Adjust white balance in PS CS

A
Posted By
arnor
Nov 5, 2006
Views
1186
Replies
39
Status
Closed
Hi all,

Today I took some photos at a reception with a Canon EOS 350XT. I used the on camera flash, but didn’t realize that right above the subject was a very strong tungsten light shining directly down. So the front of the subject looks good, but the what can be seen of the top of the poor guy and the face of the guy standing beside him looks like the picture was taken using a candle light<g> I have several photographs that I would like to print out, but the results I’ve got are far from impressive. I use PS CS (not CS2, which I know has better/more white balance features) and I can’t seem to figure out what adjustments are appropriate. I do levels and curves on all photos that I process, but I’m unsure what would be the correct steps. Any ideas?

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas,

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

J
jenelisepasceci
Nov 6, 2006
wrote:

Hi all,

Today I took some photos at a reception with a Canon EOS 350XT. I used the on camera flash, but didn’t realize that right above the subject was a very strong tungsten light shining directly down. So the front of the subject looks good, but the what can be seen of the top of the poor guy and the face of the guy standing beside him looks like the picture was taken using a candle light<g> I have several photographs that I would like to print out, but the results I’ve got are far from impressive. I use PS CS (not CS2, which I know has better/more white balance features) and I can’t seem to figure out what adjustments are appropriate. I do levels and curves on all photos that I process, but I’m unsure what would be the correct steps. Any ideas?

I’d do the corrections for the face on a duplicate layer, then use a mask to limit the changes to the affected areas. Can you put the image online or send me a copy, so that I could give it a try? There are numerous approaches to this kind of a problem and the best one can be chosen only after inspection of the image.

Peter
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 6, 2006
"Peter Wollenberg" wrote in message
wrote:

Hi all,

Today I took some photos at a reception with a Canon EOS 350XT. I used the on camera flash, but didn’t realize that right above the subject was a very strong tungsten light shining directly down. So the front of the subject looks good, but the what can be seen of the top of the poor guy and the face of the guy standing beside him looks like the picture was taken using a candle light<g> I have several photographs that I would like to print out, but the results I’ve got are far from impressive. I use PS CS (not CS2, which I know has better/more white balance features) and I can’t seem to figure out what adjustments are appropriate. I do levels and curves on all photos that I process, but I’m unsure what would be the correct steps. Any ideas?

I’d do the corrections for the face on a duplicate layer, then use a mask to limit the changes to the affected areas. Can you put the image online or send me a copy, so that I could give it a try? There are numerous approaches to this kind of a problem and the best one can be chosen only after inspection of the image.

Peter is quite right. I’d also be interested in a sample image. —

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
A
arnor
Nov 6, 2006
Hi Peter, Mike,

I’d do the corrections for the face on a duplicate layer, then use a mask to limit the changes to the affected areas. Can you put the image online or send me a copy, so that I could give it a try? There are numerous approaches to this kind of a problem and the best one can be chosen only after inspection of the image.

Masks are something that I’m only starting to work with so I definitely have some ways to go there:)

I’ve uploaded the entire image (3.6MB) to:

http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

The light there was really bad with mixture of strong tungsten light coming from above, daylight from the back (behind me) yet not enough. This is taken at ISO1600 at 1/80 sec, f5. I take mostly outdoor photos so this is new to me<g>

Thanks guys:)

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas.
SB
Sandy Barrie
Nov 17, 2006
Hi,

If you have shot it in RAW format it would be simple.

Just open the image first time with the colourbalace for the face, then open it again second time adjusting the colour balance for the tungsten.

Combine both images into on file by dragging one image ontop of another holding down the shift key.

make one of the layers into HIDE ALL layer, and then just paint back the area of the mask that you need. This is best done on the smaller part of the image you need being corrected, and as the Top layer…

Regards

Sandy

wrote:
Hi all,

Today I took some photos at a reception with a Canon EOS 350XT. I used the on camera flash, but didn’t realize that right above the subject was a very strong tungsten light shining directly down. So the front of the subject looks good, but the what can be seen of the top of the poor guy and the face of the guy standing beside him looks like the picture was taken using a candle light<g> I have several photographs that I would like to print out, but the results I’ve got are far from impressive. I use PS CS (not CS2, which I know has better/more white balance features) and I can’t seem to figure out what adjustments are appropriate. I do levels and curves on all photos that I process, but I’m unsure what would be the correct steps. Any ideas?

