Posted by Shaun Simpson on November 3, 2010 at 5:00 PM
Hi all
Not been able to get out much last couple of weeks due to severe man flu and to much work however I have been working on improving my processing.
I am now happy with a lot of my image taking techniques but often find my images to contrasty, I process first in lightroom the PS. I ahve fond that you can alter your camera preset in lightroom and thus end up with a very flat image to start from, the defalt settings can be contrasty.
The finished image style I am after is one that has lovely creamy tones to it, with plenty of detail. I realise that the light conditions that the image is taken in affect this soI have processed an imagetaken in "smooth" lighting.
What do you think of the processing on this image what are the balances and tonalities like, I have played around with settings so long that I have now lost all sense of balance onit and need some impartial advice.
Please feel free to critique as much and as vigorously as possible, I will not be offended in any way.
Thanks in advance
Posted by John Robinson on November 3, 2010 at 5:40 PM
This looks absolutely fine to me, whatever method you have used. I'd be happy with it.The moth species in itself is not easy to get right as the slightest angle change will lessen the visibility of the spots. You,ve got it ok here.
To get really nitty-
more detail in the antennae would be good and that can be done in shadows/ highlights or other ways
.The only ony other thing is the overexposed yellow petal at the bottom. That too can easily be rectified by selective darkening or other methods.
I have found by bitter experience that the more you mess the more problems seem to pop up !!
Cheers
JohnR
Shaun, nothing much to crit as I think you have achieved your objective. It's well processed, the only areas ad those John has pointed out and I think they are a nuance.
T
Posted by Neil Burton on November 4, 2010 at 5:26 AM
I too would love some of the soft tones found on this site, taken by pros. Sometimes I manage. Mostly I think it is down to the light, and having right in camera. processing just tweaks what is already there.
Do a search for luminosity masks in google, i cannot remember the site I found them on but they are helpful when you have dark shads or highlights needing tweaking.
Posted by David Sewell on November 4, 2010 at 5:31 AM
Other than the points John has made already, it looks pretty good to me.
David
Posted by eric weight on November 4, 2010 at 10:45 AM
I don't think this is a bad processing effort at all and I think that any real problems that you are having are really down to the conditions that you took the image in. Bright, contrasty lighting is always going to make it difficult to get soft, subtle tones I'd have thought. eric
Processing looks OK from here too, perhaps a little more detail could be pulled out of the darks... It is always important to remember that an image should have a good black and a good white somewhere within for the 'contrast to appear 'right', with a full range of tones in between, even high key and low key should strive for that good black and clean white.
Perhaps the most important thing is to treat your light as a tool... you can modify and change it to how you want it, even a few pieces of card out in the field can make a difference, diffuse it, add some fill, cut the amount of illumination on the bg (Camera bags are great there) learn how to control the ambient light.....
Discussion
7 repliesNot been able to get out much last couple of weeks due to severe man flu
I am now happy with a lot of my image taking techniques but often find my images to contrasty, I process first in lightroom the PS. I ahve fond that you can alter your camera preset in lightroom and thus end up with a very flat image to start from, the defalt settings can be contrasty.
The finished image style I am after is one that has lovely creamy tones to it, with plenty of detail. I realise that the light conditions that the image is taken in affect this soI have processed an imagetaken in "smooth" lighting.
What do you think of the processing on this image what are the balances and tonalities like, I have played around with settings so long that I have now lost all sense of balance onit and need some impartial advice.
Please feel free to critique as much and as vigorously as possible, I will not be offended in any way.
Thanks in advance
To get really nitty-
more detail in the antennae would be good and that can be done in shadows/ highlights or other ways
.The only ony other thing is the overexposed yellow petal at the bottom. That too can easily be rectified by selective darkening or other methods.
I have found by bitter experience that the more you mess the more problems seem to pop up !!
Cheers
JohnR
T
Do a search for luminosity masks in google, i cannot remember the site I found them on but they are helpful when you have dark shads or highlights needing tweaking.
David
Perhaps the most important thing is to treat your light as a tool... you can modify and change it to how you want it, even a few pieces of card out in the field can make a difference, diffuse it, add some fill, cut the amount of illumination on the bg (Camera bags are great there) learn how to control the ambient light.....
All the best (Great image btw)