Why I always kick myself when I leave the polarizer at home.

On 2012-03-26 11:52 , David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
Alan writes:

Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

I have this marvelous thing called a "camera bag",

Quotations and all. Really that cute?

I do too. And that's where the pol was.

Instead I took a small backpack with me because some of the trail
sections were steep and mud-clay/ice covered. I grabbed a few lenses
and a spare battery. Carried the camera mounted to the tripod. But I
left the filters behind. Could have used the ND 8 as well for a stream
shot...

--
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012-03-25 18:32 , Me wrote:
On 26/03/2012 11:03 a.m., Alan Browne wrote:

Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Because the reflected sky is both out of focus, and /reasonably/ even,
I'd give it a better than 50:50 chance that photo can be post-processed
to achieve damned close to what you probably hoped for (if you are a bit
like me anyway - trying to replicate what the mind perceives, which may
not be exactly what the lens captures).
If you want to post a decent sized sample, I'd give it a go and re-post
my attempt.

The way to do what I wanted was to have the pol on.

Full size (and uncropped) raw he
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62816810/Lor...20325_0001.dng

Warning: 20.5 MB (right click and DL - don't click on the link).


--
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012-03-26 14:38:06 -0700, Alan Browne
said:

On 2012-03-25 19:57 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-25 15:03:24 -0700, Alan Browne
said:


Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Just noodling around with NIK Viveza 2, & Color Efex Pro 4. Here is a
comparison.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechut...tleaf-comp.jpg

Very interesting - but has a "plastic" look that I don't like.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "plastic" look, but I took a
slightly different swing at it using your DNG.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechute/LorrWS-comp.jpg


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 2012-03-26 19:09:29 -0700, Savageduck said:

On 2012-03-26 14:38:06 -0700, Alan Browne
said:

On 2012-03-25 19:57 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-25 15:03:24 -0700, Alan Browne
said:


Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Just noodling around with NIK Viveza 2, & Color Efex Pro 4. Here is a
comparison.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechut...tleaf-comp.jpg

Very interesting - but has a "plastic" look that I don't like.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "plastic" look, but I took a
slightly different swing at it using your DNG.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechute/LorrWS-comp.jpg

BTW: here is a full size jpg of my latest adjustment.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/01kzw1c3g3ng28i/JaPCXvXwyI
or
http://db.tt/OJVL7jrS

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 27/03/2012 10:43 a.m., Alan Browne wrote:
On 2012-03-25 18:32 , Me wrote:
On 26/03/2012 11:03 a.m., Alan Browne wrote:

Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Because the reflected sky is both out of focus, and /reasonably/ even,
I'd give it a better than 50:50 chance that photo can be post-processed
to achieve damned close to what you probably hoped for (if you are a bit
like me anyway - trying to replicate what the mind perceives, which may
not be exactly what the lens captures).
If you want to post a decent sized sample, I'd give it a go and re-post
my attempt.

The way to do what I wanted was to have the pol on.

Full size (and uncropped) raw he
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62816810/Lor...20325_0001.dng

Warning: 20.5 MB (right click and DL - don't click on the link).


Oops - just downloading it now...
Will have a play later.

On 27/03/2012 10:43 a.m., Alan Browne wrote:
On 2012-03-25 18:32 , Me wrote:
On 26/03/2012 11:03 a.m., Alan Browne wrote:

Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Because the reflected sky is both out of focus, and /reasonably/ even,
I'd give it a better than 50:50 chance that photo can be post-processed
to achieve damned close to what you probably hoped for (if you are a bit
like me anyway - trying to replicate what the mind perceives, which may
not be exactly what the lens captures).
If you want to post a decent sized sample, I'd give it a go and re-post
my attempt.

The way to do what I wanted was to have the pol on.

Full size (and uncropped) raw he
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62816810/Lor...20325_0001.dng

Warning: 20.5 MB (right click and DL - don't click on the link).


Ok - so I don't work with dng or adobe stuff generally - if I can avoid it.
So converted from dng to tiff.
slight rotate (I found the white stone at top distracting), this also
crops a bit tighter.
selective contrast/levels to kill reflection using upoints.
selective feathered (exclude leaves) levels and gradient blend (kill
reflections more)
selective feathered (include leaves) wide radius high pass filter
oval feathered selection to create vignetting effect.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=htwrxs&s=5
Not sure about overall colour / levels as I was playing with the image
with my laptop - not using my calibrated system.
Can upload the full size tiff or jpeg if you want it.

