makes them look unrealistic -- you might want to go back and just tweak the tone up on those gorgeous reds just a tiny bit at a time until you get what you want. It could be that our "eyes" are less willing to accept intense tones on a "live" subject. The HDR process may lend itself better to inanimate objects.

There is so much capability on Photoshop--one of the most important lessons I have learned is "tweak the adjustments" because sometimes you just need a hint of a change in post production to achieve that awesome photo. In years gone by I had the great privilege to work with Ken Hackman, a world-renowned photographer who, at that time, was the head of the Air Force's Combat Camera Command. Two things Ken made me promise I would never, ever forget:

1. Less is more

2. Make a ripple, not a splash

This would no doubt follow through with all aspects of photography. And for the record, I LOVE playing in Photoshop too!!!! In fact I recently took a class in RAW photography and I was so impressed and overwhelmed that since that time, RAW is all I shoot in. If you have not tried Camera RAW processing, you may want to try it as a first step before you go into Photoshop. Camera RAW gives you awesome control over your photo--it is the digital equivalent of the old film-camera darkroom photo process.
Here is a link to a digital photography site that I really like. In addition to overall information on digital photography, it has a whole section on post processessing. I have included the link to a good article on HDR. There were other HDR articles on this site that I remember reading a couple of months ago--

Link to digital photography school site:
http://digital-photography-school.com/

Link to interesting article on HDR:
http://digital-photography-school.com/a ... maging-hdr

YIKES!!!! And your simple question was, "What do you think?" So sorry!!! I seem to have gotten a bit carried away!!!!!

[MaxandMe]

HI TODD! i toolike originals better and hope your feelings/ego is still intact

Diane gave GREAT links........she's taken classes and from what i understand PHOTOSHOP is not easy at 1st
takes some time to learn how to play with everything.

and me? well wish i could take the AWESOME SHOTS Diane does ...........but i also LOVE playing withmy Olympus software
tone curve, gamma takes a bit of time along with distortion/noise, then the sharpness, hue & saturatioin, etc but it's soooooooooo MUCH FUN !!
IT does take time and i should do more of RTFM!!! that way i could take better shots.

DAVE also calls me the CROP QUEEN but sometimes i gotta do it! hahhahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

if you don'd mind........i am going to play with those two pics in my software and see what i come up with
BRB

[KingstonTodd]

Thanks for the links, I'll check them out. I checked my camera and it doesnt allow exporting files in RAW, so I am seriously thinking about getting a new camera.

I did those first pseudo HDR following a tutorial, but I agree, way too much carrot in their food. I turned it down here. I like that the colours pop, but it is a little surreal.

Original:


Photoshop'd:


Less carrot:

[Jac]

Much better!
I knew that Diane would relate! She actually posted someting a while back...a photography lesson...I couldn't make heads or tails out of it, but you would probably like reading it...
Here it is! post160855.html
Diane, I love your passion for photography...don't ever feel odd sharing your vast knowledge! I appreciate it and I know that others here do too.

[MaxandMe]

ok i SWORE I POSTED the PHOTOS i did in OLYMPUS software......as Diane and I have the SAME camera
TODD we can do raw or automatic but the software w/pics done in various auto settings yet can play with shutter etc

it teaches you about histograms, distortion aka noise (graininess), hue, saturation, color balances w/various settings, tone, gamma,
cropping, septia, BW, contrast, lightness, sharpness and MUCH MORE which is a START to learning RAW transition........i also love watching the histogram with my changes as it changes thus i am seeing what is going on.
OH in the tone settings you can play around and get a almost cartoonish look VS once i got a charcoal setting look w/MAX!!!
takes time but i find it fun but i need to RTFM or i should say RTM(read the manual)

DIANE HAS BEEN SO KIND TO SHARE HER CLASSES by posting them here in past and NOW HER LINKS.........THANKS DIANE!


NOW i am on a time limit as DAVE needs to drive me to the store so here's a QUICKIE of YOUR PHOTOS a bit touched up not much


TODD on this one i realized it might be TOO SHARP and needs to go down by ONE point.



this is just a TAD sharper than your orginal...........was trying to keep the ORIGINAL colors




THIS one KEEPS the colors you described of what your Doodle looks like? and hue/sharpness etc was played with.
HINT: you live 2hours from me.......wish you, whole family and couple of doodles would visit sometime!!!!
HUGE House where 5 doodles can easily run inside and 6 acres outside and i am babyproofing now w/Alivia being 6mos old

[seazr]

That looks nice Annmarie! And Todd, on your pics I really think it might be the subject that's the problem, not your application of HDR. I don't know much at all about HDR but I do know that I'm going to be much more willing to accept dynamic tones, contrast etc on an object while the same application to, in this case, Hershey or also, for example to skin tones would bother me because it deviates from what I intuitively know to be correct . . . does that make sense?? And thank you all for your confidence in my skills, but I honestly don't know that much--wish I did!! There aren't that many classes out there and it becomes a matter of practice, practice. Find good books to read--right now I'm reading and using Photoshop CS3 RAW. I also participate photography Websites and I belong to the forums; in these forums I have found kind professional photographers that are willing to critique my work!! You just have to swallow hard!!!
AndTodd, I do think you probably have RAW capability if you have a DSLR==all cameras have different file extensions for RAW. Even if you don't, you can open any file in RAW as a JPEG, you just lose some of the funtionality--don't know that you even want to try Camera RAW but it does give you stuff that is otherwise more complicated in Photoshop. For example, in the adjustment brush, you could actually select a single element--like Hershey's nose-- and tweak just that . . .

[lindamarie]

Maybe the colors look Carrotie...like that new word? But I love the sharpness in photoshop. It's like every ripple and blade of grass shows.....very cool!
The last one you took, Todd, removing the carrot looks great to me.......and so does annmarie's!

[tuffystar]

I have a brother that took tons of pictures in raw when they went on a cruise to Europe. He said he wished he had not done that because it takes so much time to edit and he likes the pictures he takes using just the regular settings just as well. So if you have tons of pictures and don't have a lot of time to edit would you really want to do raw? I really am trying to figure this out. My camera won't allow raw but we are thinking of getting another camera with lenses (maybe next year?). Thanks Todd for posting this I am learning so much. Seazr is raw something a simple minded person like me can do or do you have to be in the smart class?