Post Processing Challenges

Our local camera club decided to have an editing challenge for this month's club comp. An image was submitted and the challenge was to process it. Initially I doubted I would find the motivation to do justice to the task as the submitted image didnt appear to offer many options. However now I'm finding it difficult to choose a final image as once I started a myriad of options presented themselves. 

Club judges are notorious for their conservatism so I doubt many of my choices will be appreciated but I certainly had fun trying to make something interesting from the original.

 

I'm not a fan of portrait orientation shots and the original was crooked which meant I lost even more width. 

    

Initially I began with a simple straighten and tweak. Then the fun began.

While I appreciate the composite images make for a very busy image I quite like the result.

The second provided image was already busy so I tried to consider methods of simplifying it. Once again it was not level, so that caused most of the problems. I was keen to have a symmetrical base.

The flag was too close to the top of the image so I wanted to create more space as a starting point.

 

 

RAW Liberation

Have had some injury issues recently which have provided me with some time to commence those long overdue PS tutorials. First thing I've discovered is the power of Camera RAW as a preparatory image editing option. Camera Raw is defined as a parametric (non destructive) editor, recording and saving all  settings as a list of instructions (metadata) and what is seen on the screen isn’t really the edited image. By comparison Photoshop is what’s known as a pixel-based editor, editing destructively by altering the original image information. I've noticed that many peoples workflow when using PS is becoming more complicated than brain surgery and I can't see why it needs to be so complicated. RAW seems to be the perfect tool for evaluating an images capabilities without having to use copious layers and masks. I think I'd prefer to use these sparingly. Multiple images taken under the same conditions can also be edited concurrently.

 
Photoshop Essentials explains it well.

"..............When you combine all these advantages together – that Camera Raw is streamlined for photo editing, that it’s completely non-destructive, and that you can edit two or more images at the same time – you come up with an undeniable fact. Camera Raw is just plain faster than Photoshop......."

The option to compare different versions of  work and decide which I like best — e.g, colour,  black and white,  a mix of black and white and colour, straight,  highly-stylized look etc. is particularly attractive from both a creative aspect and time factor. I've not yet decided whether I'm going to use Bridge as an entry portal, but knowing the basics of RAW will be a definite advantage for the post processing workflow.

Matt Kloskowski has a great video on the Peachpit site which explains how to re- use RAW over and over as a filter, a new option introduced in PS CC. This allows the user to make adjustments to a previous edit.  The important thing to remember is to access it not via the filter menu at the top, but via the smart filter image in the panels.

Its All In The Image

Image resizing

Distortions and chromatic aberration  Whilst I purchased my fisheye lens to actually achieve distortion I appreciate that when architectural integrity is at risk of being compromised sometimes its better practice to rectify this quality.



Digital Photo Enlargement Calculator

JPEG versus Tiff

All about RAW


Sharpness

Guide to sharpening


Enhancing Contrast

Image averaging to reduce noise

Converting to black and white

The Sincerest Form Of Flattery ?

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery ? I recently attended the Focus 2013 awards and was enthralled by some of the images that were presented.

The entries were judged by 3 Grand Masters, one of whom was Peter Eastway. What was interesting to note was the inclusion of many 'creative' interpretations. A little blur here, a large blur there and some composites. I'm guessing these Grand masters become pretty blase about the saturated sunrises and sunsets, even though many of them are Mother Nature's work, and not due to the photographer going wild with the saturation slider. Each of us learns from our peers and I'm sure many attendees will be experimenting with techniques to try and reproduce some of the beauties we saw. The Focus Group has, in general, the most generous and collegial of members who always reference mentors and peer helpers and I think that is what makes the difference. Copying is the selfish form of imitation and that's something decent photographers should avoid.

I personally am after achieving my own 'style', for want of a better name. My level of enthusiasm is always raised by discovering a photographer with a style I love,  and something new to offer. I stumbled upon Adrian Sommerling's work this morning via a link from 'SLR Lounge' but as they had 'banned' the sharing of links I sourced some of my own.

For the record, I've found SLR Lounge to be very 'precious' with respect to their site, the complete opposite of the collegiality and sharing extended by most sites, so I for one am glad I can direct friends to other locations where they will see the same images. With respect to Adrian's work, I can hear the screams of 'over processing' ricochetting in Cyber Space. I for one love it.
Other links:
Photofocus
Mastering Photo
Aren't we lucky that Adrian isn't as precious about his work as SLR Lounge is about theirs ?

PPP - Post Processing Power

For anyone who doubts the power of post processing software Topaz Labs image comparison blows that thought away like a dandelion in a gale. As posted on my FB timeline - irrespective of whether you prefer an image 'au naturale' or heavily processed, the evidence demonstrates the amazing transformation possible.

Post by Topaz Labs.