PP Challenge #1

[PopsPhotos]

Wendy, in your 3rd try, the bird and all look much the same as your second try, which you see as "black" I do see that the skin tone on the carver is subtly different on #3, but don't see a major difference between the 2nd and 3rd try.

I'm using IE, Windows XP (SP3) on a Compaq nc6120 laptop.

Hmmmmm This is interesting.

Pops

[Donald]

Wendy, ..... but don't see a major difference between the 2nd and 3rd try.

I'm using IE, Windows XP (SP3) on a Compaq nc6120 laptop.

Hmmmmm This is interesting.

Whereas, I am seeing a fairly significant difference. Am using Firefox, with XP on an Asus PC and Viewsonic monitor. Interesting indeed.

[ScoutR]

Whereas, I am seeing a fairly significant difference. Am using Firefox, with XP on an Asus PC and Viewsonic monitor. Interesting indeed.

Yes, the strange part is that Pop does not see a difference. The difference is significant to me also, although it does not show up until it is on the web.

I went looking for the colour profiles as suggested by Dave and found this on the second attempt.

<photoshop:ICCProfile>ProPhoto RGB</photoshop:ICCProfile>

I am still not sure where the colour profile got changed. Originally I thought I changed it by mistake in Elements, because I still get so mixed up there, but I checked Elements and everything looked OK.
Now I am thinking that I might have changed it when working in LR, because my latest adventure has been fooling around with the different camera calibration settings. I suppose changing them will also change the colour profile, and that is probably what I did. I have not tested it yet though to see if that is where the problem started.

Anyway, for the third attempt I started with the original file and I kept checking along the way to make sure the colour was still at sRGB as shown below. (I left the camera calibration at Adobe Standard)

<photoshop:ICCProfile>sRGB IEC61966-2.1</photoshop:ICCProfile>

The last test was to upload and see if it looked the same here, and walla - it looked the way it did at home, so I figured problem solved. I am not sure why Pop's does not see the difference. I'm using Windows 7 and IE and a Viewsonic monitor. Hmmmm I wonder... There are different colour temps that can be set on the monitor. I wonder if Pops is using a different colour temp (or some other setting) on the monitor that does not show up the difference??? Pops? Mine is set for 6500k

The second try with the wrong colour profile looked fine both in LR and Elements, but as Dave said the different colour profile does not translate well to the web.

Sorry about the rambling, just trying to figure this out.

Wendy

[PopsPhotos]

Just to be pickypicky, guys, it is "Pops." I was given that name by my kids in honor of two friends of mine from 'way back. One was my father's best friend and the other my point man, whose body I carried in my arms over 10 miles to get him back home. No great problem, just wanted to mention.

Wendy, I've never looked at the temperature or anything else of that ilk on my laptop's screen. I sent 6 negatives of varying subjects and LVs out to print by a shop whose work I trust to match my color sense. I then adjusted my screen to match those prints. I have no idea what it is set to, but it matches my eyes when I have the angle set properly (LCD screen.) What I see comes out of my camera or PP to match what my eyes saw when I snapped the picture.

I also know that my LCD screen shows very closely to what my big monitor on the server shows me. I haven't looked at your #2 and #3 on that big monitor as I have to shut down the in-house network to do that.

Pops

[Dave Humphries]

VOTING NOW OPEN

Please Vote by PM (Personal Message) to me within the next 48 hours.
Give me your favourites (by entry "V" number) in 1st, 2nd, 3rd order.

I will tot up the points awarded (3 for each "1st" vote, 2 for a "2nd" and 1 for a third) on each post and announce the winner Friday evening UK date/time (22 January).

Then the winner has to tell us what they did to produce the result

Anyone can vote, not just the entrants.

Hope you all found it "fun" and a bit of a challenge - very much a case of making the best of my bad capture A good response I thought; many in the first few hours - thank you.

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Reminder VOTING NOW OPEN

Please Vote by PM (Personal Message) to me within the next 24 hours.
Give me your favourites (by entry "V" number) in 1st, 2nd, 3rd order.

Anyone can vote, not just the entrants.

Five responses so far and a clear winner is obvious, so get your votes in NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Important announcement

I have just been advised that post hash numbers change with different display modes.

If you have already voted, and display the forum in Linear mode with oldest first, then this shouldn't affect things.

Please vote, or if you wish, vote again using the new V numbers in a PM to me.

I will extend voting for another 48 hours, now closing Sunday evening (GMT).