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas,
A
arnor
Nov 17, 2006
Hi Sandy,

Sandy Barrie wrote:

If you have shot it in RAW format it would be simple.

Thanks for the advise – unfortunately I shot this in JPEG only:( For the most part I shoot JPEG only rather than RAW or RAW+JPEG for outdoor shots and I just wasn’t thinking! Thanks for the advise, doing double processing on the image white balance in RAW would have been an easy way out of this.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 17, 2006
Thanks for the advise – unfortunately I shot this in JPEG only:( For the most part I shoot JPEG only rather than RAW or RAW+JPEG for outdoor shots and I just wasn’t thinking! Thanks for the advise, doing double processing on the image white balance in RAW would have been an easy way out of this.

How about posting one of your images. Did you try doing an experimental pair of images with two separate white balance settings? Matching them up with curves would provide you with a method of fixing your images.

As another alternative, if you will allow your images to be used potentially as examples on my site I will volunteer to see what I can do with them. Email me at Mike at Curvemeister.com

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
A
arnor
Nov 18, 2006
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:

How about posting one of your images. Did you try doing an experimental

I posted a download link earlier in this thread (Nov 6.):

http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 18, 2006
"Arnor" wrote in message
….
I posted a download link earlier in this thread (Nov 6.):
http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

I got an error 404

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
JM
John McWilliams
Nov 18, 2006
Mike Russell wrote:
"Arnor" wrote in message

I posted a download link earlier in this thread (Nov 6.):
http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

I got an error 404

I get same, at precisely 8:21:48 AM on Saturday, November 18, 2006


john mcwilliams
A
arnor
Nov 18, 2006
Hi Mike & John,

Mike Russell wrote:

http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

I got an error 404

Darn! Well that would explain why nobody commented on it<g> Don’t know what happened, can’t find it on the server:(

Try this:

http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.zip
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.jpg

Note that this is unprocessed JPEG (stright out of the camera) and hasn’t been cropped or anything. The jpg link is the original image (same as in the zip). Both files are about 3.6MB. You guys have given me a lot of ideas and I’ve learned a lot in PS in the past couple of weeks so I think that now I might be able to get back to this and do a much better job with it.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio
K
KatWoman
Nov 18, 2006
"Arnor" wrote in message
Hi Mike & John,

Mike Russell wrote:

http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

I got an error 404

Darn! Well that would explain why nobody commented on it<g> Don’t know what happened, can’t find it on the server:(

Try this:

http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.zip
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.jpg

Note that this is unprocessed JPEG (stright out of the camera) and hasn’t been cropped or anything. The jpg link is the original image (same as in the zip). Both files are about 3.6MB. You guys have given me a lot of ideas and I’ve learned a lot in PS in the past couple of weeks so I think that now I might be able to get back to this and do a much better job with it.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio

OK after I saw this picture I think it does not need color correcting I LIKE the warm color light on the solemn moment
I did however think a longer lens and softer flash would be better as I like a more out of focus background
I cropped out most of it
I changed the LEVELS first
made it overall lighter
then I put mask that layer an brought back the low darker areas on the edges only to highlight the subject
selected area on table with hot spot and used burn midtones or levels can’t remember
fixed the crooked candle stick (select control j transform rotate retouched the man chin, burn ion his bald spot and top of collar burn in glove a bit
hot spots off other man face
dodge medals a bit
burn in flowers and saturate
saturate on flag blue
it is here
http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06466/_mg_1785-kats.jpg
K
KatWoman
Nov 18, 2006
"KatWoman" wrote in message
"Arnor" wrote in message
Hi Mike & John,

Mike Russell wrote:

http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

I got an error 404

Darn! Well that would explain why nobody commented on it<g> Don’t know what happened, can’t find it on the server:(

Try this:

http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.zip
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.jpg

