Waterfall needs help

We love a challenge! If you have an image that you think can be better, post it here and see what the rest of us can do with it.
ggroess
Posts: 5342
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 2:15 am
Contact:

Postby ggroess » Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:16 am

This image needs a large dose of Curvemeister magic.  Give it a shot and make it look as good as you can...

Greg
Attachments
gjg_0050-jpg
gjg_0050-jpg (999 Bytes) Viewed 12350 times

mikemeister_admin
Posts: 4927
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:29 pm

Postby mikemeister_admin » Thu Jul 12, 2012 2:07 am

I'm here to learn curvemeister.... but as Greg knows. I'm a bit of a channel blending fanatic.  I'm anxious to start learning the curvemeister methodology however.
Attachments
gjg_0h050-jpg
gjg_0h050-jpg (218.67 KiB) Viewed 12350 times

ggroess
Posts: 5342
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 2:15 am
Contact:

Postby ggroess » Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:28 pm

Lonnie...
Can you describe what you have done so far??
I know you might be frustrated but just know that we begin for real on Sunday and all kinds of curves fun is coming your way.  If you combine the curves with your channel blending you are going to be well off.

Greg

leeharper_admin
Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:39 pm

Postby leeharper_admin » Thu Jul 12, 2012 7:20 pm

Ok - so this is super over-the-top, but I wanted to show how big a change you can get quickly and (in a few weeks) easily.

I created a mask (because the top half of the picture is in good shape already) by adding the light areas of the blue channel to the red channel. I inverted this mask, and then curved it (I made the curve steeper) to enhance the contrast (of the mask).

I have attached this mask to this post, so you can see what I ended up with.

Using this mask, I applied a curve that mimics Photoshop's 'Screen' blend mode (I'll post more about this in a day or so - you can check out http://twitter.com/curvemeister if you're curious in the meantime). This curve lightened the bottom of the image, but I needed to blur the mask to make this work properly (gaussian blur: 30px).

I applied the 'Screen Mode' curve twice (masked both times), to get the foreground bright enough, and finished up with a quick RGB curve to darken the shadows and brighten the highlights in the water. I think that the whole process took about a minute (you'll all be able to do this soon, so don't worry if any of that was a bit confusing - it won't be for long).

Again, it's probably overcooked, but...

Cheers,
Lee.
Attachments
gjg_0050_lh-jpg
gjg_0050_lh-jpg (255.71 KiB) Viewed 12350 times
gjg_0050_lh_mask-jpg
gjg_0050_lh_mask-jpg (128.52 KiB) Viewed 12350 times

ggroess
Posts: 5342
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 2:15 am
Contact:

Postby ggroess » Thu Jul 12, 2012 7:37 pm

Lee you might want to create another mask and get some of the Cyan out of the waterfall.

Just a thought...
Greg

Bursal
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 5:52 am

Postby Bursal » Thu Jul 12, 2012 11:19 pm

Hi

This one was easier and this is my first effort with this image, I will another go later bur thought I should post just for some comments.
1. I decided to use Lab remembering Dan Margulis  writing about canyons and Lab.
2. From the Masks Carte I chose Skin, I knew it would alter the green foliage but for the time being I could live that.  The shadow areas of the rocks and water were my main concern.
3. I will revisit this later in the weekend and have another try. I think it needs some colour work because so far it has only had L channel applied.

Di

Attachments
gjg_0050-lab-1a-png
gjg_0050-lab-1a-png (242.29 KiB) Viewed 12350 times
combined-1-jpg
combined-1-jpg (30.8 KiB) Viewed 12350 times

mikemeister_admin
Posts: 4927
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:29 pm

Postby mikemeister_admin » Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:08 am

Oh ok Greg.... I'm looking at the other posts  and realising I should be doing explanations.  OK here it goes. 

basically I start by examining the histogram and the first thing I noticed was the shadow slant of the histogram....  RGB was nicely balanced though.
so my first challenge was getting a bit of that shadow data into the midtones without upsetting the pesky highlights in the beautiful rocks and the waterfall.
So basically it was a luminosity task....  I love channels for this sort of stuff.  Just create the best possible black and white utilising
Apply image channel blending and blending adjustments and clipped layer blending modes and just pop it on top of the background in Luminosity mode.

I nervously boosted the color in LAB doing a simple overlay and replacing the L channel in the overlay... so just color is boosted and then appling an L channel mask and blurring it a bit.
The original color is beautiful so I didn't boost too much and I did do some painting with the art history brush in areas I didn't think benefited from the color boost.  and oh yes.... that waterfall really did turn cyan so easily.  I did do some color correction in that area as was all the shadow range in the water.  Couldn't modify that part at all.

so... funny thing happened....  all this explaining made me want to have another go at it.  Just to see what happens.

This ones a blend where I focused on that shadow detail.... particularly in the foliage...  I used the blue channel as my foundation in building up my luminosity layer.


Attachments
gjug_0050-jpg
gjug_0050-jpg (207.71 KiB) Viewed 12350 times

sjordan93436
Posts: 462
Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2010 4:23 am
Contact:

Postby sjordan93436 » Fri Jul 13, 2012 5:29 am

I did a shadow highlight.  In Curvemeister, I boosted in Lab, but bent the A and B curves to prevent blue waterfall and the rocks going too red.
Attachments
gjg_0050-sf-jpg
gjg_0050-sf-jpg (198.19 KiB) Viewed 12350 times

leeharper_admin
Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:39 pm

Postby leeharper_admin » Fri Jul 13, 2012 8:54 am


Lee you might want to create another mask and get some of the Cyan out of the waterfall.


Hi Greg,

My thinking in keeping the Cyan in was to try to maintain the blue/orange color contrast in the image. I think that completely neutralizing the water makes the image look a little flat - though you're right in that knocking the cyan back a little wouldn't do any harm...

Thanks for the suggestion  :)

Lee.

ggroess
Posts: 5342
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 2:15 am
Contact:

Postby ggroess » Fri Jul 13, 2012 9:51 pm

What wonderful discussion and work..Thanks Everyone...
I'll have 1 more image I hope for the open Session stuff and then Sunday we close the doors so to speak and get down to the real class work...

Here is a video solution for my version of this image.  I did not sharpen at the end and regret not addressing sharpening. 

http://youtu.be/31yjiaaW958

Greg


Return to “Want us to work on one of your images?”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 25 guests