Paint

[CNelson]

I'm still keeping out of the rain and playing with old pictures as I try to come up to speed with CS4 and LR2. This is another composite using a photo I took in November at the "Dog and Pony Show" in McCloud. As a photograph it has a few problems that I am aware of but I like it as a fun or artsy pictuture with a touch of drama and nostalgia.

Chuck

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Hi
Yes like in movies!
Radu Dinu

[bleys]

That's really cool, man.

Almost had me fooled at first...but then, you know, my excellently honed eye for spying composite photos kicked in and I figured it out...reading your comment really had nothing to do with it....

But seriously, I like it. I don't think I'd be able to do half as good of a job as that.

[CNelson]

Thanks guys! I guess you could say I was just horsing around with images.

The girl was in a parade and rather than riding the horse she made it circle around her as she walked the route. The horse was really into it and seemed pleased to show her stuff. I may work up an image with a dog from the parade...after all it was a Dog and Pony Show. The parade was about two blocks long and everybody in town showed up.....both of them.

Chuck

[Antonio Correia]

CNelson, can you show us the photos from where this one came from ?

I am trying to learn how to select perfectly.
It seems you have a good work here.

Are you using The channels to do the job ?

[CNelson]

Hi Antonio....here you go:

http://www.chucknelsonphotography.co...19282/e95485d5

http://www.chucknelsonphotography.co...8084/e21d08bba

Chuck

[Antonio Correia]

Hi Antonio....here you go:
http://www.chucknelsonphotography.co...19282/e95485d5
http://www.chucknelsonphotography.co...8084/e21d08bba
Chuck

Thank you Chuck. Nice selection.

The "hair" of the horse is just fine. Channels ?
I am working on this now. I hope to be able to show something decent some day...

However, you cut the feet to the woman... poor she ...

[CNelson]

Not channels, Antonio....I isolate an image from its background in several ways, selection and eraser tools and lots of sweat are common. Sometimes I can speed up the process using Topaz ReMask but it still requires a lot of close in pixel erasing to make it look good.

I cut off her feet on purpose...one of the known drawbacks with this image. I tried making her higher in the image and smaller and didn't like it so bit the bullet and whacked her feet. She and her horse might work a lot better in another setting but I wanted the mountain.

Much of photography is about choices...do I take the camera with me, do I photograph this or wait until the light changes, shall I use a tripod, what lens, what setting, shall I shoot in RAW or JPEG, shall I save as JPEG or TIFF, how much contrast, how much saturation, what can I do to help this image. The feedback I get here enlightense me or reinforces what I already thought. I appreciate the feedback I get here as there are some very knowledgeable people and sometimes someone sees something I missed. I knew about the feet problem, there's also a light angle problem even though I reversed the image to improve it and there's a color problem that I tinkered with but still don't have it riight. Still the image pleases me....probably because it's a familiar person in a familiar place.

Chuck

[Antonio Correia]

Not channels, Antonio....I isolate an image from its background in several ways, selection and eraser tools and lots of sweat are common. Sometimes I can speed up the process using Topaz ReMask but it still requires a lot of close in pixel erasing to make it look good... ...Much of photography is about choices... ...Still the image pleases me....probably because it's a familiar person in a familiar place. Chuck

Thank you Chuck for your words.
I know you are right when you say you have a sweat to select. I am now in a process of changing my way to see photography.
These days photography has much of informatics treatment. The most creative images are in fact those images which have been manipulated and images plain and simple are traces from the past.
Oh yes, I may be exaggerating things but I have been seeing lately very good work on "decent" photographic magazines which involve manipulation.
And here I came to the conclusion that I have to master CS to do so.
I have already spent some time on the net searching for tutorial on selecting. I do have found some of course which are quite interesting.
Then, there is Jean Paul Caponigro and so many others with paying lessons.
But I think that selecting is a tool which must be mastered to play with the images without neglecting other areas until you get your own style.

I have been strolling through your site and I found very nice work with and without CS "trics"
The giraffes for example are a series where you have sweat a bit with good results.

Yes, to photograph is to take choices, but we have to be careful not to fall into the trap of only shooting when everything is perfect, or supposed to be perfect.
Sometimes, a final image can be quite interesting but at the beginning it was a bad one or not so good.

I am sure you have seen my threads on SCP in this forum. They are good and nice. But I would say that they are clichées, postcards of people's faces.
I want now to move into another direction with more CS work, more manipulation of the images in the pursuit of surprising results.

I am now hijacking your thread with this subject but this came to my mind as I was writing this text. Excuse me

You gave me a clue about selecting: Topaz ReMask. But I will not jump right into it. I have to learn more of CS before doing so.

Thank you Chuck. Keep the good shots, will you ?

[CNelson]

Antonio, I encourage you to explore new avenues with photography. It is both an art and a science and we need to grow in both directions. Wherever an image ends up, it should start with a good photograph and that's where I still have much to learn. A technically great photograph can be an end in itself or a starting place.

Chuck

[Antonio Correia]

Antonio, I encourage you to explore new avenues with photography. It is both an art and a science and we need to grow in both directions. Wherever an image ends up, it should start with a good photograph and that's where I still have much to learn. A technically great photograph can be an end in itself or a starting place. Chuck

That's it Chuck !
(The "That's it" and a laught reminds me Janis Joplin)