Note that this is unprocessed JPEG (stright out of the camera) and hasn’t been cropped or anything. The jpg link is the original image (same as in the zip). Both files are about 3.6MB. You guys have given me a lot of ideas and I’ve learned a lot in PS in the past couple of weeks so I think that now I might be able to get back to this and do a much better job with it.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio

OK after I saw this picture I think it does not need color correcting I LIKE the warm color light on the solemn moment
I did however think a longer lens and softer flash would be better as I like a more out of focus background
I cropped out most of it
I changed the LEVELS first
made it overall lighter
then I put mask that layer an brought back the low darker areas on the edges only to highlight the subject
selected area on table with hot spot and used burn midtones or levels can’t remember
fixed the crooked candle stick (select control j transform rotate retouched the man chin, burn ion his bald spot and top of collar burn in glove a bit
hot spots off other man face
dodge medals a bit
burn in flowers and saturate
saturate on flag blue
it is here
http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06466/_mg_1785-kats.jpg

here is a before after
http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06466/_mg_1785.gif

Free Image Hosting [xs.to]

MR
Mike Russell
Nov 18, 2006
"Arnor" wrote in message

[re skin tones and mixed lighting]
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.zip
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.jpg

Hi Arnor,

Here’s my take.
http://mike.russell-home.net/tmp/ArnorBaldvinsson/

I used curves to do an overall lightening of the image, a selective color layer to pull magenta out of reds to improve the skin tones, and a Hue/Sat layer with a mask to get rid of the strange highlights that affected mainly the braid and gloves. The above link includes a tiff version with the correction layers and masks.

There is some more hand retouching that could be done – using the sharpen tool on the of details in the uniform, increasing the saturation of the flag colors, cloning out the candle stick, and darkening the flowers and other items in the rather cluttered background would be at the top of my list.

Color-wise, the image is not that bad to begin with, with the main problem being the darkness and the somewhat reddish skin tones It is improved substantially by assigning sRGB, which has the effect of desaturating the colors, and even improving shadow detail.

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
K
KatWoman
Nov 18, 2006
"KatWoman" wrote in message
"Arnor" wrote in message
Hi Mike & John,

Mike Russell wrote:

http://www.itakefotos.com/photos/_MG_1785.ZIP

I got an error 404

Darn! Well that would explain why nobody commented on it<g> Don’t know what happened, can’t find it on the server:(

Try this:

http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.zip
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.jpg

Note that this is unprocessed JPEG (stright out of the camera) and hasn’t been cropped or anything. The jpg link is the original image (same as in the zip). Both files are about 3.6MB. You guys have given me a lot of ideas and I’ve learned a lot in PS in the past couple of weeks so I think that now I might be able to get back to this and do a much better job with it.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio

OK after I saw this picture I think it does not need color correcting I LIKE the warm color light on the solemn moment
I did however think a longer lens and softer flash would be better as I like a more out of focus background
I cropped out most of it
I changed the LEVELS first
made it overall lighter
then I put mask that layer an brought back the low darker areas on the edges only to highlight the subject
selected area on table with hot spot and used burn midtones or levels can’t remember
fixed the crooked candle stick (select control j transform rotate retouched the man chin, burn ion his bald spot and top of collar burn in glove a bit
hot spots off other man face
dodge medals a bit
burn in flowers and saturate
saturate on flag blue
it is here
http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06466/_mg_1785-kats.jpg
AND TAKING IT FURTHER
Gaussian blur layer with mask around subjects
add flames to candles so the warm light looks correct!!
looked at problem you had as not being a problem
http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06466/HowToScreenshot.jpg
K
KatWoman
Nov 18, 2006
"Mike Russell" wrote in message
"Arnor" wrote in message

[re skin tones and mixed lighting]
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.zip
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.jpg

Hi Arnor,

Here’s my take.
http://mike.russell-home.net/tmp/ArnorBaldvinsson/

I used curves to do an overall lightening of the image, a selective color layer to pull magenta out of reds to improve the skin tones, and a Hue/Sat layer with a mask to get rid of the strange highlights that affected mainly the braid and gloves. The above link includes a tiff version with the correction layers and masks.

There is some more hand retouching that could be done – using the sharpen tool on the of details in the uniform, increasing the saturation of the flag colors, cloning out the candle stick, and darkening the flowers and other items in the rather cluttered background would be at the top of my list.

