Da Boyz...

[sjordan93436]

Here is my attempt.  I fixed some color and used CM color boost.  One problem that bothered me was the exposure.  Back boy is darker and bottom right was darker.  I did some gradient stuff in LR and PS.  The picture is flatter.

[ggroess]

Steve,
We have got to get you using the skin tones mask...the faces are too harsh...
Let's put that down as one of the goals for you...

Greg

[sjordan93436]

Yeah.  And the colors too bright.  The red sweatshirt detracts.

A couple of photoshop questions.

I wanted to equalize the exposure here.  In LR and ACR that is trivial and intuitive.  In photoshop?? 

My thinking would be to make a duplicate layer.  Increase or decrease exposure in one layer.  Add a mask and add gradient to it.  White to black.  Can you point me to a place that walks me through that or is there a better way?

Instead of exposure, I could do CM and L channel.  Is exposure, levels, and curves approximately equal?

[ggroess]

I balanced my version using the L channel in LAB  You can create a mask in CM that is based on the K channel or the L channel that is tones rather than harsh black and white...Remember the red tassels exercise in the CM 101 class??  it is in leaving the mask a bit open that you can control the results you are looking for.  See shot1

Shot 1 is a K channel mask that limits the adjustment to the darkest areas.

Greg

[sjordan93436]

Thanks I will try both and then skin mask.

---

Off topic..

Photoshop question:

In these exercises and often in real editing, I just merge and go on.  Any curving in CM, is saved for a while in the history.  Nothing else is fancy and easily reproducible. 

However, (you knew there was a however) I would like to copy a new layer saving the items.  (I could duplicate image.)  If I straight copy, I copy masks and blending modes which is not what I want.  I want a "normal" layer with no masks. 

I looked the the mighty zog's page and he had an action that looked like it might work.  But when I merge visible all layers go into one.

[ggroess]

When you "merge visible" you need to deselect the layers you want to preserve by clicking on the eyeball icon on the layer.  It should not merge any layers that have the eyeball removed.

If you are doing that; then I'm not sure what is going on. 

You can always find your CM .ACV files under history.  I use that feature all the time when I am editing images shot under the same lighting like a wedding or a portrait session where the lighting has not changed.  If you need some screen shots let me know...

Greg