For those that have finally seen the light!
20 posts Page 2 of 2
The second one is an interesting example of what ACR can do with pictures with subjects in the shadow:
I tested the new ACR 4.5 with the 'Camera landscape beta 1' profile to enhance the greens.
Only sharpening in PSE
IMG2008_08-0027.jpg
IMG2008_08-0027.jpg (118.36 KiB) Viewed 952 times

Attachments

Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
Oh that looks good Michel!
Thank you, John
I just played with the sliders on both of these. Shari, I hope you're feeling better.

Anita

Attachments

Nice work everyone!

Michel - yes, the fill slider and recovery slider and work wonders where the image just doesn't have good lighting - although, a properly exposed image is always best to begin with.

The only other option is to go to HDR - kind of impossible with this shot although the Photomatix software that I have will make a PSEUDO HDR image out of a single RAW image - not great, but now bad. (I will post one in this thread just for the show and tell aspect).

Anita - like your version of the canal lock thing. - they are used to open and close the lock gates (doors).

Keep up the good work!

Edit:

Here is the image - opened the original RAW file in Photomatix, SavedAs a HDR (Radiance) file, then opened in CS3, Save for Web

IMG2008_08-0027.jpg
IMG2008_08-0027.jpg (255.06 KiB) Viewed 911 times
John
jlwilm wrote:
Michel - yes, the fill slider and recovery slider and work wonders where the image just doesn't have good lighting - although, a properly exposed image is always best to begin with.


John, those fill and slider recovery are a blessing. They are much more powerful than the shadow/highlight in Elements, especially on raw files. In this case, exposure was spot on, so the sliders were used to compensate for the less than ideal natural lighting. Only recently did I rediscover the brightness slider. It acts mainly on midtones, like the middle slider in the level adjustments. However it seems to have a strong influence not only on tones, but also on saturation, so that you don't need as much correction with the clarity and vibrance sliders. I almost never use the saturation one... Changing the brightness with the slider is often too brutal, I have to enter the new figure for small, but visible changes. Until now, I don't miss the additional adjustments provided by LR and the full ACR version of CS3. After all, I can still edit levels, curves and shadow/highlight in 16 bits then convert to 8 bits when layers and masks are needed. Which additional tools do you often use outside the 'basic' adjustment tab available in PSE6?
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
Michel,

Interesting question.

In the Lr/ACR challenge, I roam around and play with them all. In practice, I use Lr to adjust within the basic tab, then tend to go directly to CS3 and use adjustment layers.

One thing I am particularly interested in is using the Hue/Saturation/Luminance tab in Lr that gives a rather unique feature that is to my knowledge not available in CS3 and that is the ability to click on a selector that then allows you to click in the picture – say on a red shirt – and adjust the sliders that correspond to that part of the image to increase or decrease the H/S/L areas of that object alone. In workbench videos from Radiant Vista, they play with these sliders to see what happens, in Lr you select the “colour” of the object and increase or decrease. In other words, it removes the guesswork about what to change.

In my real world, I use Lr and the basic tab the most and I tend to pay attention to the Histogram and adjust the Exposure/Recovery/Fill Light/Blacks, then go directly to CS3 and use an action that I have that creates my favorite adjustment layers (5 adjustment layers and a colour burn and a colour dodge layer – all in a neutral mode, then make all my adjustments on a specific area of the picture using the Layer Masks to make specific local area adjustments.

Sounds like a lot, but some of them are simply not used – they are there just in case. The Layer stack looks like this:

2008-09-09_172603.jpg
2008-09-09_172603.jpg (37.73 KiB) Viewed 896 times


and each layer is set to a specific blend mode as determined by the layer - from top to bottom

Color Dodge
Color Burn
Saturation
Normal
Color
Luminosity
Luminosity

which is something new I have been playing with since April this year - basically the layer blend mode is set to the requirements of what the adjustment layer is doing and it targets that aspect of the picture.
John
Now I a question, what setting do you use as far as opening your image after RAW adjustment? Open Image of Open as Smart Object?
John,
Thanks for the detailed answer. I supposed the H/S/L adjustments in LR were the most important missing parts in ACR for PSE6. Your layers setup in CS3 seems totally logical and very efficient for local adjustments as well as global ones. When you think about it, this challenge does not show all the merits of ACR and LR as a very powerful first editing step (development?), it rather stresses the possibility of full editing or creative interpretations.
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
Smiles,

I OCCASIONALLY open a RAW file as a smart object, but very very rarely. I have a couple of tutorials that show where this is a good idea - like when you are doing team roster shots and want to put each player in the same frame.

Where I most often do it is when applying filters that are destructive in nature. The Smart Filters option in CS3 lets you go back and change a setting, like say on unsharp mask without re-doing everything to get there.

Michel,

Yes, when I first started out, I was happy to do the global adjustments, then started tuning myself into the importance of local adjustments. It opens a great big doorway in terms of creativity and flexibility. One of my favourite workbenches from Radiant Vista uses about 10 different Hue and Saturation adjustment layers with masks that focus the adjustment (by layer masks and the eyedropper tool) to a doorway, the side of a barn door, the light in the meadow, etc.
John
Thank you, very much for your answer John. I was thinking about the same as what you are explaining. Again thank you very much1
20 posts Page 2 of 2

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests

cron