Color-wise, the image is not that bad to begin with, with the main problem being the darkness and the somewhat reddish skin tones It is improved substantially by assigning sRGB, which has the effect of desaturating the colors, and even improving shadow detail.

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
I like that you can see a nicer white than mine and the details in the shadow areas of the suits
very nice
K
KatWoman
Nov 18, 2006
"KatWoman" wrote in message
"Mike Russell" wrote in message
"Arnor" wrote in message

[re skin tones and mixed lighting]
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.zip
http://www.itakefotos.com/_mg_1785.jpg

Hi Arnor,

Here’s my take.
http://mike.russell-home.net/tmp/ArnorBaldvinsson/

I used curves to do an overall lightening of the image, a selective color layer to pull magenta out of reds to improve the skin tones, and a Hue/Sat layer with a mask to get rid of the strange highlights that affected mainly the braid and gloves. The above link includes a tiff version with the correction layers and masks.

There is some more hand retouching that could be done – using the sharpen tool on the of details in the uniform, increasing the saturation of the flag colors, cloning out the candle stick, and darkening the flowers and other items in the rather cluttered background would be at the top of my list.

Color-wise, the image is not that bad to begin with, with the main problem being the darkness and the somewhat reddish skin tones It is improved substantially by assigning sRGB, which has the effect of desaturating the colors, and even improving shadow detail. —
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
I like that you can see a nicer white than mine and the details in the shadow areas of the suits
very nice
here are two versions finished (or as much as I am gonna do for free!) http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06466/WarmVersion1785.jpg
http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06466/CoolVersion1785.jpg
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 18, 2006
"KatWoman" wrote in message
….
here are two versions finished
http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06466/WarmVersion1785.jpg
http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06466/CoolVersion1785.jpg

I like the look of the blur.

(or as much as I am gonna do for free!)
We’re not getting paid??? LOL


Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
A
arnor
Nov 19, 2006
Hi,

I did however think a longer lens and softer flash would be better as I like a more out of focus background

No argument here. The problem was that I only had the on-camera flash and 28-55mm lens. I think my 70-300 would have been too long and it would also have been too slow (f4.0-5.6).

it is here
http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06466/_mg_1785-kats.jpg

Thank you very much for all the work and details. You and Mike have given me a lot of ideas on how to work with these type of photos:) I really like that photo.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
A
arnor
Nov 19, 2006
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:

There is some more hand retouching that could be done – using the sharpen tool on the of details in the uniform, increasing the saturation of the flag colors, cloning out the candle stick, and darkening the flowers and other items in the rather cluttered background would be at the top of my list.

Thank you so much for all the work and demonstration. I had spent couple of hours working on this into the very early hours of the morning when I was just about done and my computer got a hickup and rebooted itself! I had completely lost track of time and hadn’t saved for an hour and lost all that. I have no idea what happened but I had got the image looking very nice actually. Oh well, there will be another attempt another day<g>

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 19, 2006
"Arnor" wrote in message
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:

There is some more hand retouching that could be done – using the sharpen tool on the of details in the uniform, increasing the saturation of the flag
colors, cloning out the candle stick, and darkening the flowers and other items in the rather cluttered background would be at the top of my list.

Thank you so much for all the work and demonstration. I had spent couple of hours working on this into the very early hours of the morning when I was just about done and my computer got a hickup and rebooted itself! I had completely lost track of time and hadn’t saved for an hour and lost all that. I have no idea what happened but I had got the image looking very nice actually. Oh well, there will be another attempt another day<g>

I’m glad that Katwoman and I could be of help for is obviously a very meaningful image.

Someday Photoshop will support an option to save your work automatically, and many thousands of man hours will be saved.

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
A
arnor
Nov 19, 2006
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:

I’m glad that Katwoman and I could be of help for is obviously a very meaningful image.

Yes, you guys helped a __LOT__ I’ve only been working in PS for about 3 months and not really seriously until about a month ago. Ton of stuff still to explore, obviously<g> I mostly take nature photos and people photos are something I’m not used to and have a lot to learn about. I just really like this photo and the guy receiving the flag is a friend of ours and he absolutely loved my horrendous first version of it<g>

Someday Photoshop will support an option to save your work automatically, and many thousands of man hours will be saved.

