Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/07/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Philippe, maybe not big secrets but a quantum leap from where I am. There is a wealth of extremely useful information there. Thanks so much for taking the trouble to supply that level of detail. Cheers Hoppy -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG : proud grandfather Hi Hoppy, No big secrets here. I'll try to describe my general workflow. Sometimes I do more than that, but that would lead us very deep into PS CS2. I learned a lot by stealing with my eyes (and I've been stealing for the past 18 years...) from professional retouchers, a strange breed of people that I get in touch with quite often for my job. I rarely use masks and everything that goes with that: most of what I do is directly on selections (or copied layers in some case, that get merged again ASAP) in the image, feathered or not. For what I (and I think most of us) are doing with the images, masks are not necessary: the practical aspect of it, being able to return and change (even to details) at any time in any step of the process is handy when working for a client, who tends to ask very often to change this or that when he sees the retouched image for the first time, but for your own images, I think you should know where you want to get before you start working on it. Some might argue that using masks keeps the image substantially lighter (in Mb), and eventhough this is true, I don't think most of us are working on +100 Mb base image. This means that you have to work with about 10 layers (which is a lot for 'normal' photography) before you get a 1 Gig image, a size that most modern computers can handle. Now, how do I work? 1) Cropping first. Cropping/composing an image is a craft that can be learned. Apart from studies or courses in a good art school, I would suggest reading 'Geometry of design' by Kimberly Elam, and 'The Power of Limits' by Gy?rgy Doczi. This will get you pretty far into making, framing or cropping balanced images. Studying Renaissance and baroque paintings form the old masters also helps. They all used typical (but sometimes very nifty) composition schemes. I could go deeper into that (including color composition), but that would lead us too far ATM. 2) Conversion into B&W or color is second. I use AlienSkin Exposure for that, or BW Pro from Fred Miranda, a cheap but good plugin that I bought before I got AlienSkin. Most of the time, I just use the default settings of these plugins. 3) Getting noise/grain out. I use NeatImage, almost every time at its default settings. I don't like the PS tool for it, it doesn't work as I would like it to. 4) Sharpening desired selections. I do it via USM (unsharp mask) - pretty harsh- or with smart sharpening, which these days I use a lot, in the following settings: 50/1, 50/2, or 60/1. All with the lens blur setting on. But sometimes motion blur will give nice results, too. 5) Blurring desired selections. Make a copy of the inverted selection into a new layer first, and put it above the to be blurred layer. Apply gaussian blur moderately to obtain natural effects! 6) Setting overall max. blacks and max. whites. Basically this means that you set your blacks as not just blacks (a tiny bit lighter), and whites as not just whites (a tiny bit darker). I use curves for that. I have a good article of a stock image bank about this somewhere at work, and I'll post it later on. Others do this via levels, to unclip darkest and lightest parts (got that one from Tina). Some do a combination of both. 7) Dodging//burning/vignetting. Either with the PS tools for it, or via curves in selected parts of the image, or with the shadow/ highlight tool in image/adjust. It depends. 8) Cleaning everything up, with or without selections. Apply the cloning stamp and the thing I can't translate above it in the toolbox (I have a Dutch PS version) as much (or as less) as you want. Look carefully that you don't overdo it: the cloning stamp tends to 'smear' the image out, and the other thing I cannot translate tends to stain at selection borders. Basically: cloning stamp ad borders and edges of image and or selection, the other thing everywhere else. This is how I got the electrical wire out of Jim's shot BTW. 9) Toning. Numerous possibilities here! Via duotone, via curves, via color shifts, via image/adjust/photo filter (I use the latter a lot) on the image or parts of it. 10) Maybe step 7 again for some parts of the shot. 11) Putting a nice border. Without a border, you haven 't presented the image as should IMO. But different images require different borders. It's easy to see what works best: just create additional pixels around the image by adjusting the canvas, and choose a black, grey or white background color. 11) Bring to web size and convert into sRGB, if that wasn't the case already. That's about it. One more thing though: start experimenting with the wrap tool (in edit/transform). It's fun and gives you a lot of shape correcting possibilities (same thing with filter/liquify, but that is more complex). Just don't go the irrealistic way, which is the case in fashion retouches ATM: everything you see in commercial photography, has undergone at least a beauty retouche. I can assure you that such a treatment can make the ugliest person into a glamourous fashion model. But that is an ethical discussion, and this contribution is not about that. Some interesting websites (many of them already mentioned by other LUG members): www.radiantvista.com/ www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm www.cjcom.net/articles/digiprn3.htm www.retouchpro.com www.zuberphotographics.com/page_Downloads.htm www.butzi.net/articles/toning.htm www.computer-darkroom.com./tutorials/tutorial_2_3.htm www.digitalfilmtools.com/ozone-2/ozone2.htm www.craigsactions.com/Sales/CActionsSalesMain.html www.inkjetmall.com/store/piezographyBW.html www.pixelgenius.com/sharpener/index.html www.photoscientia.co.uk/Grain.htm www.silveroxide.com/BWTech.htm www.scantips.com www.lighthunter.com www.fredmiranda.com www.alienskin.com Hope this helps :-), Philippe Op 21-jul-07, om 02:30 heeft G Hopkinson het volgende geschreven: > OK Philippe, we need to talk ;-) > I'm requesting some lessons from you regarding your processes from > my first version. > > Pretty please can you send me some detail on or off list? You have > done a fabulous job. > I avoided any border/matting at the end to let Jim present it as he > wanted. > Your choices there really lift the image. Jim or you also removed > my platinum toning, I think? > But you have greatly smoothed and improved the image from my version. > Hey I'll still claim credit for tonal adjustment and repair on the > original. > Next time, you do all of the scratch and dust repair and send me > that version! > As has also been said, all only possible since Jim has made a good > scan from a sharp and well exposed original. > > Cheers > Hoppy > > -----Original Message----- > Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG : proud grandfather > > Op 20-jul-07, om 17:28 heeft Jim Nichols het volgende geschreven: > > quid: > Hoppy boosted Jim's shot here: http://tinyurl.com/367ek8 > And Jim thanked him for that. > > --- > > Beautiful. Now let's take this just one little step further even: the > LUG Joined Retouching Forces at work ;-) > > http://tinyurl.com/3yzzuk > > Philippe > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information