Same pond ,different critter

[mikemeister_admin]

A leaf,a bug,easy...or is it?GregM

[leeharper_admin]

What do you mean 'or is it?' You've got me worried now  ;)

Lee.

[mikemeister_admin]

Greg wasn't kidding about this one - it was far more tricky to correct than I had been expecting. I corrected the colour cast in Lab, and had to resort to some strangely shaped curves (attached) to get the colours where I wanted them.

I tried applying a neutral pin to the bright area on the rock (right-hand side, halfway down), but wherever I put it I could still measure negative Lab values elsewhere in that patch - so I ended up deleting the pin and fixing it by hand.

Having sorted out the cool cast on the rock, it was (on the left-hand side) measuring as more magenta than yellow - something I didn't like - so I started tweaking the curves to fix that. I then found that the green leaves were too yellow, so my final B curve looks quite odd (to me) - but gets the job done.

I applied my Lab curves, and then returned (in CMYK) to CM - curving the Black channel through an inverted K mask.

To add some zing to the colours I then moved the Lab saturation slider to 1.25 (through a L channel mask, so that the rock picked up more saturation than the leaves). In Photoshop I used a layer mask to make sure that the central leaf was the only one picking up a saturation boost (to make the other two leaves look as if they were receding). I followed this up with a Hue/Saturation adjustment - moving the saturation to -20. This was only applied to the greenery on the left of the image (again using a layer mask).

Finally, the bug and main leaf were sharpened (USM: 200/0.4/0 - I used the Blend If Blending Option to cut the halos down).

All in all, more work than I was expecting... But fun  :)

Lee

[mikemeister_admin]

You have got to be kidding - although the composition is as good as last time!

So lets go mad - bring out some veins and liven up the background

Never do anything like this for real and nobody will know was daft steps I took

[ggroess]

Chris...Chris...are you there?? 
I think your tour into the world of classic art has send you over the edge...

Wow...

Ok...I think you have taken the push it harder crown this go around...

Twisted yet somehow likable....
Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Chris,that looks like a throbbing brain in the background!GregM

[mikemeister_admin]

Couldn't resist.a crop,contrast pin,Lab color boost,channels done independently, and hard luminosity sharpening.GregM
Are those fractals or what?I like how the starburst of the leaf is echoed by the edge hairs!

[mikemeister_admin]

That's a great correction - love it

[mikemeister_admin]

It's actually the image from the smart sharpen pop up during my luminosity sharpening action.It was cropped even tighter,ending by insect's rear leg.I thoought,"that's a keeper."GregM

[Chris Nicola]

Another interesting challenge which was not so easy as it first looked! I did the main tweaking in lab to increase the saturation and improve detail in the leaf while not darkening the insect too much and darkening the light coloured background.  I also tried to give the leaf a translucent surreal look. I added a bit of red in rgb to warm the tone. The picture can be improved by cropping.  Thanks for letting me have a go, I enjoyed the challenge!


Kind Regards

Chris