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Fun with MF images 2024

drunkenspyder

drunkenspyder

Well-known member
Doppler9000 said:
Lovely shot - can you please speak a little about your approach and technique here?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind words. Sure.I hope this is what you are asking for [and that it's appropriate for this thread]! It's probably obvious to many that I am a fan of the Julia Gospodarou and Joel Tjintjelaar schools of imagery. I am also a big fan of Steven Brooke's work architectural. (So, this is all derivative on my part.) Anyway, my goal is to produce a final image that is both a "portrait" of something [usually a building, landscape or animal] as though it were posed, but also an interpretation that suggests an emotion that comes out of the thing and transcends the portrait [always whatever it inspired in me, but obviously up to the viewer]. In this case, starting with a pretty flat raw file, which includes all these elements, I use perspective, lighting and focusing tools in Photoshop w/ plugins from Joel, Focus Magic, Lumenzia, Nik, Luminar, and DxO. I've learned the hard way that no one workflows works for me, and that no one tool seems to do everything. For example, I really like some of Luminar's tools/effects, but does their masking really have to be so bad?

Anyway, I am what one workshop instructor once referred to as "compositionally challenged," ;) and truer words were never spoken. Thank goodness for modern pixel counts and perspective and cropping tools. I'm relatively new to Photoshop, which I still find intimidating.
  1. If at all possible correct perspective and crop first. Otherwise, everything else will be repeated more than once. Clean the image of dust and sensor spots. Anything you fix here helps masks be and remain accurate.
  2. Mask every bit of the image I want to work on while still a color raw file, essentially everything, including multiple sky masks [to use with different "margins" or feathering, depending on desired effect], multiple water masks [same reasons], and luminosity masks. Bad, sloppy, or merely slightly inaccurate masks make for bad outcomes, and I've posted more than a few here that prove that.
  3. Choose B&W conversion, sometimes different conversions for different elements.
  4. Then, I do the "draft" work, just casually painting with the ordinary brush to see if I have in fact figured out what is speaking to me in the image. Share it with my wife, whois a superb compositionalist and water color artist, and get her feedback. Let it sit for a while. In this case, it was 6 years ago that I first took and culled this image.
  5. Once I think I have the emotional image roughed out, I do all the detailed "textural" work. I do everything possible to avoid elemental replacement of anything. Almost everything is removal, from power lines to trash cans to street signs to unnecessary river rocks [this image had a bunch of straw-like junk on the water and unattrave rocks under neath; blur and graduated burn took care of all that]. No sky replacements. I use tools like blur of various types to either accentuate or minimize sky and water elements. This image has some modest path blur, contrast reduction, and added noise in the sky. And lots of graduated darkening from different directions, plus dodging behind the temple. The water has similar pieces, but no dodging.
  6. Except for the B&W conversion, I do almost no global adjustments.
  7. Final refinement is usually done with Photoshop's adjustment brush and selection brush tools. I really like those. In fact, I have learned that I enjoy post a lot; not as much as image capture, but enough where hours or days of this seems reasonably pleasant and fulfilling.
  8. I try to do all my filter work with smart objects. I'm still learning groups and similar ways to nest effects.
  9. Other than that, I don't have a set workflow. Every image is different. Every one requires a different combination of tools.
This is way wordier than I meant for it to be, but I've had a lot of coffee today! :coffee::coffee: Hope it's what you wanted. If not, sing out.

Cheers!
Greg
 
wattsy

wattsy

Well-known member
Appuldurcombe Down, Isle of Wight. 907x CFV II 50c and 45P.





The obelisk dates back to 1774 and has been damaged by lightning over the years (despite being partially restored at times, it isn't the most elegant of structures and now rather resembles a pile of breeze blocks😂).

 
D

Doppler9000

Well-known member
drunkenspyder said:
Thanks for the kind words. Sure.I hope this is what you are asking for [and that it's appropriate for this thread]! It's probably obvious to many that I am a fan of the Julia Gospodarou and Joel Tjintjelaar schools of imagery. I am also a big fan of Steven Brooke's work architectural. (So, this is all derivative on my part.) Anyway, my goal is to produce a final image that is both a "portrait" of something [usually a building, landscape or animal] as though it were posed, but also an interpretation that suggests an emotion that comes out of the thing and transcends the portrait [always whatever it inspired in me, but obviously up to the viewer]. In this case, starting with a pretty flat raw file, which includes all these elements, I use perspective, lighting and focusing tools in Photoshop w/ plugins from Joel, Focus Magic, Lumenzia, Nik, Luminar, and DxO. I've learned the hard way that no one workflows works for me, and that no one tool seems to do everything. For example, I really like some of Luminar's tools/effects, but does their masking really have to be so bad?

Anyway, I am what one workshop instructor once referred to as "compositionally challenged," ;) and truer words were never spoken. Thank goodness for modern pixel counts and perspective and cropping tools. I'm relatively new to Photoshop, which I still find intimidating.
  1. If at all possible correct perspective and crop first. Otherwise, everything else will be repeated more than once. Clean the image of dust and sensor spots. Anything you fix here helps masks be and remain accurate.
  2. Mask every bit of the image I want to work on while still a color raw file, essentially everything, including multiple sky masks [to use with different "margins" or feathering, depending on desired effect], multiple water masks [same reasons], and luminosity masks. Bad, sloppy, or merely slightly inaccurate masks make for bad outcomes, and I've posted more than a few here that prove that.
  3. Choose B&W conversion, sometimes different conversions for different elements.
  4. Then, I do the "draft" work, just casually painting with the ordinary brush to see if I have in fact figured out what is speaking to me in the image. Share it with my wife, whois a superb compositionalist and water color artist, and get her feedback. Let it sit for a while. In this case, it was 6 years ago that I first took and culled this image.
  5. Once I think I have the emotional image roughed out, I do all the detailed "textural" work. I do everything possible to avoid elemental replacement of anything. Almost everything is removal, from power lines to trash cans to street signs to unnecessary river rocks [this image had a bunch of straw-like junk on the water and unattrave rocks under neath; blur and graduated burn took care of all that]. No sky replacements. I use tools like blur of various types to either accentuate or minimize sky and water elements. This image has some modest path blur, contrast reduction, and added noise in the sky. And lots of graduated darkening from different directions, plus dodging behind the temple. The water has similar pieces, but no dodging.
  6. Except for the B&W conversion, I do almost no global adjustments.
  7. Final refinement is usually done with Photoshop's adjustment brush and selection brush tools. I really like those. In fact, I have learned that I enjoy post a lot; not as much as image capture, but enough where hours or days of this seems reasonably pleasant and fulfilling.
  8. I try to do all my filter work with smart objects. I'm still learning groups and similar ways to nest effects.
  9. Other than that, I don't have a set workflow. Every image is different. Every one requires a different combination of tools.
This is way wordier than I meant for it to be, but I've had a lot of coffee today! :coffee::coffee: Hope it's what you wanted. If not, sing out.

Cheers!
Greg
Click to expand...
Thank you - very interesting and helpful.
 
J

jng

Well-known member
stngoldberg said:
This is obviously a dead chive in a vase…formally a perfectly round purple ball. However now you can observe the symmetry of the structural system. Amazing to me how perfectly engineered this plant is/wasView attachment 215368

stanley
Click to expand...
Nice one, Stanley! Your image reminds me that Mother Nature remains the world's most gifted engineer, with form and beauty always following function.

John
 
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