Noob editing help needed please

Hi

Below are some links to an image I took on holiday

I was crouched down taking some dodgy clichéd pics of driftwood when I
realised I was about to get run over by something tearing down the beach!

Had about 3 or 4 seconds to take the shot so I'm pretty chuffed that I
didn't cut his head off :-)

Trouble is pretty obviously the exposure on the guys face, anyone have any
rescue tips I could try

Have played with fill flash and EV level but the results aren't clean, I
tend to end up with a white halo round his head

Any help much appreciated

Tim


http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...ach/Beach.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h-Lighter.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h/DSC_1448.NEF about 5Mb

"Tim" no wrote in message
k...

Hi

Below are some links to an image I took on holiday

I was crouched down taking some dodgy clichéd pics of driftwood when I
realised I was about to get run over by something tearing down the beach!

Had about 3 or 4 seconds to take the shot so I'm pretty chuffed that I
didn't cut his head off :-)

Trouble is pretty obviously the exposure on the guys face, anyone have any
rescue tips I could try

Have played with fill flash and EV level but the results aren't clean, I
tend to end up with a white halo round his head

Any help much appreciated

Tim


http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...ach/Beach.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h-Lighter.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h/DSC_1448.NEF about 5Mb

Just had a quick crack at loading the nef into capture to see how it comes
out. After a few adjustments I got this:

http://www.boliston.co.uk/temp/DSC_1448.jpg

I'm pretty much a beginner with working in capture and my "tweaks" were as
follows:

Advanced Raw - Sharpness=high, tone comp=low contrast

(reducing the contrast in RAW seems a good idea as it seems to enhance
shadow detail, and I generally like to use low or medium low for most of my
own shots)

I set IIIa as tone comp rather than Ia but this is a personal preference.

My only other change was +1.11EV exposure comp.

Image was saved as a 16bit tiff, then opened in irfanview for resizing and
saving as a jpg, (as I'm not keen on the way capture handles resizing & jpg
encoding compared with irfanview).

Cheers Adrian www.boliston.co.uk

Adrian Boliston wrote:
"Tim" no wrote in message
k...

Hi

Below are some links to an image I took on holiday

I was crouched down taking some dodgy clichéd pics of driftwood when I
realised I was about to get run over by something tearing down the beach!

Had about 3 or 4 seconds to take the shot so I'm pretty chuffed that I
didn't cut his head off :-)

Trouble is pretty obviously the exposure on the guys face, anyone have any
rescue tips I could try

Have played with fill flash and EV level but the results aren't clean, I
tend to end up with a white halo round his head

Any help much appreciated

Tim


http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...ach/Beach.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h-Lighter.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h/DSC_1448.NEF about 5Mb

Just had a quick crack at loading the nef into capture to see how it comes
out. After a few adjustments I got this:

http://www.boliston.co.uk/temp/DSC_1448.jpg

I'm pretty much a beginner with working in capture and my "tweaks" were as
follows:

Advanced Raw - Sharpness=high, tone comp=low contrast

(reducing the contrast in RAW seems a good idea as it seems to enhance
shadow detail, and I generally like to use low or medium low for most of my
own shots)

I set IIIa as tone comp rather than Ia but this is a personal preference.

Adrian,
Nice work, particularly spur of the moment. With respect to editing the
image, you might try selecting the underexposed areas--e.g. the man's
face--and trying different exposure settings. Adjustment layers work
well in this regard. As far as cliches go, I believe just about
everything can be a cliche. It depends on how you approach it. I see a
lot of photos posted here that could be called cliches but they are
quite good, nonetheless.
--
Bill in Lake Charles, LA USA

My only other change was +1.11EV exposure comp.

Image was saved as a 16bit tiff, then opened in irfanview for resizing and
saving as a jpg, (as I'm not keen on the way capture handles resizing & jpg
encoding compared with irfanview).

Cheers Adrian www.boliston.co.uk

Tim wrote:
Trouble is pretty obviously the exposure on the guys face, anyone
have any rescue tips I could try

I loaded the NEF into PS CS2 and did the following:

-Boosted exposure by 1 stop in ACR
-Ran Noise Ninja
-Cloned a bit of dust out
-Added a hue/sat adjustment layer and selective colour layer to darken
the sky and sea.
-Straightened.

http://web.aanet.com.au/miwa/DSC_1448-mw.jpg

--
Mike Warren
My web gallery: http://web.aanet.com.au/miwa/mike

"Bill K" wrote in message
ups.com...

Adrian,
Nice work, particularly spur of the moment. With respect to editing the
image, you might try selecting the underexposed areas--e.g. the man's
face--and trying different exposure settings. Adjustment layers work
well in this regard. As far as cliches go, I believe just about
everything can be a cliche. It depends on how you approach it. I see a
lot of photos posted here that could be called cliches but they are
quite good, nonetheless.

When I looked at the photo the thing that struck me was more the expression
on the *horses* face, which seems to be what gives the photo the impact. I
guess the rider's face could be described as "underexposed", but I sometimes
worry that tweaking certain parts of a photo can give it a "photoshopped"
look, and Nikon Capture does not allow parts to be worked on separately.

