Learning PS CS (Merritt Shots)

[Flew]

OK, I've had Photoshop CS for a couple of days, and I was looking for some files to practice on. I found a ton of shots that I had gotten at Merritt Island that I haven't processed, so I went to town....

Here are a few samples. I still have a long way to go with PS, but I definitely see potential.

What do you think (be honest, I need constructive feedback....;-))?

Egret:

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Stork:

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Storks and others at the big pool:

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Anhinga:

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Heron:

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Several of these images had significant noise, but the FM plug-ins that I used helped reduce the problem to (I think) and acceptable level.

Your comments will be appreciated.

Frank

 

[Backdoctor]

by george, I think he's got it! :lol:

 

[Gale]

By George I think he did for sure. All are truly spectacular !!!!!!!!


except the GBH...Great image. Worth doing over.

He is a bit over cooked.

Share your process. Crap looks better than mine.

Great Job.

 

[greyflash]

Very nice Frank, I love the Anhinga. Obviously you are moving right along with PS CS. The more you learn the better you like it.

 

[Flew]

By George I think he did for sure. All are truly spectacular !!!!!!!!


except the GBH...Great image. Worth doing over.

He is a bit over cooked.

Share your process. Crap looks better than mine.

Great Job.

Gale,

Do you mean the Tricolor? He was shot right at sunrise, and was very dark and noisy. If I pull him up any more, the noise will really look bad.... :?

Thanks for your excellent feedback. You did manage to find the weakest of the shots.... 8)

Frank

 

[NeilCam]

Frank, I think Gale did mean the Tricolor and I think she means that it's a bit over-sharpened. I think I see a halo along what I think is the leading edge of the wing. That's what I think, I think.

Another look suggests that maybe Gale was suggesting that the heavy yellow glow on the legs and body maybe a bit overly warm. Just a suggestion.

The others are terrific, both as images and in terms of processing. Well done.

Neil

 

[Flew]

Frank, I think Gale did mean the Tricolor and I think she means that it's a bit over-sharpened. I think I see a halo along what I think is the leading edge of the wing. That's what I think, I think.

Another look suggests that maybe Gale was suggesting that the heavy yellow glow on the legs and body maybe a bit overly warm. Just a suggestion.

The others are terrific, both as images and in terms of processing. Well done.

Neil

Ah, I see what you mean. You caught me to.... This is the only shot that I added USM after using the FM resize tool on. I was trying to get the head a little sharper. :?

Thanks for your feedback too Neil. 8)

Frank

 

[jfenton]

Frank

The light looks just as it should have for an early morning light flight shot.

It doesn't look at all overhsharpened on my Sony Artisan montior....but then people say my shots are over sharpened when I don't do anything other than 100, 0.3, 1 ?

Maybe we need to be a bit less steady when we take shots

 

[mike mac]

Frank
I don't see anything wrong with any of these the Anhinga is spectacular

 

[Steve S]

Frank, are you saying you processed these entirely in CS?

Frank
I don't see anything wrong with any of these the Anhinga is spectacular

No NC4 used? They do look excellent, esp the Ahinga.

 

[Flew]

The process that I used is about as simple as you can get. Except for the multiple menu clicks in PS because I don't have everything automated yet, it is simpler than my old process. Here it is:

- Open in NC4.2.1, and set sharpeneing to none, adjust the levels, curves, black points, and sometimes the color saturation. No USM applied.

- Save as a TIFF.

- Open in PS CS, and adjust Shadows / Highlights, and sometimes Brightness / Contrast, and sometimes Hue / Saturation.

- Run FM Intellisharpen, setting for Low Halo (or 0% Halo), and Reduce Color Noise.

- Crop if necessary.

- Resize using FM Resize Pro, also using the Reduce Color Noise option. I use the Set Image Size to 900 x 600 (or whatever on the height, depending on the crop aspect ratio).

- Run my border action.

- Add my signature.

That's it. I should note that I have been shooting in Adobe RGB, and for these, I changed the color space to sRGB. I'll experiment with this process over the next few days, and decide whether or not to continue this change.

I like it so far. 8)

Frank

 

[Gale]

lololol Overcooked...

Guess I have been hanging around the Retouching forum to long. Sorry about that Frank.

It just simply means, over processed. The bird is to smoothe and has very little detail left. The noise reduction can do that.

You got a great shot of the Tri-color and they are tough to shoot..

It is ok to leave the shot a bit darker. The evening colors are beautiful.

Just back off of the processing a bit.
That should do it.

A little trick you can use to sharpen the head sometimes.

Grab the magnetic losso tool. Go around the head. Use USM there and it will prob do the trick for you.
Sometimes just sharpening the Eye will give percieved sharpness to the pic. You can sharpen this way in different sections of a subject. Sometimes you can use reverse USM, amount 0 and bring radius up.

Also do a search for PWL Paint With Light, on the retouching forum.

http://porg.4t.com/Plight.html

This is just the section on PWL Look at, cspringer (Chip) is his name. The guy is a genius.

Hope this helps. PS is daunting, for sure.

Sorry about that. Great job. Better than I can do.

 

[Flew]

lololol Overcooked...

Guess I have been hanging around the Retouching forum to long. Sorry about that Frank.

It just simply means, over processed. The bird is to smoothe and has very little detail left. The noise reduction can do that.

You got a great shot of the Tri-color and they are tough to shoot..

It is ok to leave the shot a bit darker. The evening colors are beautiful.

Just back off of the processing a bit.
That should do it.

Sorry about that. Great job. Better than I can do.

Gale,

No problem at all. I asked for constructive criticism and you gave it too me. We could all use more of that (instead of 'Wow, great shot'). 8)

I'm looking to get better. I want my shots to look like Mike Mac's and Jim's and Jarrell's and Harris's and Yves' and Ron's. Ain't going to get there with nothing but 'Wow, great shot' comments.... :wink:

(Of course, a few of these every now and then does help my ego too :lol: .)

Thanks,

Frank