I’ve had an earlier monochrome version of this image as my desktop wallpaper on my 27-inch Apple Cinema Display for many months. It’s a very pleasing image – surprisingly sharp for a non-tripod, handheld image shot at 200 mm with my Canon 5D Mark II.
Tonight I thought I’d process this image again – using some of my newly learned Lab color tricks – but late in the game I veered off back into monochrome, seduced by Photoshop CS6’s new toning options. Blue’s always been a favorite color of mine – and, somehow, this “Night from Day” preset just grabbed me as being right for this image. Time to let it age a bit – this is definitely one image to come back to!
In the summer of 2009, something happened to the fishing boat Josie C and she ran aground in the Princeton Harbor at Half Moon Bay.
When I originally processed this image, I used a single image HDR treatment which (as is often the case with HDR newcomers!) was a bit overdone. I recently went back and processed the image again – this time not using HDR but more conventional techniques in Photoshop.
Above is my favorite – the black and white version. Below is the color version from which the black and white was created using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.
In August of 2010, I took a photography workshop led by Dave Wyman and Ken Rockwell to Point Reyes and Tomales Bay. Along the way to the coast, we stopped in the small town of Bodega and had shot the Saint Teresa of Avila Church – in the fog. This image was shot with my tiny Canon PowerShot S90 and I have previously processed it this way:
I loved the foggy moodiness of the image – and the amber colors in the grassy foreground. I reprocessed it in monochrome with a bit of a texture overlay to add a bit more drama for the version up top.
The town of Bodega is famous for having been included in Hitchcock’s movie The Birds. The church itself was photographed in 1953 by Ansel Adams.
This is another one of my older images – from a January morning in 2010 when I was at the Golden Gate Bridge shooting with my tiny Canon PowerShot S90 camera. This is a three shot HDR (High Dynamic Range) image – blended in Photoshop using HDR Pro and then tweaked using my latest Lab color workflow and some other tricks. I remember being cold and damp on this particular morning – and this image brings back memories of that mood!
I recently had a request for a large print of my Yosemite – Three Brothers image.
After looking at my earlier 2010 processed version, I decided to re-process it again using some of the techniques I’ve been learning. I think a better, more natural image resulted. See what you think…
Here’s my 2010 effort at an HDR (High Dynamic Range) version:
And, finally, here’s my late 2012 version – a more sophisticated workflow and, hopefully, a better and more natural image:
Click on either image to see a larger version.
Funny how our tastes change as we learn more about what to look for. The earlier version is one of my most popular images – but, frankly, it’s a bit overdone. That’s what we tend to do as we learn new tricks. Instead of that earlier version, I’ll be printing a 20×30 inch version of tonight’s version – and looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
This image was shot during a one day private workshop that my son David and I took with Michael Frye in early October 2010. I was shooting with my Canon 5D Mark II, David with my tiny Canon PowerShot S95. With Michael’s great help, we learned a whole lot about photography from some very special spots for shooting in Yosemite Valley. A great trip!
A few days ago, I shared a before and after pair of images of a Maine lighthouse photo shot by my friend Jim Rowson. I loved his composition and the lighting in his image. Since I had been learning some new photo enhancement techniques with my friend and photo buddy Doug Kaye, I asked Jim if it’d be OK for me to share his image here on my blog along with an enhanced version. That was OK with him!
By way of reference, here’s Jim’s original image:
and here’s my edited version:
In my earlier post I really didn’t provide any details about the enhancements steps I took to adjust and, hopefully, improve this great image. In this post, I will share with you what I can remember about this process.
My work here is the result of lot of concentrated learning over the last month or so – beginning with a workshop that Doug arranged with Mark Lindsay. From there, I’ve learned a whole lot more – and I’ll include a list of the most important resources I’ve found at the end of this post.
As an aside, one of the great shortcomings of today’s photo editing tools is how it’s so difficult to actually log the changes one makes to an image. You can, of course, choose to keep the fully edited version (in Photoshop these can be very large PSD files) – or, if you’re like me, you can just complete your editing in Photoshop, commit your changes (by merging down the layers), and save the final result back into Lightroom. Too bad there isn’t a better way to do all of this – one which doesn’t eat up huge amounts of disk space while still providing the opportunity to look back and learn from a particular editing experience. Seems like an opportunity here for providing a much better experience!
So much for my lament, let’s get back to Jim’s image – and my editing of it.
Because I started with a relatively small size JPEG version of the file from Jim (and not the original RAW file out of his camera), I completely skipped the otherwise important workflow steps involving the initial RAW processing of an image I might have shot in the field. I switched to Lightroom (from Apple’s Aperture) a couple of years ago and it’s been my photo database and RAW processor since then. As Doug described in his recent workflow post, I do the basics in Lightroom (Lens Calibration, Camera Profile, White Balance, basic Exposure, etc.) but then do an export of the image to Photoshop where the bulk of my serious image editing takes place. For most images, Lightroom’s editing tools are more than adequate – but for those special images need more serious blending and “chording”, a trip to Photoshop always results.
I’ve included below an annotated snapshot of my layers in Photoshop from editing Jim’s original image. Let me walk through each layer in turn – from the bottom to the top – as I added them in Photoshop while editing this image.
The original image comes into Photoshop as a Background layer. I’ve recently learned (from Mark Lindsay, Lee Varis and Dan Margulis among others) the techniques associated with improving images using Lab color and other techniques. These techniques typically begin by examining the three color channels of the RGB image (Red, Green, Blue) and selecting the one with the most interesting contrast to use as the basis for the second layer.