Well, it was my mistake. It appears that some XP update downloaded and the only think I can think of is that it required a reboot and I just happened to be moving the pen on my pad over it when the message popped up and I never saw it. PS popped up the save message with the Yes/No/Cancel and I just didn’t stop to think what I was doing and hit cancel only to see PS shut down immediately! Then I realized I’d been working in the silly thing for over 2 hours, thought it was like 15 mintues. Time flies when you’re having fun:)

Again – thanks a bunch to both of you:)

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas.
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 19, 2006
"Arnor" wrote in message
….
Well, it was my mistake. It appears that some XP update downloaded and the only think I can think of is that it required a reboot …

Yes, my system did this yesterday too – my guess is millions of systems booted that day, and I bet you were not the only person to lose work because of it.


Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
A
arnor
Nov 19, 2006
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:

Yes, my system did this yesterday too – my guess is millions of systems booted that day, and I bet you were not the only person to lose work because of it.

Probably not<g>

Anyway, here is what I managed today. I took all the advise you guys gave me and here are the results:

http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/receiving_the_flag.jpg

I think I may have overdone the blue in the flag a bit. I cloned the candlelight holder out and actually cloned the right leg of the table onto the left leg and set the opacity of that layer to about 67% That painted over the clipped highlights from the flash and gave it a more realistic look. I also darkened the flowers a bit and cleaned up here and there. Finally I cropped it to 8×10" but had also cropped it to 4×6" and there I extended the floor and wall behind it to keep the same width of the image. I’m fairly pleased with the results, give the original:)

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas.
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 19, 2006
From: "Arnor"
….
Anyway, here is what I managed today. I took all the advise you guys gave me and here are the results:

http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/receiving_the_flag.jpg

I think I may have overdone the blue in the flag a bit. I cloned the candlelight holder out and actually cloned the right leg of the table onto the left leg and set the opacity of that layer to about 67% That painted over the clipped highlights from the flash and gave it a more realistic look. I also darkened the flowers a bit and cleaned up here and there. Finally I cropped it to 8×10" but had also cropped it to 4×6" and there I extended the floor and wall behind it to keep the same width of the image. I’m fairly pleased with the results, give the original:)

This looks a lot better. You’ve managed to do the cloning without leaving a trace, and I do like the way the flag stands out, and I don’t think anyone is going to notice the extra color, or think it is a problem. The picture is very much improved, without looking overworked.

As always, after a big improvement, I still see a few more things that could be done. Assuming you are looking for more work to do on an idle Sunday :-), I still find that some of the brighter and more angular elements in the background are slightly distracting – the flower particularly should be darker, like the one below and to the right. The zig zag shape and the shadow of the alter behind the persons face on the right is distracting. Ditto for the char leg along the right side. Katwoman’s solution of blurring the background seemed to work well. If you prefer a different look, even a small amount of blur will help with the angular shadow patterns, or the background could be darkened and desaturated. —
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
A
arnor
Nov 20, 2006
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:

As always, after a big improvement, I still see a few more things that could be done. Assuming you are looking for more work to do on an idle Sunday :-), I still find that some of the brighter and more angular elements in the background are slightly distracting – the flower particularly should be darker, like the one below and to the right. The zig zag shape and the shadow of the alter behind the persons face on the right is distracting. Ditto for the char leg along the right side. Katwoman’s solution of blurring the background seemed to work well. If you prefer a different look, even a small amount of blur will help with the angular shadow patterns, or the background could be darkened and desaturated.

Try this one:

http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/receiving_the_flag_a.jpg

Chair was in the way so I removed it<g> Same with the drapery that was on the wall on the right. Flower is now much subdued and the shadows smoothed out. I’m getting really good with the clone stamp after this image;) I don’t want to blur the background as it IMO does give the image a certain setting, certain atmosphere that is lost if it’s blurred.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
A
arnor
Nov 20, 2006
Hi KatWoman,

KatWoman wrote:

http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06466/HowToScreenshot.jpg

Could you help me out with this: In your layer with the gaussian blur you have the image in the layer and then the mask. Lots of times I have several layers (adjusment layers and regular layers) on top of the background image. How do I get a copy of the adjusted/edited image into a _new_ layer so I can apply filters, such as the blur etc.?

