Opinion

[Mario Xavier]

I went for a stroll tonight being our first white Christmas in maybe 4 years. I really like this shot but I'm not sure what to do with the processing. I like the way the branches crawl around the light like it holds sme grim secret so making it "dark" is cool but perhaps it's too dark?



Just thought I'd get some input from the Pros. Thanks

P.S. - It HAS been processed some

[Camellia]

Hi Xavier

I'm like a broken down record but have you thought about B&W?

I had a little play with your shot (hope you don't mind) and converted it to B&W. Sharpened it a bit. Used a medium contrast in a curves layer. Then did some dodging on the branches surrounding the light to bring out the illumination. That left a bit of a vignette. A little bit of a crop. Then a black border and a white stroke about the image. The stroke is too heavy in mine. It's quick and dirty but it might give you some ideas.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Mario Xavier]

oooooh very nice! I see what you did there for the most part and No I don't mind . I'm a visual learner.

What is "dodging on the braches" exactly?

[Camellia]

oooooh very nice! I see what you did there for the most part and No I don't mind . I'm a visual learner.

What is "dodging on the braches" exactly?

'Dodging' lightens while 'burning' darkens. After the contrast adjustment, the area around the light seemed a bit dark. So I used the dodge tool in CS5 (PSE has this too) with a radius of about 46 and painted over the bits I wanted to lighten. By using the dodge/burn tool, you can selectively adjust your photos.

Hope that helps - let me know if I haven't explained myself clearly.

[John C]

The terms 'dodging' and 'burning' are names for techniques used when developing photographic prints from film negatives while using an enlarger. I think these terms were originally used by the developers of photo editing software to help relate the digital processing of photos to darkroom techniques. Some programs now use 'lighten' and 'darken' which are less confusing. The link below has a little more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodging_and_burning

[Mario Xavier]

Thank you both, for the explanations and the link.

[MiniChris]

The terms 'dodging' and 'burning' are names for techniques used when developing photographic prints from film negatives while using an enlarger. I think these terms were originally used by the developers of photo editing software to help relate the digital processing of photos to darkroom techniques. Some programs now use 'lighten' and 'darken' which are less confusing. The link below has a little more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodging_and_burning

Well, yes and no...yes it is a term used as it was with analog (film negative) printing techniques and the digital post production folks carried over the name, but with it they also carried similar tools. In Photoshop, right below the paint bucket (by default, black) is a tool which looks similar to the magnifying lens that is termed "dodging." With it, you can change the size of the tool, it's opacity, the specific areas you want to remove light from - Shadows, Highlights, Midtone and the degree of flow. Holding this tool over a darker than wanted area, mimics the film tool by acting as if it is not allowing light to hit that area, thus lightening the selected area.

If you click on the lower right corner of the dodging tool box, you will see it turn "clear" and in that capacity, it becomes a burning tool, again to mimic a film tool by giving more light to a selected area in the same way as the dodging tool. I rarely burn in any area at more than 3% and in general, I use the same setting for dodging.

In each case, it is a tool that doesn't just mimic a film/darkroom technique, it improved upon in by leaps and bounds.