cic_crabtree0110.jpg
I took this photo in November of 2009. I liked it but I could never get it into an image that had any spark. Using some of the tools I have learned in the past year, I gave it another shot.
Here's what I did.
The photo was shot in raw, so I opened it into Photoshop with a minimum of adjustments.
Although the camera was level, I leveled the image taking about half the slope out.
I cropped out unnecessary parts of the picture.
Using the magic wand tool, I selected the tree, trunk and foreground and copied them into a new layer.
I applied a gausian blur to the base layer and darkened it.
I applied additional darkness to the overhanging pine bough in the top left (this could have been done better).
I appied a moderate amount of sharpening to the crab tree layer.
When done, I merged down and resized to 72dpi.
The modified image is not a great shot, but I think it is a big improvement.
Grabbed this one Thursday morning on the way to work. We have been getting snow nearly daily and the shots are there for the taking if you have time. This image is pretty much as shot. Some cropping, a little color/vibrance and sharpening.
Spectacular! Is the fuzzyness of the fine limbs created, caused by the reduction to the formum, or part of the image as shot? If created, what did you do?
Thank you ! No actually I applied an Orton effect to the foliage to impart the impression of the soft light as I saw it. I carefully masked out the trunks and (most of the) branches to keep the impression of sharpness in the trees themselves. Lots of masking and careful brushing to try to create the effect.
I had to look up Orton Effect. Learn something new every day! It's a great photo. I wish I could see it printed at a good size.
I am getting sick of these winter shots....
But I am interested in C&C.
I struggle with sharpness in the branches. I liked the light behind and the color of the far shore and the snow and the ice on the lake together with the tree trunks. There is a minimal crop. I kind of like it, but think it could be improved.
Hi Tim,
I do like the crop. What have you tried with the sharpening?
+50 Clarify ACR
About 150 unsharp mask radius .3
About 50 USM R .5
It just seems like the branches get over sharpened before the get sharp.
Winter Wonderland
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindie43/5325337953/" title="Winter Wonderland Path by Cindiecloud, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5248/5325337953_ebf4ce4958.jpg" width="291" height="500" alt="Winter Wonderland Path" /></a>
Sorry Tim, something dropped off the end of your comment so I am not sure what your last thought was.
Try making a duplicate copy of the background layer and change the blending mode to Luminosity. Then amount 145, radius 0.3, threshold 4 and see how you go.
The Luminosity mode does not affect colour or contrast as much as in Normal mode and allows for a more aggressive sharpening before halos show around the edges.
Last edited by cthermans; 19th February 2011 at 02:51 AM. Reason: forgot to include picture
Tried to upload this yesterday but it doesn't seem to have worked. Second time lucky?
Walking stick by kistabill1, on Flickr