Tim wrote:
Hi

Below are some links to an image I took on holiday

I was crouched down taking some dodgy clichéd pics of driftwood when
I
realised I was about to get run over by something tearing down the
beach!
Had about 3 or 4 seconds to take the shot so I'm pretty chuffed that
I
didn't cut his head off :-)

Trouble is pretty obviously the exposure on the guys face, anyone
have any rescue tips I could try

Have played with fill flash and EV level but the results aren't
clean, I tend to end up with a white halo round his head

Any help much appreciated

Tim


http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...ach/Beach.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h-Lighter.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h/DSC_1448.NEF
about
5Mb

Well, sir, it seems to me there isn't much adjustment required. What
you have is a wonderful artifact of your contemporary eye's
interaction with the environment. The eye closed down to protect
itself from the strong light, an effect lost by lightening the image.

If you want an artifact of the relationship among the environment,
your eye, your intellect, your software, the opinions of numerous
opinionated strangers, and post-experience experience, wail away at
it. I like it the original way, with maybe a little twist to raise the
right side a bit.

--
Frank ess

Frank ess wrote:
Tim wrote:
Hi

Below are some links to an image I took on holiday

I was crouched down taking some dodgy clichéd pics of driftwood when I
realised I was about to get run over by something tearing down the
beach!
Had about 3 or 4 seconds to take the shot so I'm pretty chuffed that I
didn't cut his head off :-)

Trouble is pretty obviously the exposure on the guys face, anyone
have any rescue tips I could try

Have played with fill flash and EV level but the results aren't
clean, I tend to end up with a white halo round his head

Any help much appreciated

Tim


http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...ach/Beach.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h-Lighter.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h/DSC_1448.NEF about
5Mb

Well, sir, it seems to me there isn't much adjustment required. What you
have is a wonderful artifact of your contemporary eye's interaction with
the environment. The eye closed down to protect itself from the strong
light, an effect lost by lightening the image.

If you want an artifact of the relationship among the environment, your
eye, your intellect, your software, the opinions of numerous opinionated
strangers, and post-experience experience, wail away at it. I like it
the original way, with maybe a little twist to raise the right side a bit.

I agree. I'm guessing the whole photo is underexposed ca. two stops, but
therein lies the rich sky and dark horse, so to speak. Maybe bring it up
a half stop? The "corrected" version another gent did is technically
super, and may be preferred by many. I like both, but your original is
pretty damn good.

--
John McWilliams

Tim wrote:
Hi

Below are some links to an image I took on holiday

I was crouched down taking some dodgy clichéd pics of driftwood when
I
realised I was about to get run over by something tearing down the
beach!
Had about 3 or 4 seconds to take the shot so I'm pretty chuffed that
I
didn't cut his head off :-)

Trouble is pretty obviously the exposure on the guys face, anyone
have any rescue tips I could try

Have played with fill flash and EV level but the results aren't
clean, I tend to end up with a white halo round his head

Any help much appreciated

Tim


http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...ach/Beach.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h-Lighter.html

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...h/DSC_1448.NEF
about
5Mb

Well, sir, it seems to me there isn't much adjustment required. What
you have is a wonderful artifact of your contemporary eye's
interaction with the environment. The eye closed down to protect
itself from the strong light, an effect lost by lightening the image.

If you want an artifact of the relationship among the environment,
your eye, your intellect, your software, the opinions of numerous
opinionated strangers, and post-experience experience, wail away at
it. I like it the original way, with maybe a little twist to raise the
right side a bit.


Thanks all for your help & comments

I know what you're saying Frank and agree to an extent, but the really
really annoying thing is that the guy's staring right down the camera lens,
Oh well next time!

Here's my latest attempt at lemonade spurred on by your help

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...-Portrait.html

BTW Adrian & Mike liked your sites

Best regards

Tim

"Tim" no wrote in message
k...

Here's my latest attempt at lemonade spurred on by your help

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...-Portrait.html

BTW Adrian & Mike liked your sites

Interesting Tim that you decided to crop it as a "portrait" this way.

You shot it at 27mm which gave an excellent wide angle aspect showing the
beach that the rider had just galloped along, nicely balanced with a rocky
outcrop on the right hand side. Are you sure cropping out the sides is the
way to go?

"Tim" no wrote in message
k...

Here's my latest attempt at lemonade spurred on by your help

http://www.timdenning.pwp.blueyonder...-Portrait.html

BTW Adrian & Mike liked your sites

Interesting Tim that you decided to crop it as a "portrait" this way.

You shot it at 27mm which gave an excellent wide angle aspect showing
the beach that the rider had just galloped along, nicely balanced
with a rocky outcrop on the right hand side. Are you sure cropping
out the sides is the way to go?

Hi Adrian

Well, yes and no is the short answer :-)

I agree the landscape version is good contextually but for my website I was
thinking that the portrait version would keep more detail, and I like the
horses leg and the waterline pointing to the corner. It also helps to show
that the crop he's using is a piece of vine which is lost in the smaller
landscape version.

I have a horse riding friend who loves this shot so if I can get a half
decent exposure worked out I'll print it for her and that'll be the
landscape version.

Best regards

Tim