Curvemeister Forum

I used the green mask,took me a while to figure it out for PSE 6.I tried some shaping of the K channel for the sky and the mid distance ridge, but it just accented the haloes around the leaves,I'll try it from a complete mask.GregM

Were you trying to lighten the shadows??
Not sure of your goals here...

Greg

Yes,but with out making the trees across the lake too light.Problem is setting up mask,thengetting it to do what you want.GregM

Greg,
When you create the mask are you looking at the mask or at the image.  Sometimes when I create a mask I will make a bogus change that will be highly visible in the image and then set the mask view to "all" channels.  Then when I adjust the mask I can see the areas that are effected.  

It's the same process just a different way of looking at it...Using Green for this image makes sense if you are trying to adjust the shadows but then you have to determine what "level" of shadows you are after.  I used the Green channel to mask off the brightest areas for a "Screen" layer.  This allowed me to use the opacity slider to adjust the amount of change I was looking for in the shadows.

I'm going to try an experiment with this...I'll show you what I have in mind....

Ratz...
I tried this with 2 screen layers.  The effect was too much flatness in the mid-tones....I'm going to try S/H on the layer with a mask...
Greg

Greg

ok..how about this one....

• Open the image in PS...Create a layer copy and make it a smart filter.


• Open Shadow/Highlight on the Layer and apply settings as shown in Shot1.  .


• Add Mask on the S/H smart filter layer. Then take the background layer into CM and use the Green channel to make a mask.  Apply this mask to the smart layer. Shot2.


• Adjust the smart filter for S/H until the shadows look right and the middle of the frame does not look flat.  Minor tweaks to the S/H filter in PS.


• Flatten Image.


• Open in CM and add saturation slider until it looks nice then add a bit more b channel to make the greens look good.

Greg

Thanks,I'll get to work on it.I've got 17 days left on my PS CS4 trial.GregM

My version of your instructions.GregM
Several obvious mistakes but I was able to make it from step1 to step10 without cursing at the cat.
Second try added.

Overall the shadows look better...aside from the obvious...I sent you a private message when you get a chance...

Greg

I posted another try above.I'm beginning to see which way to turn the knobs.Message received,will look into it ,thanks.GregM

it is looking better...still a give away up in the sky tree transition...
Let me know if you need more info regarding the message...

Greg