Week 6: Example 4 - Taroko Gorge, Taiwan

This is the forum for posting to the June 2010 CM 101 Class
leeharper_admin
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Postby leeharper_admin » Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:37 am

Upon re-evaluating this this morning, and being mindful of your advice (for exercise 2) to see shadow and highlight points, I threw away yesterday's correction and began afresh.

I don't know why - even seven weeks into this course - I still forget to set shadow and highlight values? I think that when the image looks in obvious need of correction I remember to do it, but when the initial shape of the image is in good shape I forget all about it ::)

Anyway, I began in Photoshop by applying the Shadow/Highlight command (using DM's defaults), and then took the file into CurveMeister. I set shadow and highlight points - and then remembered that in the hint video Mike had mentioned that the water was neutral, so I pinned that as well.

I went back to CM to drive the greens apart, using the contrast pinning technique. I still had lots of hue clocks open, so having rotated my points I tweaked them to ensure that the hue clocks were falling in appropriate places. I wanted to avoid damaging the colour of the rock, so I ran Stephen Marsh's 21 channel action, and used the 'Working Grayscale' channel (inverted) to partially protect the rocks.

In Photoshop I then applied the Shadow/Highlight command again - but this time only to the highlights (to make the foreground boulders look better).

I finished by applying some sharpening on a luminosity layer. My sharpening layer slightly darkened the whole image, so (in Photoshop) I slightly lightened the three-quartertone of this layer to improve the weight of the image.

If you can offer any additional polish - or if I've missed something obvious - please let me know :)

Cheers,
Lee.
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ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:50 pm

Since we are giving away the sky let's focus on the rocks....
Not a critique...just accepting the choice...

To make them look a bit better in the l channel you need to do a bit of a lizard tail on the L channel.  See shots1 and 2

Shot 1 is your image as posted...

Shot 2 is a combination of a contrast pin and Lizard tail that helps the brighter parts of the rocks.  I created the contrast pin manually since I could not exactly see where the worm was...it is a bit of a trick and I have asked mike to fix the worms so that they are always black on the L and K channels. 

To create them manually you click on the curve to set one end of the contrast pin and then you Ctrl-click on the second point.  This creates a manual link that allows you to adjust a range of values. 

The color and variation looks good.  you could shop the neutral around a bit if you like and see if a different tone adds or subtracts from the image overall.

Greg
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mikemeister_admin
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Postby mikemeister_admin » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:18 pm

I have asked mike to fix the worms so that they are always black on the L and K channels.

That would be wonderful! Trying to see what's going on with the K channel drives me crazy!

I like the additional contrast in the rocks - I will give that a try, thanks for the tip ;)

Cheers,
Lee.

By the way, I like critiques - you can be as blunt as you like, I won't be offended. :)

ggroess
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Postby ggroess » Thu Jul 22, 2010 8:28 pm

It's not about fear anymore..having talked to you and sharing some opinion...I am not afraid to tell you what you need to hear...It's more about changing your subjective view of the image..I want your version.  Not another copy of mine...If I give you too much you try to make the image in my vision...I want you to trust yours...

Greg


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