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jut
Oct 30, 2003, 11:22 PM
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Some of you photoshopers should (if you are bored and want to help out some of us photoshop iliterate people) hold an on line class or write up some directions on how to do cool photoshop stuff - or maybe just post some weblinks. Some of the stuff I have seen you guys do is just crazy and could sure help out a rookie like me.
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jut
Oct 30, 2003, 11:23 PM
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Maybe I should have put this in the other forum. Oh well. Move/delete if you must.
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akornylak
Oct 31, 2003, 12:10 AM
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Id love to.
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tenn_dawg
Oct 31, 2003, 1:12 AM
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In reply to: Some of you photoshopers should (if you are bored and want to help out some of us photoshop iliterate people) hold an on line class or write up some directions on how to do cool photoshop stuff - or maybe just post some weblinks. Some of the stuff I have seen you guys do is just crazy and could sure help out a rookie like me.
Dude J,
I've spent the last 2 days locked in the studio in UT's library scanning old slides and negatives, and reading a tutorial on how to use photoshop. In about 18 hours of reading and playing around, I've gotten down the basics of photo correction and manipulation.
I'd suggest picking up a book at the bookstore about Photoshop with a CD, and some lessons in it. That's what I've been doing, and it's alot eaiser to learn by following along in the book as you work the computer than it is to read, and try to remember all that stuff.
Travis
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biff
Oct 31, 2003, 4:49 PM
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post a photo of something you would like to see improved in this tread, and what you would like to be able to do with it. I'll give it a shot, and describe exactly what I did to make it.
the best way to learn how to use photo shop is to practice. Once you get the basics, you can prety much figure out how to create any effeect.
The basics:
Brightness
Contrast
Colour curves (and B/W conversion)
Sharpening
Softening / bluring
Dodging and Burning (Lightning and darkening tool)
Cloning
Layers - and Layer Masks
After that it is prety much combining and getting the right parameters of those tools.
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krillen
Oct 31, 2003, 4:54 PM
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I like that idea Biff! It will also show people's different approaches to editing pics. Different roads, similar destinations.
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melekzek
Nov 3, 2003, 9:39 PM
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Travis,
I think you did a very nice start. First of all, PS is a great TOOL, but still you need good material to start with. If you are planning to PS some images, shoot accordingly. Than you will have a very clean material to start with. For example, in this picture, it is clearly different lighting or exposure on one of the clones. He doesnt fit into the lighting space of the background. For best results, you should shoot the images using the same exposure, either using exposure lock, or manual. If the images are prints, and you didnt do your own prints, than you have no control on the print exposure anyhow. In this case, scan the negatives, or slides if you are shooting positive, but you should scan them with the same settings.
So far for the startup images. Even you do not have any way to get good matching startup images, you can use color balance tool, which is great to match image colors. There are 2 basic modes, "preserve luminance" and ...err.. "do not preserve luminance", both give somewhat different control.
Check previously posted PS images, there are some pretty good works there, and I am very lazy to find them for you :roll:
For best results, you should use a tripod, but with some more work you can get very good results even with handheld camera. I would cut not only the guy but some larger region including the rock, and match him as best as I can and create a medium transition zone through the rock. If the transition zone is too small, and colors do not match "exactly" it becomes visible. If the transition zone is too large, than again it will have some ghosting, depending on how well your images align. For smooth transition, check the feather tool, it creates soft selection region. Select, feather, inverse, delete....
I can see there is blur behind the lower climbers back, as well as next to his right hand. Also there is no shadow. Pasting a larger region, including the rock and his shadow will work great here. But, if you are copying somebody from a compeletely different context, than of course you cannot use this. Still you can include the hand and foot hold, and use them. The transition from rock to the hand might become too hard or too blurry, so moving the transition region on to the rock-rock boundary will work better as long as the rock colors semi-match.
You can use darken or dodge mode to hand paint a shadow. Shadows tend to be blurry, so they are easier to paint. Use a very transparent and large brush for softer results. I would create a new layer between the top layer pasted climber and bottom layer background, and make is multiply and paint black shadows there....
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melekzek
Nov 3, 2003, 9:44 PM
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One more thingy, you can use color picker tool to compare the values of the pixels in different parts of the image, and calculate how much change you need. It works very well especially matching colors of shadows or highlights.
This is a very important tool especially in CG where we match colors of computer generated images with live action backgrounds..
One more trick from CG domain is the problem of sharp boundaries. Travis, in your image, the lower clones head pops from the background, it cries PS. Feather for 1 pixel for a softer boundary, it works like a charm :shock:
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tenn_dawg
Nov 3, 2003, 10:51 PM
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Woah, great tips there mel!
I especially like the idea of cutting out the pasted clone and some of the rock around him. That would at least make him match the lighting of the rock behind him.
These images were pulled from scanned negatives. The lighting change actually was the result of a cloud blowing over. It was a manual camera, so it did not automatically compensate for the half stop or so of lighting change, and I was too busy cranking the lever and snapping shots to think about it.
The thought of tweaking the levels on the pasted climber never even crossed my mind, even though I cranked the levels of the two backgrounds, and on the (hidden) climber under the lower one. I proably could have matched him better with the top one, but I was more worried about making the backgrounds match up at the time.
There is a definate sequence that should be followed when doing this to prevent having to do steps over and end up having to fix things you messed up earlier. I just need to figure out the steps...trial and error baby, it's the only way to learn!
Hell, I learned how to climb by trial and error. Thankfully the errors were forgiving...
Travis
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melekzek
Nov 3, 2003, 11:40 PM
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There is no escape from trial-error, even you sequence your work, every job requires different parameters. Check out the history in PS, it is more useful than anything else. I would make some changes, than go to history, and backup a couple of steps, come back, backup, come back.... I try to see whether I improved it or not. If it is not improved I go back and start over. If the image is improved, I will commit and start a new set of changes....... Until I am frusturated or run out of time, :shock:
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