My apologies for the muck up (you can tell I haven't done this before),

[Dave Humphries]

Thank you to all who participated in this first PP challenge, the moment some of you have been waiting for has arrived (drum roll please)

The winner, with 19 points is Matt (milleniummuppet) with 19 points for V8
Second place goes to Colin, with 16 points for V13
Third, with 8 points is Willgoss for V3

Well done to the winners, the thread is now open for comments and indeed, for Matt to reveal how he did his PP including the most effective removal the net.

Thanks all,

[Vandenberg]

oldskool

[milleniummuppet]

Ok, guys ill be free shortly (hopefully tonight in my time) to give an explanation - just a few things to do this morning

[ScoutR]

Congratulations to all the winners. I'm looking forward to finding out how Matt removed that netting. Excellent job.
I found all the entires and different approaches very interesting, hope we do it again sometime.

Wendy

[milleniummuppet]

Sorry guys, been pretty busy lately - hang around I intend on giving expa dont worry ^_^

[Dave Humphries]

Sorry guys, been pretty busy lately

No worries, there wasn't a time limit in the rules

Thinks: now there's an idea!
he he he (evil chuckle)

[Ashwin]

No worries, there wasn't a time limit in the rules

Thinks: now there's an idea!
he he he (evil chuckle)

One more IDEA and I think this should be considered.....
After the voting is completed, but before the result is announced
all participants should require to furnish details about what they have done
those who fail should not qualify for the result...

[Colin Southern]

One more IDEA and I think this should be considered.....
After the voting is completed, but before the result is announced
all participants should require to furnish details about what they have done
those who fail should not qualify for the result...

Hi Ashwin,

I can't spead for Dave, but it's been my observation that the more rules we have, the lower the number of people we have participating

[Ashwin]

Hi Ashwin,

I can't spead for Dave, but it's been my observation that the more rules we have, the lower the number of people we have participating

Hi Colin,

Dont take it otherwise... I was just suggesting, because I know after the result is announced, participants have curosity, to know what step were taken to achieve what has been achieved., after a gap of couple of days that curosity is gone... This was the only reason for my suggestion..You have more experiance than me to judge the mood of the participants, pl. dont take my suggestion seriously

[Ashwin]

One more SUGGESTION... This is our 1st PP Challange and this has received very very good responce. It is my humble request, if possible start one thread....CAPTION.. Before and After, with 1st Winners entry with details how this was done, so that others can learn

[milleniummuppet]

ahh ! Sorry guys - just occurred to me this morning that I haven't done this yet (pretty slack really).
Ill run through some of the things I did and feel free to ask any questions if anyone wants any clarification or details .

1st thing I did was pick the raw file - this would give me the best possible control over the badly exposed image.
Opened that up in photoshop and quickly processed it to a more acceptable exposure etc using only the basic raw controls such as exposure, fill light etc etc. Now that it was workable I exported to a jpg as I now had all the detail I needed to work with confidently - so a jpg was just fine.

The very next thing I was to attack the netting removal. 1st I had to make a decision whether I was going to remove some or all of the netting. I decided to leave the part of the netting that was covering the sheet or curtain in the back to create quite a clever illusion (quite a convenient setup really ).

There is no incredibly easy way to do this.
It requires a bit of patience and a lot of practice with using photoshops clone tool and an eye for detail i guess.
There are some things you can do with this tool to make your work a lot more successful:

Pick a soft sensible brush size for the job initially - set your opacity down a bit (90%) flow down a bit (90%)
The trick is to change everything all the time. Change your brush size slightly, change your opacity slightly, change the area you are working in - don't work too systematically (you will get sick of working in an area because it seems to be hard to do, so move to another area).
The most important one is to change you 'reference point' A LOT. Don't get in the habit of of using the same reference point all the time, your work will get a systematic feel to it and will look less convincing. Have your finger over alt all the time and change it all the time.
The last one is good old undo.
I have my fingers over ctrl-alt-Z all the time, and are constantly backing up my work. Some thing doesn't look quite right - undo - change reference points - and try again.

Then its just working at it until its looking correct (don't be to quick and destructive !)

Now it was just a matter of fixing the rest of the image up propperly. Using levels, colour balance etc.
Some times on duplicate layers and masking the change onto a limited area. This bit was made very easy because I had already fixed the exposure problems using the raw file. Quick sharpness filter and done!

Feel free to ask questions .

[ScoutR]

Nice job Matt - thanks for sharing - lots of good tips there for rookies like me.