Also: Sometimes when I add layers (adjustment layers or regular) I only the get yin-yang icon in the layers list. Sometimes I get the proper icons (adjustment icons) into the layer list. With just the yin-yang icon it’s very difficult to remember which layer is which. See this screenshot:

http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/photoshop_layers.jpg
http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/photoshop_layers_2.jpg

In that second screenshot, the proper icons just showed up all of a sudden. Closing/opening PS doesn’t change it – I don’t know what does. Is there some setting that I need to set or something I’m not doing correctly?

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
JM
John McWilliams
Nov 20, 2006
Arnor wrote:
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:

As always, after a big improvement, I still see a few more things that could be done. Assuming you are looking for more work to do on an idle Sunday :-), I still find that some of the brighter and more angular elements in the background are slightly distracting – the flower particularly should be darker, like the one below and to the right. The zig zag shape and the shadow of the alter behind the persons face on the right is distracting. Ditto for the char leg along the right side. Katwoman’s solution of blurring the background seemed to work well. If you prefer a different look, even a small amount of blur will help with the angular shadow patterns, or the background could be darkened and desaturated.

Try this one:

http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/receiving_the_flag_a.jpg
Chair was in the way so I removed it<g> Same with the drapery that was on the wall on the right. Flower is now much subdued and the shadows smoothed out. I’m getting really good with the clone stamp after this image;) I don’t want to blur the background as it IMO does give the image a certain setting, certain atmosphere that is lost if it’s blurred.

This is an informative discussion! Thanks for making it possible. Yes, the chair removal is a good thing, but I rather liked the candle or candles on the alter, depending on whose version. I liked the Gaussian blur, but for me it made the chair stick out more. And I think for a document-type photo (although it’s more, too), the b/g being in focus is a plus. Any rule of thumbs here on when to use, or not use, blur?

I have been wrestling with blurring part of a bg of a large team photo I took, and I should probably make a new thread on that.


John McWilliams
A
arnor
Nov 21, 2006
Hi John,

John McWilliams wrote:
This is an informative discussion! Thanks for making it possible. Yes, the chair removal is a good thing, but I rather liked the candle or candles on the alter, depending on whose version. I liked the Gaussian blur, but for me it made the chair stick out more. And I think for a document-type photo (although it’s more, too), the b/g being in focus is a plus. Any rule of thumbs here on when to use, or not use, blur?
I have been wrestling with blurring part of a bg of a large team photo I took, and I should probably make a new thread on that.

Glad you like the thread – I have learned a lot in the past few days<g>

As for the blur in this particular case: The guy standing is my friend and this was his retirement cermony at the US Air Force after 20+ years as a chaplain. He has been seeing men and women take off for battle from the bases here in San Antonio more times that he cares to remember. Because of that, the altar and the flowers in the background are what helps make this picture what it is. With the chair and the drapes on the right side gone, the drapes above the altar don’t really make much of a difference.

Best regards,
A
arnor
Nov 21, 2006
Hi Mike,

Final, final version<g>

After a lot of thinking I added the candle back in. Didn’t like it. Wasn’t sure what to do about it until I got the idea to move it to the right a bit. Still didn’t like it and realized that it was too big and grabbed too much attention. So I shrunk it by about 30% and it looks soooo much better. Now I feel that the image is finally in balance.

http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/receiving_the_flag_b.jpg

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
MR
Mike Russell
Nov 21, 2006
"Arnor" wrote in message
Hi Mike,

Final, final version<g>

After a lot of thinking I added the candle back in. Didn’t like it. Wasn’t sure what to do about it until I got the idea to move it to the right a bit. Still didn’t like it and realized that it was too big and grabbed too much attention. So I shrunk it by about 30% and it looks soooo much better. Now I feel that the image is finally in balance.
http://www.itakefotos.com/stuff/receiving_the_flag_b.jpg

Very very nice – I think you’ve got it on the nose now!

