Critique: One of Alpha's pics (setting, printer, picture, photos)

[Alpha8207]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I took your shot and made some adjustments. First of all, it is a great shot to begin with -- if you start out with a crappy picture, no matter how much you adjust it, it'll still be crappy. A shallow depth of field, like you have, is very pleasing in portait images. So you've got the hardest part done.

My main critique would be the lack of contrast in the B&W image. I like my B&W shots with more contrast, so that would be my first "fix". However, I do not use the Exposure/Contrast fix in Photoshop. I find the Levels and Curves adjustments to be more powerful.

1. Crop
2. Levels
3. Curves (used a layer mask to keep the eyes free of the Curves adjustment)
4. Sharpening
5. Frame

Basic:
Attachment 5447

Midnight effect (using nik Color Efex Pro 2):
Attachment 5448

Sepia tone (using nik Color Efex Pro 2):
Attachment 5449

I'll post separately about the framing effect -- it is actually several commands/effects that I've recorded as a single action.

Those are great. Love the sepia and that midnight effect is nice too. I'd played with some of the lighting, but liked the darker shadows on the 'down' side of her face.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Alpha8207

I'd played with some of the lighting, but liked the darker shadows on the 'down' side of her face.

Lighting is one of the hardest things to play with in my mind. Our first though often is that we want everything in a picture to be well-lit and clear. But once you start looking at it from an artistic perspective, you realize that maybe it is better to leave some parts dark, blurred, or unclear, to create a contrast against the well-lit, clear areas.

[Alpha8207]

Here's the color one.

As you see, the B&W seems to help cover all my rookie ignorance.

Also, I'd post the EXIF data but can't seem to find a way to copy/paste it.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa19/forjerz/IMG_2374_original_sized.jpg (broken link)

[jeffncandace]

BEAUTIFUL pic Alpha. Black and whites are awesome and she is a beauty!

[7th generation]

Very nice picture Alph and hope you post more of her-she is gorgeous.

[Alpha8207]

Originally Posted by 7th generation

Very nice picture Alph and hope you post more of her-she is gorgeous.

Thanks I will.

I'm in a bit of a quandary at this point.

Most of my pictures are at my home office machine, where only dial-up is available for uploading.

My high-speed here at my office is great, but my pics are elsewhere. I smell the need for an external hard drive, eh????

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Alpha8207

Thanks I will.

I'm in a bit of a quandary at this point.

Most of my pictures are at my home office machine, where only dial-up is available for uploading.

My high-speed here at my office is great, but my pics are elsewhere. I smell the need for an external hard drive, eh????

Or get a thumb drive. I think they make 'em pretty big nowadays. Or you can also get what looks like a thumb drive (plugs into a USB port), but has a slot on the side where you can insert an SD of a CF card. Then you can use your camera's card to transfer. I use a 2GB SD card in my camera -- and I also use that SD card with the "thumb drive" to transfer large files between computers.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Alpha8207

Here's the color one.

Looking at the color version, I don't know if there's much more to be gleaned. The colors are generally very close between the skin tone, background, and towel. The different B&W conversion methods come in handy when you have complementary colors.

For instance, here's a color image:


If I do a regular desaturate using Photoshop, here's what I get -- kind of bland:


But if instead I use the Channel Mixer (Gray output channel, 100% Red source channel), this is what I get -- quite a difference, wouldn't you say?


However, with the color version you posted, Channel Mixer doesn't produce results that are much different from what we got with just adjusting Levels and Curves.

[Fuzz]

Alpha, since you asked, here's how I make the frame.

I use Photoshop CS2, so I don't know if you have all these commands/effects in Photoshop Elements (or if they don't, you may have to use some tricks or shortcuts to recreate some of them).

I have these recorded as one action, so when I need to create the frame, I just press one button and it's done.