On 2012-03-26 22:09 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-26 14:38:06 -0700, Alan Browne
said:

On 2012-03-25 19:57 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-25 15:03:24 -0700, Alan Browne
said:


Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Just noodling around with NIK Viveza 2, & Color Efex Pro 4. Here is a
comparison.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechut...tleaf-comp.jpg

Very interesting - but has a "plastic" look that I don't like.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "plastic" look, but I took a

Your first just looks unnatural and over textured.

slightly different swing at it using your DNG.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechute/LorrWS-comp.jpg

I like that a lot better. What procedure/s-w did you use?

--
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012-03-27 11:53 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-26 19:09:29 -0700, Savageduck
said:

On 2012-03-26 14:38:06 -0700, Alan Browne
said:

On 2012-03-25 19:57 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-25 15:03:24 -0700, Alan Browne
said:


Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Just noodling around with NIK Viveza 2, & Color Efex Pro 4. Here is a
comparison.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechut...tleaf-comp.jpg

Very interesting - but has a "plastic" look that I don't like.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "plastic" look, but I took a
slightly different swing at it using your DNG.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechute/LorrWS-comp.jpg

BTW: here is a full size jpg of my latest adjustment.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/01kzw1c3g3ng28i/JaPCXvXwyI

Nice - but maybe too saturated in the red/yellow/orange




--
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012-03-28 06:51 , Me wrote:

On 27/03/2012 10:43 a.m., Alan Browne wrote:
On 2012-03-25 18:32 , Me wrote:
On 26/03/2012 11:03 a.m., Alan Browne wrote:

Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Because the reflected sky is both out of focus, and /reasonably/ even,
I'd give it a better than 50:50 chance that photo can be post-processed
to achieve damned close to what you probably hoped for (if you are a bit
like me anyway - trying to replicate what the mind perceives, which may
not be exactly what the lens captures).
If you want to post a decent sized sample, I'd give it a go and re-post
my attempt.

The way to do what I wanted was to have the pol on.

Full size (and uncropped) raw he
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62816810/Lor...20325_0001.dng

Warning: 20.5 MB (right click and DL - don't click on the link).


Ok - so I don't work with dng or adobe stuff generally - if I can avoid it.
So converted from dng to tiff.
slight rotate (I found the white stone at top distracting), this also

When I first showed it I cropped that out - mostly to increase the two
leaves in proportion to the overall image.

crops a bit tighter.
selective contrast/levels to kill reflection using upoints.
selective feathered (exclude leaves) levels and gradient blend (kill
reflections more)
selective feathered (include leaves) wide radius high pass filter
oval feathered selection to create vignetting effect.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=htwrxs&s=5
Not sure about overall colour / levels as I was playing with the image
with my laptop - not using my calibrated system.
Can upload the full size tiff or jpeg if you want it.

No thanks. I don't like your results much. The 'duck did very well I
think with his 2nd (of 3).


--
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012-03-30 13:28:02 -0700, Alan Browne
said:

On 2012-03-26 22:09 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-26 14:38:06 -0700, Alan Browne
said:

On 2012-03-25 19:57 , Savageduck wrote:
On 2012-03-25 15:03:24 -0700, Alan Browne
said:


Image with the two leaves.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/62816810/1/P?h=8aceac

Just noodling around with NIK Viveza 2, & Color Efex Pro 4. Here is a
comparison.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechut...tleaf-comp.jpg

Very interesting - but has a "plastic" look that I don't like.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "plastic" look, but I took a

Your first just looks unnatural and over textured.

I guess that I went about things the wrong way. ;-)


slightly different swing at it using your DNG.
http://homepage.mac.com/lco/filechute/LorrWS-comp.jpg

I like that a lot better. What procedure/s-w did you use?

Taking your DNG I started with ACR, warmed the WB to 5500, bumped the
clarity and vibrance, while dropping the saturation a bit.

Opened in CS5 and started with NIK Raw pre-sharpener with adaptive
sharpening set to 75% and slight edge sharpening.

Then I went to NIK Vivenza adjusting structure up about 15%, contrast
up about 8%, warmth up about 4%, and painted the effect onto the two
leaves only.

Then I moved to NIK Color Efex Pro 4 and with a little bit of trial and
error and experimentation, I layered several effects starting with a
polarizer set at 105º & strength of 20%.
Next I added a Low Key layer with glow at 50%, Standard low key at 30%,
Dynamic low key at 0%, saturation at 70% (that is saturation for the
low key effect)
Then came a Tonal Contrast layer with Highlights at 25%, Midtones at
50%, Shadows at 25%, & Contrast at 20%

All of the Color Efex Pro adjustments were applied masking out the two leaves.

Merged those layers and duplicated the new background layer, set the
blending mode to "Luminosity" and applied USM at 90% with radius of 2.0
pix.

....and that was that.
--
Regards,

Savageduck