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
A
arnor
Nov 21, 2006
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:
Very very nice – I think you’ve got it on the nose now!

Thanks – and thanks for all the help and ideas:) I’ve learned a lot about Photoshop by working on this photo<g>

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
JM
John McWilliams
Nov 21, 2006
Arnor wrote:
Hi Mike,

Mike Russell wrote:
Very very nice – I think you’ve got it on the nose now!

Thanks – and thanks for all the help and ideas:) I’ve learned a lot about Photoshop by working on this photo<g>

I ran Neat Image on the photo, from a sample in the image itself. It really isn’t real noticeable until you view it at over 50%, but at 100% viewing on the screen, the noise of 1600 is quite noticeable. Neat Image cleaned it up very well.


John McWilliams
A
arnor
Nov 21, 2006
Hi John,

John McWilliams wrote:

I ran Neat Image on the photo, from a sample in the image itself. It really isn’t real noticeable until you view it at over 50%, but at 100% viewing on the screen, the noise of 1600 is quite noticeable. Neat Image cleaned it up very well.

I agree and I downloaded the NI demo and have been playing with it and it does a very good job indeed, but my funds today are tied up in buying couple of big turkeys and ton of other stuff for Thanksgiving, so it’ll have to wait<g> Thanks for giving me heads up on the NI plugin, it’s on my Christmas list now<g> Most of my photos are shot at 100ASA so I normally don’t have to deal with noise very much.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
K
KatWoman
Nov 23, 2006
"Arnor" wrote in message
Hi John,

John McWilliams wrote:

I ran Neat Image on the photo, from a sample in the image itself. It really isn’t real noticeable until you view it at over 50%, but at 100% viewing on the screen, the noise of 1600 is quite noticeable. Neat Image cleaned it up very well.

I agree and I downloaded the NI demo and have been playing with it and it does a very good job indeed, but my funds today are tied up in buying couple of big turkeys and ton of other stuff for Thanksgiving, so it’ll have to wait<g> Thanks for giving me heads up on the NI plugin, it’s on my Christmas list now<g> Most of my photos are shot at 100ASA so I normally don’t have to deal with noise very much.
Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas

haven’t had chance to reply I think my hard dive is dying and I spent the day making backup of everything just in case it goes beforer the guy can come over and install and clone me a new one
he said Dell would fail at 2 years and damn ,if it isn’t 2 years and less than one month.

duplicate layer
control j
Arnor I look at stuff i loved when i first learned
now I know how much better I am’I continue to learn and grow as a PS artist no end to it

A
arnor
Nov 23, 2006
Hi,
KatWoman wrote:
he said Dell would fail at 2 years and damn ,if it isn’t 2 years and less than one month.

Darn! That’s no fun at all!

duplicate layer
control j

Thanks – I’m very proud of myself that I actually found it by myself<bg>

now I know how much better I am’I continue to learn and grow as a PS artist no end to it

The possibilities certainly seem endless!:) Same here – three months ago I could open a file and save it and that was about it;)

Today I printed the photo as 8×10" on 8.5×11" Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper which has become my favorite. Even though it shows grain, it looks very nice even if I say so myself.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
D
Dave
Nov 23, 2006
On 22 Nov 2006 17:56:26 -0800, "Arnor" wrote:

Hi,
KatWoman wrote:
he said Dell would fail at 2 years and damn ,if it isn’t 2 years and less than one month.

Darn! That’s no fun at all!

duplicate layer
control j

Thanks – I’m very proud of myself that I actually found it by myself<bg>

now I know how much better I am’I continue to learn and grow as a PS artist no end to it

The possibilities certainly seem endless!:) Same here – three months ago I could open a file and save it and that was about it;)
Today I printed the photo as 8×10" on 8.5×11" Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper which has become my favorite. Even though it shows grain, it looks very nice even if I say so myself.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas

True here as well, and my abilities are somewhere between Katwoman and Arnor with PS. But, with Photoshop, if you follow a specific routine you get a specific (guaranteed) result. Not the same with Corel Painter. I am spending most of my time trying to become comfortable with Painter. By now I ordered three different books via Amazon, and only now it start to make sense. That is apart from downloading every single tutorial I can lay may hands on.
That is what you should do with Photoshop, Arnor. Download tutorials and spend time with it. Visit your local bookstore, and if you can buy a book on it, do it. Maybe ‘Classroom in a Book’ or something to this effect.