Anyway, so here are the commands and parameters for each:

1. Flatten image
   • Parameters: none
   • I need a flat image (i.e. no layers) to create a frame. I could modify the action so that it works with layers, but it'd be too complicated and not worth it for my use.
2. Make snapshot
   • Parameters: none
   • This is helpful to keep a copy of the image before creating the frame -- just in case I need to undo it.
3. Duplicate current layer
   • Parameters: none
4. Delete background
   • Parameters: none
   • Some of the effects I apply cannot be applied to a Background layer. That is why I duplicate the Background layer (previous step) and delete the Background layer.
5. Set Layer style
   • Parameters:
     • Inner shadow
     • Mode: Multiply
     • Opacity: 75%
     • Distance: 5 pixels
     • Choke: 0 pixels
     • Size: 5 pixels
     • Local angle: 120
     • Anti-alias: on
     • Outer Glow
     • Mode: Normal
     • Opacity: 100%
     • Technique: Precise
     • Spread: 100 pixels
     • Size: 1 pixel
     • Bevel & Emboss
     • Style: Inner bevel
     • Technique: Smooth
     • Direction: Up
     • Local angle: 135
     • Local altitude: 142
     • Depth: 131%
     • Size: 10 pixels
     • Soften: 5 pixels
     • Highlight mode: Multiply
     • Highlight opacity: 75%
     • Shadow mode: Multiply
     • Shadow opacity: 75%
   • All these settings can be accessed by right-clicking on the Layer and selecting "Blending options...". All these effects create a border around the picture and the shadow effect on all four sides.
6. Make layer
   • Parameters: none
   • This simply creates a new layer -- this layer will hold the frame.
7. Canvas size
   • Parameters:
     • Width: 200 pixels
     • Height: 200 pixels
     • Relative: on
     • Anchor: center
   • This expands the canvas of the image by 200 pixels in all directions -- this is the frame.
8. Fill
   • Parameters:
     • From: 1 x 1
     • Using: foreground color
   • This fills in the frame with the foreground color. The "From" option is where the fill starts from -- a 1x1 starting position ensures that that spot will always be within the canvas borders, no matter the size of the original image (otherwise the fill may try to paint outside the image border). Since the frame is painted with the foreground color, if I want a frame of a different color, I simply choose a different foreground color before running the frame command.
9. Move current layer
   • Parameter:
     • To layer 0
   • This is simply moving the current layer (the frame layer) to the background. Remember when we created the new frame layer and painted it (steps 6-8), it stayed as the top layer -- the image was in the layer underneath. So this step simply moves the frame layer under the image layer.
10. Set Layer style
    • Parameters:
      • Inner glow
      • Mode: Normal
      • Opacity: 100%
      • Technique: Precise
      • Size: 1 pixel
      • Choke: 100 pixels
    • This simply adds a black border to the outline of the frame.
11. Flatten image:
    • Parameters: none
    • This simply flattens the image and the frame layer into one. Since the framing is usually my last action on an image, I always flatten it anyway, so I just built it into my action. If you think you'll be tweaking the frame afterward, you may want to leave this step out.

There may well be much easier ways to create a frame, but this is what I use. I know Photoshop CS2 has some preset actions for creating frames, but I like this one because (a) I can control every aspect myself, and (b) I like this simple framing instead of the fancy, over-elaborate preset frames.
PS CS2 also allows you to determine if it should pause at any step of the action for the user to manipulate any dialog box. I often do so with step 7 -- this way, when running the action, it stops at step 7 and asks me what size to extend the canvas by, letting me choose how big/thick I want the frame to be. This is useful when framing very large or very small images, when a 200-pixel frame may be too small or too large.

[Alpha8207]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Looking at the color version, I don't know if there's much more to be gleaned. The colors are generally very close between the skin tone, background, and towel. The different B&W conversion methods come in handy when you have complementary colors.

For instance, here's a color image:
Attachment 5461

If I do a regular desaturate using Photoshop, here's what I get -- kind of bland:
Attachment 5462

But if instead I use the Channel Mixer (Gray output channel, 100% Red source channel), this is what I get -- quite a difference, wouldn't you say?
Attachment 5463

However, with the color version you posted, Channel Mixer doesn't produce results that are much different from what we got with just adjusting Levels and Curves.

That's really good info, right there.

Thanks Fuzz. That last picture reminds me of the pictures I've seen of my pro-photographer BIL who shoots some in infra-red.

Very surreal and I really like it.