To get there, I created a new layer – the second layer from the bottom in the diagram – somewhat confusingly labeled as Layer 1 in the diagram – and then used the Apply Image commend to select the Blue channel and load it into the layer. I then changed the layer blend mode for that layer to Luminosity – so that only the tonality of the image is adjusted by the Blue channel. (Note that for most images the Green channel is actually the best one to use for this first step – but in looking at all three channels of this image I decided that the Blue channel provided the most interest).
Next, for the third layer (labeled Layer 2 in the diagram) I created another new layer, this time also creating a Clipping Mask to link this layer with the second layer. You can tell that a Clipping Mask is applied by the indentation of that particular layer in the Layers panel. I then used Apply Image to load the Green channel into this layer and selected the Multiply blend mode to darken the image. Multiply typically goes too far, however – so I reduced the opacity of this channel to 20% which, to my eye, looked about right.
For the fourth layer, I duplicated the third layer and applied Overlay blend mode along with a Clipping Mask. I only wanted the Overlay effect to apply to the brighter portions of the layer – so I used the Blend If option of Layer Styles to eliminate the effect on tones darker than neutral (128).
For the fifth – and final tonality adjustment layer – I added another new layer with a Clipping Mask and used Apply Image to load the Red channel (the brightest of the three). I used the Color Dodge blend mode to have this brighten the sky area. I applied a layer mask using the gradient tool to block the effect of this layer on all of the areas below the sky.
Next, I duplicated this image – with the five layers so far – and selected Merge Layers while duplicating. I switched to the duplicate image – now a single layer – and immediate changed the image into Lab color. Next, I added a new layer in Overlay mode. I used a Layer Style option to eliminate the L channel from the layer. I then merged the two layers into one, used the Move tool (with shift) to move the image back on top of the original image. I made sure the new layer was the topmost layer of the original image and released any Clipping Mask that might have remained. I then changed the blend mode of the layer to Color and adjusted the opacity to my taste.
For the seventh layer, I brought in some luminosity from the Lab version’s b channel – using Overlay blend mode and adjusting opacity to taste – ending up at 45% opacity. This is totally subjective and done according to taste. Depending upon the colors in the image, the a or b channel from the Lab version might be better – you can try one or the other – or decide just to skip this layer.
Next, I duplicated the image once again – again merging the layers. I switched this duplicate’s mode immediately to CMYK color. Using the Channels menu, I selected the Black channel and applied a contrast enhancing curve to the black channel. This is a bit tricky – you need to be sure the black channel is the only one selected, etc. The goal is to have a stark contrast in this channel.
I then came back to the original image and added a Solid Color adjustment layer – using neutral grey (128 with no saturation). I applied a layer mask and loaded it using Apply Image from the Black channel of the CMYK image. I then switched the image to Color blend mode. This step is intended to reduce any inappropriate color tones from the shadow areas of the image.
At this point, I’ve completed the core adjustments in Photoshop. At this point, I selected all of the layers and flattened the image to a single layer.
Next, I used a couple of Photoshop plug-ins to complete the image. First, I used ALCE 2.1 (at 50 percent in Turbo mode) to add local contrast to the image. Second, I used the Margulis Picture Perfect Workflow panel (free download) to sharpen – specifically using his Sharpen 2012. And, finally, I used Nik’s Dfine to reduce any noise remaining in the sky portion of the image.
That’s it. Each step takes you along the path from a nice image to a much more interesting version.
Resources
We stand on the shoulders of giants someone once said – and, certainly, when it comes to image adjustment in Photoshop that’s very true. In my particular case, I benefited greatly from the following:
Dan Margulis – Dan seems to be the father of Lab color – or at least from the standpoint of teaching it to us mere mortals. His Kelby Training videos are good – but his style is one I find challenging – viewing them a couple of times through helps a lot. His book on the subject – Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace – is the definitive reference and worth owning – and reading!
What’s Next?
I feel very much like I’m just on the cusp of understanding what’s happening here. Photoshop is such a complex program – with a user interface that adds complexity while enabling great power.
I’m hoping some of these techniques “stick” with me – based on a more fundamental understanding of what they’re about, how they work in the context of what’s being manipulated, and great familiarity with using Photoshop.
Over the summer, I felt like I had finally broken through some sort of plateau in my understanding of image manipulation. The last four weeks have kicked that appreciation into “turbo mode” – here’s hoping things stick and settle down going forward!
Please let me know if any of this helps you in your struggles like mine towards better images! I’d love to hear from you!
Recently, after exploring other parts of town on one of our regular photo walks, Doug Kaye and I ended up at one of our favorite spots, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
This morning, I processed this image – shot with my new Nikon D600 DSLR. I’ve always enjoyed the way the border of the pond moves through this part of the park. This image is a three image HDR blended using Nik’s HDR Efex Pro and then taken through the Lab color technique that Doug and I have been playing with. I used the ALCE plugin to add local contrast and high pass sharpening on the building itself.
After finishing the color version, I used Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 to do a quick monochrome conversion seen here:
Earlier this week, one of my images from early in my DSLR photography era went viral on one of the sharing sites. It’s a photo taken from Twin Peaks in San Francisco as a winter storm was clearing out to the east.
Here’s that shot:
It was taken with a Canon 30D and processed several years ago into this color version.
Over the last few days, I’ve been trying some new techniques for black and white conversion in Photoshop, trying to create more interesting images. Here’s a quick version of this same image converted to black and white with a bit of split toning applied in Lightroom.
Both versions are over the top in terms of drama but are fun to compare and contrast.
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