Dave
A
arnor
Nov 23, 2006
Hi Dave,

Dave wrote:
That is what you should do with Photoshop, Arnor. Download tutorials and spend time with it. Visit your local bookstore, and if you can buy a book on it, do it. Maybe ‘Classroom in a Book’ or something to this effect.

I have several very good photography books and most of them go into Photoshop to some extent, but none of them really in depth. Couple of weeks ago I rememberd that my wife had bought a PS CS for dummies 10 in 1 book when she was looking into some graphic work. I found it on a bookshelf in our bedroom and started digging in. Now it all made sense and I have learned a lot from that book. I have also visited a lot of tutorial sites on the web and with some experience I’m getting better and more secure in it almost every day. Nothing beats experience and this single photo has been an excellent for me to work on. The advise I’ve got here has also helped me a lot.

If anyone has a recommendation for a really good PS book working with photos (not graphic as I’m not interested in it and not talented with it at all – my 5 year old daughter draws better than me, on paper as well as in the computer<g>) then I’d welcome any ideas. I picked up a book about PS Elements couple of weeks ago and there is some very interesting stuff in it and since PS and PS Elements use many of the same tools, all of the stuff in that book that I’ve looked at seems to go stright into PS as well.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
D
Dave
Nov 23, 2006
On 23 Nov 2006 08:18:56 -0800, "Arnor" wrote:

Hi Dave,

Dave wrote:
That is what you should do with Photoshop, Arnor. Download tutorials and spend time with it. Visit your local bookstore, and if you can buy a book on it, do it. Maybe ‘Classroom in a Book’ or something to this effect.

I have several very good photography books and most of them go into Photoshop to some extent, but none of them really in depth. Couple of weeks ago I rememberd that my wife had bought a PS CS for dummies 10 in 1 book when she was looking into some graphic work. I found it on a bookshelf in our bedroom and started digging in. Now it all made sense and I have learned a lot from that book. I have also visited a lot of tutorial sites on the web and with some experience I’m getting better and more secure in it almost every day. Nothing beats experience and this single photo has been an excellent for me to work on. The advise I’ve got here has also helped me a lot.

If anyone has a recommendation for a really good PS book working with photos (not graphic as I’m not interested in it and not talented with it at all – my 5 year old daughter draws better than me, on paper as well as in the computer<g>) then I’d welcome any ideas. I picked up a book about PS Elements couple of weeks ago and there is some very interesting stuff in it and since PS and PS Elements use many of the same tools, all of the stuff in that book that I’ve looked at seems to go stright into PS as well.

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas

I spend quite a lot of money on books, magazines and other literature. Unnecessary much, because I only use it as a hobby.
Then the books land in a drawer, the magazines get read once, and KatWoman, Mike or… other newsgroup freinds must be of help.

The best between my books is maybe
Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers by Martin Evening
and Classroom in a Book.

Martin Evening’s book is much more sophisticated then what I need, because except for a few framed A2’s & A1′ in my dwelling and in those of family and friends and exceptionally an A1 on canvas, most of it is on digital albums.

If you are serious about photos, buy Martin Evening’s book, (CS or CS2 dependable on what you have, of course) and
become a master. Martin Evening is not a Photoshop expert but a professional photographer. So, if you want to use PS not only for photos, buy ‘Classroom…’ or ‘How to do anything with…’
A
arnor
Nov 24, 2006
Hi Dave,

Dave wrote:

If you are serious about photos, buy Martin Evening’s book, (CS or CS2 dependable on what you have, of course) and
become a master. Martin Evening is not a Photoshop expert but a professional photographer. So, if you want to use PS not only for photos, buy ‘Classroom…’ or ‘How to do anything with…’

I use it for photos only. I’ve added Martin’s book to my amazon wishlist and will buy it next time I’m in ordering mood<g> Looks like a good book and I’m always on the lookout for books written by photographers since that’s what I’m interested in:)

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections